black king penguin

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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interesting photo on the link. I've highlighted the amusing aspects of the article below, just for fun :D
Pictured: rare black penguin living off the Falklands coast - Telegraph
The penguin, believed to be suffering from a condition known as melanism, was spotted on Fortuna Bay, a sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, about 860 miles off the Falklands.

A group of travellers had travelled to the island to watch local wildlife and one of the group, Andrew Evans, took this picture of the penguin, one of several thousand.

“Observing this black penguin waddle across South Georgia's black sand beach revealed no different behaviour than that of his fellow penguins. In fact, he seemed to mix well,” he wrote on a National Geographic blog.

“Regarding feeding and mating behaviour there is no real way to tell, but I do know that we were all fascinated by his presence and wished him the best for the coming winter season.”

Biology experts say that because black penguins are particularly rare there is very little research discussing the subject.

Melanism is however, common on other animal species such as squirrels.

It is estimated that about one in every 250,000 penguins shows evidence of the condition.

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology expert Dr Allan Baker, from the University of Toronto, said the Antarctic penguin was black because it had lost control of its pigmentation patterns.

After being shown the pictures by National Geographic, Dr Baker, also the head of the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum, described them as “astonishing”.

"I've never ever seen that before,” he told the magazine.

“It's a one in a zillion kind of mutation somewhere. The animal has lost control of its pigmentation patterns. Presumably it's some kind of mutation.”

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the condition is the darkness in an animal’s skin, feathers, or fur is acquired by populations living in an industrial region where the environment is soot-darkened. It can be gene related

It does, however, mean that the probability that its members will survive and reproduce is enhance.

The condition evolves over the course of several generations.

But due to being lighter in colour, they become more conspicuous to predators.
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some amusingly conflicting statements in there. I find the Encyclopaedia Britannica bit hilarious!
 
I've seen a photo elsewhere of a melanistic gentoo as well.

I think its interesting that the king penguin in the article above retains the normal bill colour.
 
this is another article on the same king penguin
Today's Pic: Rare Black Penguin - Intelligent Travel Blog
which contains this (in my opinion, somewhat odd) quote from the aforementioned Dr. Allen Baker:
"Well that is astonishing," he said. "I've never ever seen that before. It's a one in a zillion kind of mutation somewhere. The animal has lost control of its pigmentation patterns. Presumably it's some kind of mutation." He explained that typically, melanistic birds of all species will have white spots where melanin pigmentation has failed to color the feathers. But it's extremely rare for melanin deposits to occur where they're not normally located, as genes control those pathways (in this case, in the breast feathers of the king penguin). After looking through several texts, he ruled out the potential for it to be a hybrid and said that it's closer in coloring to the Little Blue penguin. "But look at the size of those legs," he added, "It's an absolute monster."
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what I also find interesting is that they are saying its completely melanistic, yet you can quite clearly see in the photo that it does retain yellow around the neck, as well as in this video Bus2Antarctica Video: The Rare Black Penguin - Intelligent Travel Blog.

this Birdforum thread http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=51150 shows pics of a melanistic gentoo and leucistic rockhopper. Interestingly (yes, I know I've been using that word frequently :D) the melanistic gentoo retains the usual bill colour, coloured legs, and also has the white head-marking. In both the king and the gentoo it appears that only the white underparts are affected.
 
All interesting birds, I am just glad they had not seen any white penguins as some of our forum members are not keen on white animals, lol.
 
Given the theory that the black back and white belly of penguins provides a sort of camouflage (i.e. when viewed from below by, for example, a leopard seal, the white underparts blend more easily into the light sky, while when viewed from above the black upperparts blend into the dark of the ocean depths), I suspect melanistic penguins would be more susceptible to predation than normal
 
Chlidonias said:
Given the theory that the black back and white belly of penguins provides a sort of camouflage (i.e. when viewed from below by, for example, a leopard seal, the white underparts blend more easily into the light sky, while when viewed from above the black upperparts blend into the dark of the ocean depths), I suspect melanistic penguins would be more susceptible to predation than normal
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I would tend to agree with you here, when you look at it even Great white sharks have a white under belly :cool:
 
Chlidonias said:
not a white penguin, but basically a Northern Hemisphere ecological equivalent: a white puffin!! Check out the photo on the link. Its magnificent!
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The White puffin is very attractive. It does have some black feathering still.

The 'black' Penguin is quite ugly I think. It looks more blue than black.

I once saw a 'black' plains Zebra in Africa - it had a sooty black background colour and white spotting arranged in rows where the stripes would normally be- a sort of 'Negative'. Rather queer.

I always find colour 'sports' (albinos, leucistics, melanistics etc) in Museums etc very interesting.;)
 
There is a Gentoo penguin in the colony at Edinburgh that is much lighter in colour than the rest - the non-white parts are a light brown colour .
 
Pertinax said:
I once saw a 'black' plains Zebra in Africa - it had a sooty black background colour and white spotting arranged in rows where the stripes would normally be- a sort of 'Negative'. Rather queer.
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I've seen a photo in a mammal encyclopaedia that sounds like it may have been that same zebra. It did look most peculiar.
 
Chlidonias said:
I've seen a photo in a mammal encyclopaedia that sounds like it may have been that same zebra. It did look most peculiar.
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I think I have seen the same photo as well the only white that appears on the Zebra are almost like spots :D
 
I have seen photos of that Zebra too and I remember now that the one I saw wasn't quite like that- it was a sooty black colour overall on the body, without markings, with white legs/underbelly. It was a mare and they called her 'blackie' or somesuch nickname and she was known to be at least 7 years old. Obviously her colour didn't make her Lion food..
 
Are penguins the only birds to show melanism? I know albinos and leucistic birds are very common particularly in the pet trade but this is the first time Ive ever come across a melanistic avian! I actually saw an albino razor bill last year on Rathlin Island! The puffin is bizarre!
 
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