Image Courtesy of Jean Pennycook


Beauford Island, Antarctica, December 15, 2008

Penguin Anomalies

There are 5 million Adelie Penguins in Antarctica, and the vast majority of them are the black and white tuxedo wearing cuties you know and love. But every once in a while we find color differences. In a much larger colony than the one at Cape Royds, we saw these different and beautiful expressions of the genetic variation in Adelies. All were adults and on nests, so the color and feather differences do not seem to effect their ability to mature and reproduce. In the past we have seen all black penguins and albinos, but not today. We are on Beauford Island and with almost 250,000 penguins we are bound to see a few different ones.

To learn more about Adelie Penguins, go to Penguin Science and Life in the Polar Regions.

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Postcards from the Field: Adelie Penguins 2008

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