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Albino & Leucistic Animals (Pigmentation Deficiency)

African sun puts albino jumbo at risk

Melanie-Ann Feris
January 12 2005 at 09:06AM

The little one kept on rolling in the mud, as if trying to disguise its strange colour with the dirt.

The baby elephant, spotted among a herd in the southern part of the Kruger National Park, could be an albino or white elephant.

The baby is believed to be about a month old, and an older sibling and its mother seemed very protective of it.

Sadly, however, it is most probably doomed as it would be susceptible to the harsh African sun.

Odette Joubert and her husband, who have a house on the banks of the Crocodile River near Hectorspruit overlooking the Kruger Park, came across the little elephant.

"Yesterday morning (Monday) we were having breakfast when I saw the herd of elephants come to drink. As they were drinking I noticed a very light one, then they disappeared."

"Later we were lounging around the pool, and I saw the same herd and I grabbed my camera," Joubert said.

She said the herd came so close to the fence she was able to take pictures which clearly show the elephant's pink eyes and white eyelashes.

Joubert said the elephants, especially the mother and an older sibling were very protective.

"The baby kept on trying to roll in mud. Maybe he knows he is different," she said.

Joubert said she had spoken to a ranger in the park who said that albino elephants were very rare and that they might try and collar one of the herd to keep track of the group.

"They are very, very rare," said Dr Ian Whyte specialist scientist for large herbivores in the park.

"Sometimes you see some elephants with patches, particularly behind their ears, that don't have pigment. Some time ago I saw a newborn, who was pink, from a helicopter when we were doing a census.

"Maybe they are more common than we think they are but they just don't survive. It would struggle in the African sun," he said. - Environment Reporter.

Source
 
Rare white buffalo born at ranch

By Christie Smythe
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal

When a rare white buffalo was born Friday at a buffalo ranch in Shelby County, owners Bob and Julie Allen thought the baby had prophecy written in her genes.

The white calf, regarded as a sacred symbol by Lakota Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, is a granddaughter of the ranch's former big star, award-winning bull Chief Joseph, a hefty 3,000-pound sire that had cost the Allens $101,000. The bull was struck by lightning on Sept. 11, 2001, and died two weeks later.

So the Allens, who own the Buffalo Crossing Restaurant & Family Fun Ranch, were delighted by the calf's birth.

"It's just unbelievable," Bob Allen said.

The appearance of a white buffalo is regarded by some followers of American Indian spirituality as on par with the Christian idea of the second coming of Christ, said Bob Pickering, a researcher at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyo.

"I've heard at least one Lakota elder make that claim," said Pickering, whose book "Seeing the White Buffalo" delves into the legend of the creatures.

As the story goes, Lakota Sioux rituals and beliefs were brought to the tribe by a spiritual being known as the White Buffalo Calf Woman, Pickering said.

A white buffalo calf is interpreted as the sacred reincarnation of the woman, he said. Historically, the white buffalo is "probably about the most spiritual being on the prairie," he said.

Pickering estimated the incidence of white buffalo births at about 16 per million.

He said there are three reasons white calves sometimes appear: they can be albinos, they can be the result of crossbreeding with white cows, or they may be temporarily white and turn dark by their first winter.

The calf is not an albino, said Julie Allen, noting that its eyes are brown, not pink.

Flicking her ears and whisking her tail back and forth, the 40-to-50-pound calf resembles a lamb.

In the past, Indians sacrificed white buffalo as sacred offerings, but now they avoid doing that, Pickering said.

About 600 buffalo roam the Allens' 1,000 acres. They raise buffalo primarily for meat and to serve in the restaurant on their property. But in keeping with tradition, the white calf, which has yet to be named, likely will be spared.

"We probably won't put her on the dinner table," Bob Allen said, laughing.

TO SEE THE CALF

Visitors can see the white buffalo calf and other animals at the ranch from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except Sundays, when the ranch is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The ranch is at 1140 Bagdad Road, off Ky. 12 near Shelbyville. Admission is free.

Phone: (502) 647-0377.

