Albino Animals

[science_spot]

Recently a RARE ALBINO African elephant was photographed in the wild.  They say this baby elephant has challenges to face due to this condition - namely the extreme sun in Botswana can lead to blindness and skin problems.  Amazingly, the baby has been seen staying in the shade of it's mother for protection from the blazing sun.

This albino elephant appears pink, not white, due to the absence of fur. 

The picture above from Mike Holding via the BBC

 

A few weeks ago I saw the email about the pink (albino) dolphin spotted a few years ago in a lake in Louisiana.  He has the the red eyes as expected.

The picture above is in the public domain

 

 Many people are familiar with the famous albino gorilla Snowflake .

The picture above is in the public domain

 

So I went on a search for other albino animals, with the divided intent of finding cool pictures and determining just how rare this "very rare" phenomenon is.  I was quite surprised to find a whale , alligator , and tiny little monkeys. 

Messy Beast has a nice collection of pictures, many dating back to the 1930s!!  Included are a kangaroo , a bear , an adult elephant , and large cats .

A little background on albinism.  Albinism is a condition of inability to make the pigment melanin, causing the animal to lack pigment and appear white or somewhat pink, with pink/red eyes.  Albinism follows simple (Mendelian) inheritance, meaning when both parents are carriers of a specific gene mutation, the baby has a one in four chance of being albino.   Albino animals have pink skin, white hair/fur and pink eyes. 

A condition called Leucism can also make an animal appear white, but they will still retain the darker eyes, and may have pigment in other parts of their body.  This condition is not always inherited, as it can be caused by a variety of factors.  Animals affected by leucism are not albinos.  CanPages and Squidoo have some beautiful images, but some animals pictured are not true albinos, such as the peacock

 

I hope no one minds the re-post.  This post was originally posted a few months ago but no one responded.  I need a few more days to get caught up with some personal things, then I will be back in action with new posts.

Tonya

AKA sunmoonstars

The Science Spot

 

[goatmom4]

Jul. 24, 2009 at 12:32 PM

cool poor elephant though he will probaly get some kind of cancer

[v_clar]

Jul. 24, 2009 at 1:08 PM

Very interesting and way cool pictures! Thank you for sharing.

[princessbeth79]

Jul. 24, 2009 at 10:31 PM

i think there are probably more albino animals born but usually the mother kills them. it's only the animals with higher intellegence that keep them. i think they're creepy.....people too and very sorry if that offends anybody but i'm just being honest

[xrussianbabe02]

Jul. 24, 2009 at 11:17 PM

That gorilla looks creepy, it has an odd look on it's face and appears to be signaling for you to come over.

[theyareallmine]

Jul. 24, 2009 at 11:22 PM

Very cool post!!! Thank you!

[roseisrose]

Jul. 25, 2009 at 2:09 AM

this is really fascinating, that pink dolphin is nuts! thank you for the post!!

[evwsquared]

Jul. 25, 2009 at 2:46 AM

Thanks for reposting, because I didn't catch it last time! I LOVE the white peacock. There's a town in Northern California that has white deer. There's some story to why they are there (they were artificially introduced). We were driving down the highway and I saw one, but didn't believe my eyes. Then I saw a sign for "White Deer Inn" or something like that, and checked out my guidebook.

[mtnmama111]

Jul. 25, 2009 at 3:58 AM

We have a litter of albino ground squirrels at my work... and the momma moved them to under the (white) propane tank!!!

[binker55]

Jul. 25, 2009 at 4:52 AM

i know of four albinp people. two were men born to the same family and the other two, one man one women moved to our area.

[Freela]

Jul. 25, 2009 at 9:51 AM

Cool pics!  We've had our share of albino pets.  My son likes the red eyes on them.  Unfortunately those born in the wild probably have the odds stacked against them due to the inability to withstand strong sun and the lack of camouflage as compared to others of the same species.  A reptile zoo near us has an albino alligator which was quite interesting to see!