Rare 'blonde' penguin spotted in Antarctica. See the photo.
The odd bird, an Adélie penguin, has a genetic mutation that affects the amount of pigment in its feathers.
Some estimates have put as many as 600,000 of these 10-pound, flightless birds gathering on this desolate coast, with Mount Terror looming in the sky above.
And yet, earlier this winter, on a National Geographic tourist expedition, photographer Jeff Mauritzen captured images of one penguin unlike any other—a pale animal that appeared as if some of its black feathers had been stripped of their color.
“Yes, it’s an isabelline, or leucistic, penguin,” confirms P. Dee Boersma, a penguin expert at the University of Washington in Seattle, by email.
“The penguin looks washed out or like it was bleached. It is a genetic mutation,” says Boersma, a National Geographic Explorer.
Unlike albinism, which occurs when a
