While unloading the stuff, the penguins came to have a look out of curiosity. “Suddenly I saw a pale specimen in the surf. As a bird watcher I know my species, but I didn’t 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 onto 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 has no albinism, because you can still see where it should be black on its back and the legs also have some color. In alibinism, an animal is white as bright.”
Bright future
That the penguin is yellow seems 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 would happen 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 beautiful”, laughs he.
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