WHITE PENGUIN! Extremely rare, totally white emperor chick

After more than 30 years of studying penguins in Antarctica, a scientist at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography reported what is believed to be the first sighting of an all-white emperor penguin.

Gerald Kooyman, a Scripps research professor, said he came across the penguin while conducting a census of a colony of penguins located on snow-covered sea ice in the western Ross Sea. Kooyman said he almost missed the chick completely as its white feathers caused it to blend so well with the icy background.

"There are thousands of penguins in the colony and they are quite spread out," he said. "But we were counting every chick and that's how we spotted it."

Kooyman said the chick was about five months old and stood just under 2 feet tall. Whereas emperor chicks are usually covered in a grayish down coat, their wing and tail feathers are dark, as are their bills and feet. They also usually exhibit dark rings around their eyes. The chick Kooyman discovered, however, was completely white.

"It really was a spectacular bird," he said.

The strange colour of this penguin is the result of a genetic accident. It is not an albino, as it has brown, rather than pink eyes.

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Penguin
• White
• Rare
• Antarctica
• Discovery
• Science
• Bizarre
• Weird
• Emperor

[DJLorenzen]

white penguin with closed eyes + snow = stealth pingu

[meezlover88]

Cool! Its so cute!

[IWishIWasAPancake]

I don't think it's albinism or leucism. Google is't always right. If you walk through the method like you said it's simple to understand. But some people arn't as smart as scientists. isn't that right NEDM123?

[jasoneunson]

..." sure it was albino yesterday, but today he's definitely sure its leucism. His opinion is more authoritative than the scientists at the Institution of Oceanography because he 'remembers some stuff' from when he did biology at school, plus he's got a diploma so he must be right."

[jasoneunson]

So with your permission, I shall change the info about this video to the following:

"This is a video about a white penguin. The scientists at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography, who have studied penguins in Antarctica for 30 years, don't think it's an albino. However, NEDM123 has looked at some pictures of white penguins on google, and yesterday he said the penguin is definitely albino. Today he looked up some stuff on wikipedia, and now he thinks it's leucism. He did say he was 100%...

[jasoneunson]

The funniest bit is when you talk about a diploma like it's some sort of proof-of-genius. A diploma is fuck all, they give you a diploma in the USA if you can tie your own fucking shoelaces. And it's ironic that you think a diploma means you're not the one who's being fed the shit. Like G.B. Shaw said, "A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education." You're a jock who got a diploma for sucking his teacher's cock.

[jasoneunson]

Let's look at the facts. Yesterday you were 100% sure this penguin had albinism. Today you're saying it has leucism. You can't even hold a thought for 24 hours. Narrow minded, slobbering buffoons like you are the reason science has had such a hard time being accepted over the centuries. Your 'common sense' is basically along the lines of 'oh look the sun goes across the sky that must mean it goes round the earth'. Then you ignore all evidence to the contrary as you continue picking your arse.

[NMoulana]

You go ahead and follow monkey protocol in making conclusions, I'll just resort to common sense. My theory is based of what I remember from college bio, considerably better than: "I have shit for brains so I'll blindly vouch for an expert opinion". I can take solace in knowing that people like you are easy to feed shit to so long as we have diplomas. That's victory enough. Later chump, don't forget to ask for your tuition back. Oh and nice job blocking me from replying, way to look defeated.

[jasoneunson]

Which is it then dickhead, albinism or leucism? You have already contradicted yourself which is proof that you're an idiot, as if anyone needed that. And yes, scientific method is the best way, not to come to a conclusion, but to develop a cogent theory based on the facts. Your method seems to be: "Look up some stuff on google and wikipedia and go with the first thing you find, then recite it in a comment on youtube to make yourself sound like the lazy minded, moronic, american hippy you are."

[jasoneunson]

Why should I trust you? Experts usually use scientific method, which refers to a number of techniques for acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge using empirical and measurable evidence. I'm not sure that Googling some pictures is fully employing the scientific method.

I'll stick with the experts, thanks.

[jasoneunson]

It's common for albinism to result in blue or green eyes due to residual pigment, brown less so.

I'll trust the experts when they say it's not albino.

[PxNdXLuBB]

OMG.

It's like a giant cotton ball :D