Unusually white-colored animals are making headlines a lot lately, such as a white great white shark that washed up on an Australian beach and a white giraffe that resides in a zoo in Tanzania.
From what it looks like, Australia has been hit once again with yet another rare sighting of an all-white animal; this time, it comes by way of a green sea turtle, which is anything but green.
The all-white green sea turtle suffers from albinism, a defect of the skin pigment that causes a white coloration because the pigment is unable to produce any or enough melanin. It’s different from the shark and giraffe because they suffer from a similar disorder called leucism.
The white sea turtle was found at Castaways Beach, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast and was just hatched. It has been given the name Alby and is just one of the 122 hatchlings that were born recently on the beach.
The Coolum District Coast Care Group discovered the turtle and took many photographs that they then shared to the group’s Facebook page.
Meet Alby, the first ever albino Green turtle we have come across in our 9 years of turtle monitoring. Alby was born at...
Posted by Coolum District Coast Care Group on Sunday, February 7, 2016
A couple more photos of Alby- Thanks to John and Danny Bird and (Kim- turtle track spotter extraordinaire) and Susan!
Posted by Coolum District Coast Care Group on Sunday, February 7, 2016
Leigh Warneminde, the president of the group, notes that the discovery was a huge surprise and that it’s a rare event she’s not seen before. Warneminde also explains that it’s typical for just 1 out of 1,000 sea turtles to successfully survive to maturity, and with this disorder, Alby stands even less of a chance.
Not only is the condition going to make life rough because of sunlight exposure, but the sea turtle’s bright color also makes it a prime target for predators that will see it easily because of its inability to blend in with its surroundings.
Source: CNN