Web site: www.buffalocrossing.com

TO LEARN MORE

To read more about the white buffalo legend, check online at www.merceronline.com/Native/native05.htm

Source
 
Emperor said:
Rare white buffalo born at ranch

By Christie Smythe
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal

When a rare white buffalo was born Friday at a buffalo ranch in Shelby County, owners Bob and Julie Allen thought the baby had prophecy written in her genes.

The white calf, regarded as a sacred symbol by Lakota Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, is a granddaughter of the ranch's former big star, award-winning bull Chief Joseph, a hefty 3,000-pound sire that had cost the Allens $101,000. The bull was struck by lightning on Sept. 11, 2001, and died two weeks later.

So the Allens, who own the Buffalo Crossing Restaurant & Family Fun Ranch, were delighted by the calf's birth.

"It's just unbelievable," Bob Allen said.


Source

Now I see they're not charging admission, so I'm not trying to be too down on the owners, but, um, well, really? September 11, 2001. It may very well have, which would make for a nice freakadelic twist to the story, but I wonder if there's any corroboration. Was it storming in Kentucky that day? Do buffalo get issued death certificates?
 
I wondered about that too. Also I had no idea buffalo were so expensive.
 
Wildlife Officials Net Rare White Muskie

WAUSAU, Wis. -- This is indeed a fish story - not about the one that got away but about a rare one. A white muskellunge is swimming in the waters of Lake Tomahawk, in the northern part of the state. State fisheries experts captured it in nets during a population survey in April and released it back into the lake.

"I've never seen nor heard of an albino muskie, so it's an unusual fish to say the least," said John Lyons, a longtime fisheries researcher for the state Department of Natural Resources in Madison.

The nearly 33-inch-long, 8-pound muskie has white skin but with a slight greenish tint, said John Kubisiak, a DNR fish biologist who was with the netting crew that handled the fish.

Muskies typically are silver, light green or light brown with dark, vertical bars along their long bodies.

Cory Painter, an officer with the Madison chapter of Muskies Inc., said Friday the discovery created some buzz among anglers.

"I think it would be pretty cool to catch it," said Painter, 36.

He'll have to wait for it to grow, though.

Anglers can keep muskies caught in inland Wisconsin lakes only if the fish measures at least 34 inches long. If the albino muskie is female, it could grow to more than 50 inches long and weigh more than 40 pounds, Painter said.


33-inch albino muskellunge caught by John Kubisiak. Credit: AP "Even if I caught it and it was 50 inches, I would still get a picture and release it back because I would rather have someone else catch it," he said.

Steve AveLallemant, the DNR's northern regional fisheries coordinator, said the white muskie was 3 to 4 years old.

AveLallemant said it's anybody's guess whether other white muskies are swimming in the 3,600-acre Lake Tomahawk.

"If it was the only one, he was darn lucky to catch it," AveLallemant said, referring to Kubisiak's netting crew.

Source
 
Another one:
LINK
White whale spotted off coast

13jun05
WHALE watchers off the New South Wales mid-north coast were "blessed" to catch a glimpse of a rare albino humpback whale today.

The whale, known as Migaloo, passed by Port Macquarie this morning as it migrated to warmer waters in the Whitsundays, off the north Queensland coast.

Carol Hunt, who runs a Port Macquarie charter boat company, said it was the first time Migaloo had been sighted off that part of the coast.

"He was sighted in Sydney at four o'clock on Friday and I've been tracking him since," Ms Hunt said.

"We watched him for about an hour and a half. He was heading north to Coffs Harbour.

"He had three other whales with him and they were quite active. They were rolling over and slapping their fins."

Ms Hunt said the whales were about a mile (1.6km) offshore, delighting those on board with their antics.

"Everybody on the boat was just beside themselves," she said.

"We are blessed to see this. It is just a million to one chance.

"It was just magic – we were very, very lucky."

Ms Hunt said Migaloo was travelling to the Whitsundays to mate.

"He had other whales with him, so his mate might be among them," she said.

"He may very well be taking a mate with him that might be pregnant.

