In a sea of black and white penguins waddling on Antarctica’s
Aitcho Islands, National Geographic Explorers spotted an extremely
rare, nearly all-white Chinstrap penguin this week.
David Stephens, a naturalist on board the Lindbrad
Expedition’ National Geographeric
Explorers Ships, snapped the photo above of the rare leucistic
bird, which he described on their blog as “whitish, but not quite
an albino.”
Leucistic penguins, sometime referred to as
albinistic penguins, have a reduced level of pigmentation and
are set apart from albinos due to their pigmented eyes, according
to National Geographic. Their “washed-out” coloring clearly
distinguishes them from the traditional black and white coat of the
Chinstrap penguin.
It’s so rare to find nearly all-white penguins, Stephens noted,
because the birds’ black and white coloring serves as crucial
camouflage while diving for fish. Still, the leucistic penguins
manage to breed normally, according to Stephens.
