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Penguins are known as elegant gentlemen with their ‘tuxedo’ looks, but are you sure you’ve ever seen a yellow penguin?
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Belgian photographer Yves Adams accidentally captured this bird during an exhibition photography trip in the South Atlantic region.
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While removing the equipment he was carrying, he felt something unusual in the penguin colony of more than 120,000.
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“I have never seen or heard of a penguin with such a yellow color. On the beach, this bird is extremely unique because it is the only one among more than 120 thousand penguins.” – Adams shared with Kennedy News.
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The reason this penguin has a different yellow color compared to its peers is because it has leucism, a leucism syndrome – a rare genetic mutation in biological pigmentation that leads to a lack of pigmentation in animals.
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Leukemic animals lack melanin throughout their bodies, causing them to be pale white or patchy. According to a study of leucism in penguins, depending on the specimen, the chance of developing leucism is 1 in 20,000 to 146,000. Therefore, this animal is a member of a herd of 120,000 animals, which is very suitable for research. With this penguin, instead of black feathers, they have yellow feathers, which looks very unique.
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