"He'll stay up in the Whitsundays and hopefully when he comes back he might come into Port Macquarie again on his southern migration."

Named Migaloo, or white fella, by an Aboriginal elder in Hervey Bay, the whale is believed to be the only one of its kind in the world.

It is expected to pass the coast of Coffs Harbour tomorrow.
 
lopaka said:
Emperor said:
Rare white buffalo born at ranch

By Christie Smythe
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal

When a rare white buffalo was born Friday at a buffalo ranch in Shelby County, owners Bob and Julie Allen thought the baby had prophecy written in her genes.

The white calf, regarded as a sacred symbol by Lakota Sioux and other Plains Indian tribes, is a granddaughter of the ranch's former big star, award-winning bull Chief Joseph, a hefty 3,000-pound sire that had cost the Allens $101,000. The bull was struck by lightning on Sept. 11, 2001, and died two weeks later.

So the Allens, who own the Buffalo Crossing Restaurant & Family Fun Ranch, were delighted by the calf's birth.

"It's just unbelievable," Bob Allen said.


Source

Now I see they're not charging admission, so I'm not trying to be too down on the owners, but, um, well, really? September 11, 2001. It may very well have, which would make for a nice freakadelic twist to the story, but I wonder if there's any corroboration. Was it storming in Kentucky that day? Do buffalo get issued death certificates?

More news on this (although not answering your question) - I'm amused by the name Bagdad, KY:

Native Americans hold ceremony for rare white buffalo

BAGDAD, Ky. A group of Native Americans held a ceremony honoring the recent birth in Shelby County of a white buffalo -- which is considered a rare and sacred symbol.
"Medicine Heart" was born June third at Buffalo Crossing in Shelby County.

Steve McCullough is a Lakota Shawnee from Indiana, and he led the 90-minute ceremony today. The buffalo's Lakota name is Cante Pejuta.

Lakota tradition says that a spiritual being known as the White Buffalo Calf Woman came to the Lakota 19 generations ago and bestowed upon them their beliefs.

Bob Pickering -- a white buffalo expert in Cody, Wyoming -- says his research shows the incidence of white buffaloes at about 16 per million.

He says the last white buffalo was born in Wisconsin nine years ago.

-------------------
Copyright 2005 Associated Press.

www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3553521
 
"The Ballad of the Blue-Eyed Alligator" has kinda a catchy folk/country title for a song, though.

Rare white alligator in legal limbo

Tuesday, July 19, 2005; Posted: 10:59 a.m. EDT (14:59 GMT)

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) -- A rare white alligator is being housed at Riverbanks Zoo, but the reptile is seen only by its keepers because it's evidence in a legal case against the brothers who captured it.

Ted Clamp, 59, and his brother Heyward, 62, argue that they took the gator in to protect it, but they are charged with taking and possessing an American alligator, a crime under a state law designed to protect an endangered species.

The brothers, who operate a private zoo for snakes, alligators and related creatures, could receive to up to 30 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted.

The blue-eyed alligator is leucistic, meaning it has no pigmentation, a condition that appears among reptiles, mammals and birds and makes them more visible to predators.

Leucistic gators "probably occur with some frequency in the wild, but nobody knows what frequency," said Dan Maloney, curator of animals at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. That zoo has 10 male leucistic gators that were found eight years ago.

The Clamp brothers, owners of Edisto Island Serpentarium near Edisto Beach, say they were trying to save the alligator and two white siblings when they captured them soon after they hatched in 2003. The other two gators died; the survivor is now nearly 2 feet long.

According to an incident report filed by state wildlife officers, Charles Jordan, a cousin of the brothers, told them about the alligators and also mentioned them to wildlife officers. A week later, Jordan told wildlife officials his cousins had captured two of them and he captured the third.

A state natural resources officer then seized the three animals a few weeks later.

Jordan chose pretrial intervention that allows first-time offenders charged with nonviolent crimes to clear their records after completing community service. The Clamps turned down a similar offer, saying they want a jury trial. No trial date has been set.

