Shared by JohnH
!!! HatTip to Soumen Sarkar.
Today’s Pic: Rare Black Penguin
By
Janelle Nanoson March 3, 2010 4:45 PM
UPDATE: Andrew Evans gives us his report from the field after the jump
SECOND UPDATE: There’s been more black penguin sightings by our readers.
When Andrew Evans sent us this photo of a rare melanistic penguin that he spotted during his travels, I became intrigued. So I decided to call up Dr. Allan Baker, an ornithologist and professor of Environmental and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Toronto and head of the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum, to learn more about melanism in birds. I got him on the line before he had the chance to look at the photos, and suffice it to say he was slightly flabbergasted at what he saw: “Wow. That looks so bizarre I can’t even believe it. Wow,” was his first response. Then he made me swear on a stack of National Geographic magazines that the image was real.
SECOND UPDATE: There’s been more black penguin sightings by our readers.
When Andrew Evans sent us this photo of a rare melanistic penguin that he spotted during his travels, I became intrigued. So I decided to call up Dr. Allan Baker, an ornithologist and professor of Environmental and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Toronto and head of the Department of Natural History at the Royal Ontario Museum, to learn more about melanism in birds. I got him on the line before he had the chance to look at the photos, and suffice it to say he was slightly flabbergasted at what he saw: “Wow. That looks so bizarre I can’t even believe it. Wow,” was his first response. Then he made me swear on a stack of National Geographic magazines that the image was real.