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Leucism and Leucistic Birds & Animals & other Colour Variations
01/04/2008 16:52:40
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.
This occassionaly causes very excited biologists to think they have discovered a new species, when in fact leucism is the cause of the unusual markings they have seen.
White giraffe seen in Botswana. Send us your photos of any leucistic, albino, melanistic or erythrisctic animals or birds and we will add them to gallery. Leucistic baboons of the Luangwa Valley. Another reader, Steve Tolan, of the Chipembele Wildlife Education Centre has also seen some leucistic baboons inthe Luangwa Valley. There does seem to be a "leucistic hotspot" in the Luangwa, as we have had several reports of different animals from the beautiful part of the world.
Read more » | Leucistic Elephant seals 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, Nancy 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.
Read more » |
Albino Fallow deer spotted in Sussex
 Volunteer rescuers had a surprise when they went to rescue a deer that was caught in a rope swing in some Sussex woods. To their amazement the deer, a male fallow deer, was completely white and is thought to be a very rare albino.
Read the full story » | Leucistic crow in the lake district
This very unusual leucistic crow was spotted in a garden in Kendall. All white but with black beak, eyes and legs, it is a very striking bird. Read More |
'Golden' lion of South Luangwa July 2008. Egil Droge has sent us some images of a lion cub with very unusual colouring in the South Luangwa.
Click here to see more images. Golden lion seen again in 2009, more images here. | Leucistic Robin on London's Hampstead Heath This leucistic robin was seen for the first time a few days before Christmas. The almost all-white bird has a patch of red and some brown too but is mostly snowy white.
Details. |
leucustic zebra - Tanzania This photo was sent in by one of our readers; the zebra was seen in Tanzania.
See a larger image | White baboon, impala & Meve's starling One of our readers works in the Luangwa valley, and he has sent us images of a baboon, an impala and a starling with unusual colouration.
See the images |
Leucistic Ibis, Western scrub jay, western kingbird & American robin The following images were all taken by wildlife photographer Paul Higgins.
Click Leucistic Ibis, American robin, Western kingbird and Western scrub jay to see the images. | Twin leucistic moorhens in north west UK The same pond that provided a leucistic moorhen in 2007 has now provided 2 leucistic chicks in 2008, presumably from the same parents.
More |
More leucistic specimensLeucistic cygnets seen in Hampshire. Details
| Leucistic Fallow deer This fallow deer was seen in Scotland by reader Mark Roach.
Click for larger image. |
leucistic crow Leucistic crow - Keith Marshall. Click leucistic crow for more details. | white impala White 'leucistic' impala seen in South Africa.
Details and more images. |
albino tadpoles Very unusual batches of albino tadpoles found in welsh pond
More details. | albino ratfish A ghostly, mutant ratfish caught off Washington state.
Read more. |
'Snowball' the white baboon This white baboon, probably a leucistic animal, is currently living in South Africa.
More details and photos.
| Leucistic Deer Photographed in early 2008, this leucistic Red deer was seen in the west of Scotland. We have also heard reports of a leucistic deer in the East Midlands.
Read more.
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Leucistic jackdaws April 2008. We recived two reports with photos of leucistc jackdaws in different parts of the UK.
Images and details.
| Leucistic Moorhens In 2007 we received reports and photos of no less than four leucistic moorhens in the UK.
Details and photos.
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Leucistic squirrel
One of our readers sent us a few images of this white squirrel from the North West. Photos and details. | Leucistic Mistle Thrush
This leucistic thrush was seen and photographed in Worcestershire. More details. |
Leucistic buzzard
This white buzzard was seen in Austria early in 2008. More details | Woodpecker showing signs of 'xanthochroism.' A new one on me, but this diagnosis was sent to us by the BTO. This woodpecker was seen on birdfeeders in Yorkshire in 2007.
More details and photos.
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Erythrism
Interestingly in 2006 we were sent photos of an Erythristic badger. Erythrism is apparently a genetic defect that causes plumage/fur to become much more ginger/red than is usual. More details | Albino Killer whale? Very unusual white orca photographed off Alaska.
More |
Albino dolphin off the USA This extremely rare and beautiful ‘pink dolphin' was first spotted in Louisiana.
Read more | White Bearded tit in Lancashire This unusual bird has been seen at the RSPB's Leighton Moss reserve.
Read more. |
Leucistic Great tits. 
| Leucistic egyptian goose in gloucestershire This unusual bird has been seen
at WWT Slimbridge.
Read more. |
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