"These people are very well-known in that small community and very well-known in the Department of Natural Resources," said the Clampses' attorney, Charles Macloskie. "And they have a good reputation."

State wildlife officials have refused to discuss the case outside the incident report.

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/07 ... index.html
 
Swan said:
Wildlife Officials Net Rare White Muskie

WAUSAU, Wis. -- This is indeed a fish story - not about the one that got away but about a rare one. A white muskellunge

A good few years back I caught a silver pike (relative of the Muskie)all silver apart from the stripes which were white not green.
 
RARE LOBSTER GIVEN TO HATCHERY

11:00 - 26 July 2005
A rare white lobster has been donated to the National Lobster Hatchery at Padstow. The lobster was caught by the fishing vessel Helen Claire working about 16 miles north-west of Alderney.

Skipper Lloyd Turner saw that the lobster had eggs at the right stage of development and decided to donate the animal to the National Lobster Hatchery at Padstow.

"The lobster's eggs recently hatched and the larvae appear to be of a normal colour," said hatchery manager Dylan Taylor.

"The white lobster is not a true albino, as it doesn't have pink or red eyes and there are faint blue patches visible on its shell. However, white lobsters are very unusual and we will wait and see if this lobster produces another batch of eggs that may produce pale or white young lobsters."

Mr Taylor thinks this lobster is ten to 12 years old. It can now be seen in a tank at the lobster hatchery's visitor centre where it is recuperating after its recent efforts in hatching the eggs.

Soon it is expected to shed its existing shell - a normal event after hatching - and the hatchery staff are excited at the prospect of seeing the new shell's colour.
WMN
 
An Albino Cobra???

OK you snake experts out there, take a look at the picture & newstory here http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/9/7/nation/11968422&sec=nation


So is it really albino?

The town mentioned, Puchong, is quite a distance away, so I am unable to go see for myself :(

King Cobra charms thousands

BY FREDERICK FERNANDEZ AND KHAW CHIA HUI

PUCHONG: Thousands thronged a humble-looking temple here after a five-metre long King Cobra, which appears to be albino and had coiled itself around the Amman deity at its main altar since Monday, became the talk of the town.

The rare spectacle has attracted both the curious and the pious to the 123-year-old Sri Maha Mariamman temple. The people were there not only to catch a glimpse of the snake, but also to offer prayers and “for good luck”.

The multiracial visitors comprised housewives, young girls and office workers, among others.

Some of the devotees offered milk, egg, flowers and even cash after catching a glimpse of the snake and performing prayers at the temple.

Tamilselvai Murugaian, 40, said she decided to have a look at the snake as news about it was “hard to believe” initially.

“I've been here three times since Monday night. I saw its face and I believe I will have some good luck,” she said.

Karen Toh said she rushed to the temple when she heard about the snake from a friend.

“It’s not every day that one gets to see something like this,” said the 52-year-old, who was accompanied by her mother and sister.

K. Shanmuganathan believed that the presence of the King Cobra was a sacred event.

“I personally believe that the snake was heading for the Sri Nageswari deity statue but ended up around the Amman deity statue by chance and decided to remain there to show its usits shakti (powers) and remind us to remain steadfast in our faith,” he said.

M. Gopal, from Rawang, said some of the people were teary-eyed after viewing the snake.

“This is expected as the King Cobra, and this being a rare one, is depicted as a powerful animal in Hindu scriptures.

“Its presence in a place like this, which is surrounded by concrete jungle, highways and vehicles, is probably a wake-up call for many devotees,” said Gopal.

Goh Khoon Leong, a furniture shop owner and a Hindu, said:

“I didn’t believe it at first but when I saw it, I believe there is something spiritual about its unexpected presence at this temple.”

Sorna Kumari, a Form Five student from Taman Sri Muda, Shah Alam, said she took a taxi with two of her classmates to catch a glimpse of the snake.

“My friends and I felt it was a worthwhile trip. We took the opportunity to pray that we will all get through our SPM examination.

“We also placed three bottles of milk as offering,” she said.
 
