He's gone by many names and lived many different lives. While Rowland suggests that this may not apply to penguins, it seems she overlooked the fact that penguins spend long periods on land, often pretty dang exposed to the elements and associated abrasive forces.The best there is by the best there are! Legendary creators, modern superstars, rising talents and fresh voices unite to tell savage tales of your favorite X-Man - in brutal black and white, with a liberal splash of blood red! Logan. 6 9, tpb, 160 pages, 2015, ISBN 0-7851-5444-2) Issues 78 are co-written by Edmondson and Kevin Maurer. Especially if birds are exposed to airborne particles, having black feathers may make the plumage more resistant to abrasion. Black and White (collects 16, tpb, 136 pages, 2014, ISBN 0-7851-5443-4) Border Crossing (collects 712 and Black Widow vol. Protection from abrasionĭark feathers have been shown to be stronger and resist more abrasion and wear. At the same time, she mentions that while “it is tempting to suggest that the penguins can offset loss of heat to the cold water absorbing solar radiation” her data did not allow testing of this hypothesis.īut the same can be said about the camouflage idea – it has ever come under scientific scrutiny. In Galapagoa penguins, Dee Boersma (in Bernard Stonehouse’s ‘The Biology of Penguins’) observed that penguins floating at the surface had dry backs allowing them to absorb solar radiation.
That would also work when the penguins are resting at the surface in often cold water. Here are a few photos of penguins seen from below.Įmperor penguins exposing their bellies (in the sun) or turn their back to the cold (in the shade) Let me illustrate what this weird snowflake analogy means for penguins. If snowflakes are watched as they fall from the sky, which is naturally overcast and dull, they appear almost black.” “It appears however that this really not the case. “the white under-side of of aquatic birds such as the penguins, are stated to be inconspicuous when seen from below and against the bright sky.”Įven though Beddard makes it sound as if it’s not his own idea, it seems his is the first written account of what may be the purpose of countershading in penguins.Īnd, at a first glance, it seems logical, right? That is, until you really start to think about it.Īnd funny enough Beddard himself called it straight away when he goes on to say… In it he discusses countershading in animals: In 1892, four years before Thayer’s paper came out, a book titled ‘Animal Colouration’ was published by Frank Evers Beddard, an English zoologist and – weirdly enough – earth worm expert. “painted by nature, darkest on those parts which tend to be most lighted by the sky’s light, and vice versa”.īut it wasn’t Thayer who first mentioned countershading in the context of penguins. In a paper published 1896 in the ornithological journal Auk, he pointed out that many animals are He described a phenomenon known today as “countershading” which is pretty widespread throughout the animal kingdom. He also had a knack for natural history he was particularly fascinated by animal colouration. This gentleman is Abbott Handerson Thayer, a prominent painter in the United States of the late 19 th and early 20 th century. To answer this question, let’s go back to where this idea comes from. When seen from above they disappear in front of the dark blue of the ocean, while their white bellies help them to blend in when seen against the bright sky from below.Īccording to this idea, the black-and-white plumage helps penguins to be invisible to predators and prey alike. Many, many sources ranging from the popular to scientific spectrum state that the penguin’s black back makes the bird more difficult to spot while at sea. We all know them from hundreds of movies, cartoons and documentaries.Īnd while it is safe to assume that the penguins’ preference for fish as food is common knowledge, it is also surprising that many have at least a vague idea about what the penguins’ black-and-white attire is good for. Surely most people automatically associate that term with flightless, upright waddling and most importantly, black and white birds. Below there is both the video and an illustrated transcript with links to some of the sources we cite. And we compiled our results into an 8 minute video. Following our Poll last month, we actually sat down to have a closer look at why penguins are actually black and white.
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