Beige lovers adopt shunned pale penguin

ROB KITCHIN/Dominion Post

PICKED ON: Paul Ford and fellow beige-lovers empathise with the pigmentally challenged penguin who can't find a mate because of his dirty brown dinner jacket. They have made a serious effort to help the little guy out.

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A freak penguin being bullied because of its unusual light-brown colouring has won support from champions of all things beige.

The Beige Brigade spokesman Paul Ford said he was touched to read of the penguin with no mates in The Dominion Post.

The brigade – a group of Kiwi cricket fans with a love of the brown and beige national cricket uniform of the 1980s – now wanted to sponsor it.

"The poor little bugger," Mr Ford said.

"It was just the fact that it was being ostracised for wearing beige. We could empathise with that, it's a much maligned colour."

The penguin was spotted by a team of Australian researchers restoring the historic Mawson's Huts at Cape Denison in Antarctica.

Because of a lack of pigmentation it was missing its trademark black "dinner jacket", which was instead a dirty beige. Penguins like this are rare because they stand out and are usually attacked by predators.

Photographer Brett Jarrett described it getting picked on and harassed by other penguins.

Other Beige Brigade members e-mailed Mr Ford the story of the penguin's plight. "They said: 'Hey, we should do something here'."

Mr Ford said it was a serious offer, and the Beige Brigade might look at doing something to help Adelie penguins, which are threatened by climate change.

Tongue in cheek, he suggested maybe a simple can of spray paint could do the trick.

The Beige Brigade would contact the Mawson's Huts expedition to see how to help the little beige penguin.

- © Fairfax NZ News