Rare White Giraffe Spotted in Africa

Rare White Giraffe Spotted in Africa


September 13, 2005—He had only a ghost of a chance, but after more than a decade of searching, a wildlife researcher has captured proof of a white giraffe. In this photo released September 6, the unusual beast and its companions stroll through a wilderness preserve in the African country of Tanzania.
Charles Foley of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) first heard reports of the white giraffe in Tarangire National Park in 1993. For 12 years he kept an eye out for the living legend while conducting his daily business of studying the park's savanna elephant populations.

"By 1994 the sightings stopped coming in, so I assumed it had died, either at the hand of man or beast," Foley said in a WCS press release. "I never stopped looking though."

Foley's diligence paid off when he was conducting an aerial survey of the elephants earlier this month and saw a glimmer of white amid the trees. His photo, taken from a plane flying some 62 miles an hour (100 kilometers an hour), shows a pale giraffe with brown coloring on its legs.

According to Foley, the animal is not a true albino but is merely a lighter color than the average giraffe.

—Victoria Gilma
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news ... raffe.html
 
Is this the season when birds change their feathers?

On my way to work I pass a city-spot where a big troop of crows lives. They make a living begging for bread and tearing up the sacks of garbage that people put out for the garbage van ...

All the time I notice crows with a few white feathers, but recently I've seen crows with big white spots - almost 50% of their wings were white.

I've looked around the internet and the bird-watching sites say that white feathers are related to molting or old age.

Anyone spotted spotty white crows too ?
 
beakboo1 said:
One of my cats is a "chinchilla albino" (I got that from the internet somewhere :confused: ) I'm wondering if that's what makes her such a sickly creature? She has dodgy digestion, she's smaller than her sister, and recently had sore lips (a sort of red Alice Cooper effect) Are they generally of delicate health?

Pointed cats are partially albino, its a completely different gene to chinchilla in cats and the two are rarely mixed as the results aren't too different, a chinchillated pointed cat is not much different to a normal pointed one, just more washy looking so they aren't bred for.

Siamese apparently seem to be very intolerant of milk and dairy products, all pointed cats originally come from Siamese cats from Thailand.
 
uair01 said:
Anyone spotted spotty white crows too ?

No, but it isn't all that uncommon to see "albino" magpies around here. The feathers that would normally be black are light grey.
 
uair01 said:
It's a serious birdwatching site, so these are no photoshop tricks.
but dim amateur bird spotters like me rely on different species having different colours!

how can i tell whether that's an albino jackdaw as opposed to a crow, blackbird, thrush, etc, etc??
 
zothecula said:
uair01 said:
Anyone spotted spotty white crows too ?

No, but it isn't all that uncommon to see "albino" magpies around here. The feathers that would normally be black are light grey.

Most of the crows round my house have some white patches - some more than others. One of them I noticed today seemed to have alternate black and white feathers in his wings when he took off. Very striking. There's also a blackbird that regularly begs for food in the garden that I always recognise by a white patch on his left wing.
 
strictly not albino, but i like the puns:
PRIDE OF BRITAIN
WHITE LIONS BORN HERE
By Emily Miller 08/02/2007

IT should be a job for a cub reporter - checking out the first white lions to be born in the UK.

Caspar and his sisters Kiara, Lara and Toto are thriving under the watchful eyes of their parents Maryn and Mabuto.

They are an exclusive lot - there are no more than 130 white lions in the world.

The cubs go on show for the first time this weekend in the West Midlands Safari Park at Bewdley, Worcs. Deputy head keeper Angela Porter said: "They're full of fun. One of their favourite pastimes is to jump all over their dad."

The lions are not albinos. They have leucism, which means their eyes have pigment.

Sunburn is more of danger than for normal lions. So maybe they are better off in Britain.
http://tinyurl.com/2gd77r
 
Albino seal to go back to the sea

A rare albino seal pup, rescued off the coast of Lincolnshire, is expected to be released back into the sea at the end of February.
The seal was washed up on a beach near Sutton-on-Sea in December.

