An extremely rare all-black penguin has been spotted on a beach on South Georgia Island.
Photographer Yves Adams had just landed in St Andrews Bay in the southern Atlantic Ocean this month when a colleague alerted him to the presence of an unusual bird.
Yves – who had previously found a yellow penguin – quickly rushed to the beach to take photos of the melanistic king penguin before it was swarmed by the rest of the colony.
The striking bird has a black belly instead of the usual striking white and the feathers on its neck also appear black instead of yellow.
Yves, from Ghent, Belgium, said: ‘I was very happy to be able to capture all this.
‘It was my expedition leader who originally spotted the bird and she told me about it when I returned from leading a tour. I was very excited.
‘It is one of a colony of hundreds of thousands of penguins with this color change.
‘I tried to follow the bird as it had just come out of the surf onto the beach.
An extremely rare all-black penguin has been spotted on a beach on South Georgia Island
Photographer Yves Adams had just landed in St Andrews Bay in the South Atlantic Ocean this month when a colleague alerted him to the presence of an unusual bird
Yves quickly rushed to the beach to take photos of the melanistic king penguin before it was overrun by the rest of the colony
“I knew I didn’t have much time to actually photograph that bird as it headed toward the colony, and you don’t want to disturb them when they’re all together.
‘I was really lucky to get some photos of this penguin isolated before it was overrun by the other normal-colored penguins.
‘Melanism is something that occurs very rarely in birds and mammals.
“I’ve heard about it before in other species of penguins, so I’ve wanted to see it for a long time.”
Yves was leading an expedition for Starling Reizen when he had the opportunity to photograph the all-black penguin.
The penguin’s appearance is due to a genetic mutation known as melanism, which causes an abundance of melanin, making the feathers appear completely black.
Examples of black penguins are so rare that little to no research is done on the subject.
Black penguins are more visible to predators, both on ice and in water, because their normal white belly allows them to blend in while swimming.
The striking bird has a black belly instead of the usual striking white and the feathers on its neck also appear black instead of yellow
Yves was leading an expedition for Starling Reizen when he had the opportunity to photograph the all-black penguin
The penguin’s appearance is due to a genetic mutation known as melanism, which causes an abundance of melanin, making the feathers appear completely black
Yves said: ‘I don’t think anyone has seen this all-black penguin before.
“The season has only just started at South Georgia, we were only the third boat to land there.
‘I hope other people see it too.
‘I was super excited to see a purely melanistic penguin, as there are spotted or partially melanistic birds.
‘From a distance the black is super black, but as you get closer some of the markings on his neck and belly look like metallic green.
‘It was completely accepted by the other birds and its size was not different in any way.’