Black Penguin Spotted

Posted by NG Kids in News Bites on March 9, 2010
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While on his Bus2Antarctica expedition, Andrew Evans spotted something unusual–a black king penguin. The penguin is all black because of melanism. Melanism is an overproduction of melanin, which turns feathers (or skin or fur) dark. Many animal species exhibit melanism, but it’s very rare for penguins–and even rarer to see a penguin exhibiting dark pigment all over its body.

Read more about the black penguin on National Geographic’s Intelligent Travel blog.

Find out more about Andrew Evans’ Bus2Antarctica expedition on National Geographic.

Get the facts on emperor penguins and Adélie penguins.

Photograph courtesy Andrew Evans

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Categories: Animals

Comments

  1. emshemie3
    March 11, 2010, 1:58 pm

    That is so cool!

  2. gjhscheerleader
    March 11, 2010, 8:29 pm

    That is SO COOL!!!i have loved animals for my whole life and i love penguins the most.!I find them so interesting and they are so unique!!

  3. meme13100
    March 12, 2010, 3:49 pm

    that is the coolest penguin i’ve ever seen! OoO

  4. photographyrocks247
    March 12, 2010, 5:23 pm

    That’s probably the coolest penguin that I have ever seen!

  5. PurpleAnimalLUV
    March 26, 2010, 7:27 pm

    Ok, gotta admit. THAT IS AWESOME! That’s the awesomist penguin I’ve EVER seen!

  6. 2mace
    April 5, 2010, 8:13 pm

    I’ve never thought of that! But gotta say that is awesome!

  7. hihihihi12334
    April 9, 2010, 7:13 am

    i luv it hahahahahahahaha

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