Leucism is the loss of pigment, making an animal appear more pale than is typical. For penguins, this can include going an impressive shade of lemon curd. On the opposite end of the spectrum we have melanism, which is where there is more pigment present than is typical. These animals will appear darker, sometimes sporting all-black fits that, frankly, look pretty badass on penguins.

The photo of our wee melanistic gentoo chick was taken by penguin counter Laura Bogaard, MSc, of Black Bawks Data Science Ltd, under an NSF research permit. Though its sibling demonstrates how much darker the chick is than a typical gentoo, the black coloration isn’t completely uniform head-to-toe. 

“I was carefully making my way up the hill and did a big double take when I noticed this chick was not like the others!” Bogaard told IFLScience. “I sat with them for a while snapping pictures and admiring its cute pink toenails and charismatic little grin.”

“I’ve seen a couple leucistic gentoo penguins before, but this was my first time seeing one with melanism. It is definitely rare, but amongst our whole team we were lucky enough to see two melanistic chicks this year – this one, and another one at Neko Harbour. It will be interesting to see how they fare over the winter and if we see them again next year.”

This gentoo parent had done a great job keeping both chicks fat and healthy, despite its rare coloration

Laura Bogaard

While the all-black plumage is rather suave, typical penguin coloration is an example of countershading. This camouflage strategy is seen in a wide range of animals, but for penguins, it makes them harder to spot by predators swimming above and below because their coloration mimics the sky and murky depths.

This chick may be easier to spot than its white-bellied sibling when it takes to the water, but that said, it’s doing well so far. “Sometimes when a mom lays two eggs, one chick is healthier or larger than the other,” added Bogaard, “but I was happy to note this gentoo parent had done a great job keeping both chicks fat and healthy, despite its rare coloration.”

The melanistic youngster was spotted as part of ongoing work with Oceanites Inc., a US-based organization that’s been totting up penguins in Antarctica for 31 years. As Grant Humphries, director of science of Oceanites Inc., told IFLScience, all data collected is made available online, facilitating monitoring of the vastly warmed Antarctic Peninsula.

The youngster’s future isn’t necessarily bleak, either, as Humphries said that another melanistic gentoo penguin was recently sighted as a healthy subadult. There have only been two published cases of melanism in gentoos, and yet the Oceanites Inc. team have now identified two instances of melanism in one year, in colonies roughly 20 kilometers (12 miles) apart. Seems you spot some cool things when counting penguins.

Gentoos are a key part of the Antarctic ecosystem, so keeping tabs on their numbers is an important step to monitoring the knock-on effects of our warming planet. Being important work doesn’t mean it can’t be fun, however, and it seems like these gentoos are real characters.

“Gentoos are generally more peaceful than the closely related Adelie and Chinstrap penguins, but the parents are still feisty and protective of their chicks,” said penguin counter Mairi Hilton, who also saw the gentoo chick. “Penguin colonies are noisy, smelly places to be, but the gentoos have a less piercing call – sort of like a braying donkey. The German name for a gentoo is actually Eselspinguin, which translates to donkey penguin!”

“In my opinion, gentoo chicks are some of the cutest penguin chicks out there. They can be pretty curious and sometimes waddle over to check us out whilst we’re surveying. We’re very lucky to work with a great organisation like Oceanites, so we can spend time with these amazing animals.”