Mutant All-Black Penguin Found
An all-black king penguin—a very rare mutant—was spotted and filmed on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia. Video.
This all black-feathered king penguin could be ‘one in a zillion.’
The video was recorded on the Sub-Antarctic Island of South Georgia by National Geographic Traveler Magazine contributor editor Andrew Evans on his bus2Antarctica expedition.
While many king penguins and other penguins can have feather-coloring mutations, usually, the variations are partial.
Dr. Allan Baker, an ornithologist and head of the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum, called the discovery of the ‘all-black’ king penguin “astonishing.” He jokingly said ”it’s a one in a zillion kind of mutation,” and scientifically calls it ‘very rare.’
He explains that typically, melanistic birds will have white spots where melanin pigmentation has failed to color the feathers. But it’s extremely rare for there to be melanin
