Yellow Penguin May Be First Captured: Exceptional and super valuable

 Flemish nature photographer Yves Adams has captured a rare yellow penguin. He already took the photos in 2019 but posted them on social media yesterday. "It was already a privilege to be on that island, and it became a huge privilege when all of a sudden this penguin put on a show for my camera".
The photos are 'super valuable' and a yellow penguin is very exceptional, says Gert Polet of the World Wildlife Fund, head of 'endangered species'. "I don't know if one has ever been seen before, actually. It seems like this has never happened before."
Adams shared the photos of the yellow bug on social media yesterday. He captured them on the island of South Georgia, east of Argentina. They immediately went viral since publication and have been shared tens of thousands of times.
Adams was on an expedition in the South Atlantic Ocean in 2019 to take photos of nature. The visit to South Georgia, a virtually uninhabited island of the South Sandwich Islands, was uncertain because the island is in a very rough environment, Adams says. "The sea there is very unpredictable, lapping 360 degrees on the rocks. There are hardly any bays to moor."
Still, the crew found a place to go ashore. There they found at least 120,000 king penguins. "It was a relatively small bay, and you only saw the heads of king penguins. It was littered with animals. And they were all screaming, it was really chaos! And above it was elephant seals and fur seals."
While unloading the items, the penguins came to have a lookout of curiosity. "Suddenly I saw a pale specimen in the surf. As a bird watcher, I know my species, but I did not know this one." Adams immediately dropped all of his material. "I grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. Miraculously he swam up to us and waddled up to the beach. There he really put on a show right in front of us."
The bug appears to suffer from leucism, an abnormality that leads to decreased pigmentation, says Polet. "The penguin does not have albinism, because you can still see where it should be black on its back and the legs also have some color. In albinism, an animal is white as pure white."
That the penguin is yellow seems a pure coincidence. "Sometimes there is such a play of nature that the normal color pattern of an animal does not develop. And that of course creates the 'huh, what is this now?' Response." Polet is not worried about the yellow beast. "The other penguins will notice that he looks different. Whether that works for him or against him, I have no idea. But I am hopeful that a bright future awaits him."
Photographer Adams is still reeling from all the attention the photos are getting. "It's unimaginable. I wish this happened with all my photos. It exceeds all my expectations, but in the end, I just took a few photos. I personally like the photos I take of the sunset in Belgium more", laughs he.