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GREATÝWHITEÝPENGUIN
By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence LAÝJOLLA,ÝCA (April 18, 1997) A pure white penguin, the first ever reported, has been observed in Antarctica.  The penguin was first spotted in Antartica by Gerald Kooyman, a scientist at UCSD's Scripps Institution of Oceanography who has been studying the flightless birds for more than 30 years. Kooyman observed the all-white emperor penguin. while conducting a census of a colony of penguins located on snow-covered sea ice in the western Ross Sea. The bird blended so well with the surroundings that he almost missed it, he said. "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." The completely white bird was only about five months old and stood just under 2 feet tall. Ordinarily, emperor chicks usually are covered in a grayish down coat, while their wing and tail feathers are dark, as are their bills and feet. They also usually exhibit dark rings around their eyes. Emperors are the largest of the penguins, standing nearly 3 feet tall and weighing about 65 pounds. "It really was a spectacular bird. It was a very magical moment," he said. The rare penguin is not believed to be an albino, however, as it did not exhibit the characteristic pink eyes associated with albinism. Rather, the coloration is probably attributable to a combination of recessive genes, he noted. Kooyman said he believed the penguin fledged and, thus, is not expected to return to the colony for four or five years. A recent study by Kooyman found that fledgling penguins travel thousands of miles before returning to their colony. "The survival rate of the birds from the time they leave the colony until they return is quite low," he said. "So the chances of seeing the penguin again is really pretty low." Related information on the Internet
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