Leucistic Elephant seal

Elephant seal seen on Prion Island off the northeast coast of South Georgia. Copyright N. Spruance

Despite the recent claim by the BBC that a white elephant seal seen in 2008 on Marion Island was the first confirmed sighting of a leucistic elephant seal, one of our readers, N. Spruance, has sent us a photo of a leucistic Elephant seal that she saw on Prion Island, off the northeast coast of South Georgia, way back in November 2003.

Leucism (or Leukism)
Leucism is a very unusual condition whereby the pigmentation cells in an animal or bird fail to develop properly. This can result in unusual white patches appearing on the animal, or, more rarely, completely white creatures.

Albinism is a different condition. The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is that in albinism the eyes are usually pink or red, and albinism affects the entire animal, not just patches.

Click here to see our gallery of leucistic animals and birds from around the world. Includes Giraffe, deer, Killer whale, moorhen, fish, baboon, lion, squirrels and tadpoles.

Courtesy of N Spruance