Staff at the Natureland Seal Sanctuary in Skegness have nursed the seal, which they have called Whitebeam, back to full health.

He was suffering from lungworm which affected his ability to dive underwater to catch fish.

Sunburn worries

Duncan Yeadon, from the sanctuary, said the pup's chances of survival would not be affected by it being an albino.

"He hasn't been picked on in the pool here by any of the other seals, so I don't think there's any danger of that," he said.

"As far as the sunburn angle on albinos is concerned, I don't think that affects the seals so much because it's white fur rather than white skin.

"And with him being in the water all the time as well, it's not really going to affect him, so he should be fine."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/linc ... 354255.stm
 
'Disgust' over white stag death

The shooting of an extremely rare white stag has been described by South West farmers as "disgusting".
The animal's carcass was found headless after being shot by a poacher on the Devon and Cornwall border.

Farmers and gamekeepers had kept quiet about the stag's whereabouts for years in an attempt to protect him.

Warrener Pat Carey, whose job is to cull red deer in the area, said there has been a spate of poaching in the area in the past few weeks.

'Beyond words'

Mr Carey, who has filmed the white stag many times during the rutting season, told BBC News the magnificent animal was "sacred" in his view.

"There are so many red deer and they do need to be controlled, but to go and shoot this creature is beyond words," he said.

"It's got to be a heartless person to be able to look at that beautiful creature through the telescopic sight of a high-powered rifle and just end its life."

It is thought the poacher may have sold the head and antlers of the white stag, which is thought to have been about nine years old.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/7064650.stm
 
Almost spooky, this:

Sighting of rare white deer calf

A white deer calf has been spotted in Devon, just weeks after local farmers were outraged by the killing of a white stag in the area.
The body of the white stag - thought to have been the only one living wild in Britain - was found hanging in a yard.

Warrener Pat Carey called the white stag Snowy and was distraught at the thought that someone had killed him.

He hopes the sighting of the pure white calf means the rare stag was able to pass on its unusual genes.

'Buttons on head'

Speaking about the night he discovered and filmed the white deer calf, Mr Carey said: "Anybody that had been there with me that night would have just felt they were in magic land.

"The only way to explain it, is like it's been washed in Persil. It was so, so white."

Mr Carey added: "I'm just hoping and praying it's a stag calf, I'm 95% sure it is but I'll know for sure next summer when it's got little buttons on its head.

"But we've got a white one whatever it is and we might be able to start all over again."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/7073122.stm
 
Japan might kill world's only white whale
By Nick Squires in Sydney
Last Updated: 3:01pm GMT 12/11/2007

Australians fear that the world's only known white humpback whale could be slaughtered as Japan's whaling fleet prepares to embark on its annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.

The unique male whale, named Migaloo - an Aboriginal word for "white fella" - has become a celebrity in Australia since being spotted for the first time in 1991.

Each year Migaloo - along with thousands of other humpbacks - migrates from the icy seas of Antarctica to the warm shallows of the South Pacific and the Great Barrier Reef.

A few months later the whales, the females leading their newly-born calves, return to Antarctica.

The arrival of 45ft-long Migaloo - believed to be the only completely white humpback in the world - is keenly anticipated by whale watchers along Australia's east coast.

He has been hailed as modern day Moby Dick, even though the creature in Herman Melville's 1851 classic was a sperm whale.

Conservationists fear that Migaloo is so accustomed to whale watching and fishing boats, that he will be easy pickings for Japanese hunters.

With the southern hemisphere summer approaching, the Japanese whaling fleet is preparing to leave port within days. It refuses to say exactly when.

It has declared that for the first time it will kill 50 humpbacks, as well as 50 fin whales and hundreds of minke whales.

The Japanese argue that after decades of hunting fin and humpback whales have recovered to sufficient levels that they can now withstand being harpooned again.

The Fisheries Agency in Tokyo refused to rule out killing Migaloo today, with officials offering a blunt "no comment" to media inquiries.

Instead the agency called on Australia and New Zealand to ensure that the Japanese fleet would be protected from anti-whaling ships operated by a militant environmental group, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.

