Albino animals

Albino animals are very rare in nature, and man has long had a fascination for these creatures since ancient times. Some cultures regard albinos as sacred animals, and they have even been the basis of great legends and folklore. Due to their uniqueness and rarity, albino animals are some of the most valuable attractions in zoological centers and circuses throughout the world. We present 35 of nature’s rarest albino, leucistic, and white creatures to you.

Leucistic animals are often mistaken as being albino creatures, such as white lions. Leucism is a condition similar to albinism, characterized by reduced pigmentation in general and can also affect distribution of pigment on the hair shaft, but unlike albinism, it’s caused by a reduction in all types of skin pigment, not just melanin. Chinchilla and other mutations can also cause white animals, such as some of the animals depicted here, including white peacocks, and white tigers, which are typically white rather than albino.

Albinism is a form of hypopigmentary congenital disorder, characterized by a partial or total lack of melanin pigment in the eyes, skin, and hair. Albinism results from inheritance of recessive alleles (genes), and the condition is known to affect mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, and amphibians.

Albinism is hereditary and cannot be transmitted through blood transfusions or other vectors. The principal gene which results in albinism prevents the body from making the usual amounts of the pigment melanin. Most forms of albinism are the result of the biological inheritance of genetically recessive genes passed from both parents of an individual, though some rare forms are inherited from only 1 parent.

The chance of offspring with albinism resulting from the pairing of one with albinism and another without albinism is low, but because organisms can be carriers of genes for albinism without exhibiting any traits, albinistic offspring can be produced by 2 non-albinistic parents. Albinism usually occurs with equal frequency in both genders with the exception of ocular albinism, because it’s passed on to offspring through X-linked inheritance. Therefore males more frequently have ocular albinism since they don’t have a second X chromosome.

The lack of enough dark pigment melanin also makes the skin unusually sensitive to sunlight and thus susceptible to sunburn from the sun’s UV rays. Lack of melanin in the eye also results in problems with vision, related to photosensitivity.

Most humans and many animals with albinism appear white or very pale. In some animals, especially albinistic birds and reptiles, ruddy and yellow hues or other colors may be present on the entire body or in patches due to the presence of other pigments unaffected by albinism, as well as carotenoid pigments derived from the diet. Some animals are white or pale due to pigment cell defects, do not lack melanin production, and have normal eyes — referred to as leucistic.

The eyes of an animal with albinism occasionally appear red due to the underlying retinal blood vessels showing through where there is not enough pigment to cover them. This is rare humans, as a human eye is quite large and thus produces enough pigment to lend opacity to the eye, often coloring the iris pale blue. There are cases however in which the eyes of albinistic people appear red or purple, depending on the amount of pigment present.

Those with albinism usually have impaired vision due to one or more conditions. While a person with albinism may suffer from nearsightedness, farsightedness, photophobia or light sensitivity, the visual problems particularly associated with albinism arise from a poorly-developed retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) due to the lack of melanin.

The albinistic are generally as healthy as the rest of their species, and the condition by itself does not cause mortality.

Many animals with albinism lack their protective camouflage and are unable to conceal themselves from their predators or prey, thus their survival rate in the wild is usually quite low. However the novelty of albino animals has occasionally led to their protection by groups such as the Albino Squirrel Preservation Society.

Intentionally-bred albinistic strains of some animal species are commonly used as laboratory animals in biomedical study and experimentation such as rats, rabbits, axolotls, zebrafish, and frogs. The incidence of albinism can be artificially increased in fish by exposing the eggs to heavy metals.

A common misconception is that albinistic individuals of a species are sterile, but they are in fact fully capable of reproducing. Many also believe that people with albinism live short life spans. This is not true in general, but may be a distorted view of a more reasonable fact that people with albinism have a higher risk of skin cancer if they don’t use proper protection from the sun. It has also been misunderstood that those with albinism will become blind halfway through life, which is incorrect.

Leucism is a general term for the phenotype resulting from defects in pigment cell differentiation and / or migration from the neural crest to skin, hair, or feathers during development. This results in either the entire surface — if all pigment cells fail to develop — or patches of body surface having a lack of cells capable of making pigment.

Since all pigment cell-types differentiate from the same multipotent precursor cell-type, leucism can cause the reduction in all types of pigment. This is in contrast to albinism, for which leucism is often mistaken. Albinism results in the reduction of melanin production only, though the melanocyte is still present. Thus in species that have other pigment cell-types, albinos are not entirely white, but instead display a pale yellow color.

A further difference between albinism and leucism is in eye color. Due to the lack of melanin production in both the RPE and iris, albinos often have red eyes due to the underlying blood vessels showing through, in contrast to leucistic animals which have normally colored eyes

About 1 in 17,000 human beings has some type of albinism, although up to 1 in 70 is a carrier of albinism genes