Penguins can’t fly, but they need feathers to protect their body from cold temperatures, rain, and exposure to diseases. A couple of penguin chicks in Antarctica have recently been found to have a rare disorder that caused them to lose their feathers.

Penguins can’t fly, but they need feathers to protect their body from cold temperatures, rain, and exposure to diseases.

A couple of penguin chicks in Antarctica have recently been found to have a rare disorder that caused them to lose their feathers.

The body of one of the penguin chicks was found dead, and the other reportedly wandered off and is presumed dead.

The feather loss disorder was first noticed in 2006 happening to captive penguin chicks in Cape Town, South Africa.

Another case of the disorder was reported a year later in the wild Magellanic penguins in Argentina.

But this is the first time it’s been noticed in the wild population of penguins that live in Antarctica.

It might be caused by a viral infection, but researchers still aren’t sure about the cause of the disorder.

It hasn’t been observed in any of the other 14 thousand penguins that make up the colony living in Hope Bay Adélie, or the rest of the population that share the rockery, which is estimated to exceed a hundred thousand breeding pairs.

Whatever the cause, the disorder doesn’t appear to spread easily among the penguins, according to the lead author of the study, Andres Barbosa from the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, Spain.