Last year Sea Shepherd threatened to ram the Japanese fleet with a ship fitted with a bulldozer-type blade. The group has been branded environmental terrorists by Tokyo.

"Those two countries maintain the same position as Japan does against the violent action of terrorists," spokesman Hideki Moronuki told ABC Radio.

"[We] need support from those two countries in order to secure the safety of our crews and (our ships)."

But the captain of Sea Shepherd's two vessels, Paul Watson, said he had the law on his side because whale hunting was illegal.

"They're targeting endangered species in a whale sanctuary in violation of a global moratorium on whaling.

"If Japan reacts violently to us, causes any injury at all to any of our people, that will backlash very severely on Japan because Japan is the criminal nation here," he said.

Japan uses a loophole in International Whaling Commission laws to hunt around 1,000 whales each year in the Southern Hemisphere, ostensibly for the purposes of scientific research.

People who have encountered Migaloo on his epic journey of migration describe the sight as a once in a lifetime experience.

"He turned the blue water around him jade-green for two or three metres," one awe-struck Australian whale-watch operator said of a sighting two years ago.

Scientists are uncertain whether Migaloo is a true albino, or simply has white pigmentation.

In a sign of how healthy the population of humpbacks has become, a female and her calf paid a short visit to Sydney Harbour today.

The pair was noticed entering the harbour from the sea by passengers on a passing ferry and spent about three hours in sheltered waters before continuing their journey south.

http://tinyurl.com/2ah6uo
 
Birdwatcher spots rare white-breasted robin

An extremely rare white-breasted robin has been spotted in a garden in Dorset. The bird has a condition called leucism, which involves a lack of red pigment. This makes its breast white and its brown colours slightly lighter than usual. Tony Whitehead from the RSPB said, "From the back it looks normal but the front on you can see the white goes right under its breast. It is a very rare thing. I have been birdwatching for 30 years and I have never seen one of these before. Albinism is genetic so maybe one of this bird's grandparents or great grandparents showed some form of albinism."
Martin Hodgson
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story ... 64,00.html

How very unseasonal!
 
Brazil's rare alligators 'stolen'
By Gary Duffy
BBC News, Sao Paulo

Police in Brazil are investigating the disappearance of seven rare albino alligators from a university zoo in the western state of Mato Grosso.
One theory is that they may have been stolen to be sold abroad.

The animals, said by officials to be worth around $10,000 (£5,070) each, have no skin pigment and their eyes are a distinctive pink.

The seven alligators disappeared from the zoo at the Federal University in Mato Grosso, Brazil's TV Globo reported.

They were last seen when they were fed on New Year's Eve, but they were missing when a zoo official went to feed them again on Wednesday morning.

Police say there was no sign of a break-in at the zoo which contains more than 800 animals spread across 11 hectares (27 acres) hectares of parkland.

The alligators were said to be young with an average age of around two years, and only one albino alligator is now left at the zoo.

Police say the rarity of the alligator will make the investigation difficult as the people involved in the illegal trading of such rare species are very secretive.

The apparent theft also highlights a wider problem.

Animal rights activists say Brazil accounts for 10% of the world's illegal trade in animals, mainly parrots and other birds, which are often sold in Europe and the United States.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7170946.stm
 
Rare albino penguin sighting in Antarctica
Last Updated: 2:09am GMT 09/01/2008

He doesn't so much stand out from his brothers as get lost in the snow.

This is an albino Adelie penguin - an extremely rare sight.

Very few of the pure-white birds survive for long because they tend to be picked on by other penguins.

This one was captured on camera by photographer Brett Jarrett at Cape Denison, a rocky point at the head of Commonwealth Bay in Antarctica.

The Cape - officially the windiest place at sea level with daily average wind speeds in excess of 60mph and gusts of more than 185mph - was the base for the Australian explorer Douglas Mawson on his Antarctic expedition from 1911 to 1914.

The Mawson's Huts Foundation is raising funds to preserve Baltic pine and Oregon huts at the Cape which were used by the expedition team.

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