An albino sea turtle has just been born in Australia: this is a very rare phenomenon for this species
A very nice albino turtle was born in Australia, on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, at Castaways Beach. Discovered by volunteers from Coolum and North Shore Coast Care, this is the first sighting in more than nine years of monitoring the beach.
Experts were checking the nests on the beach when this one jumped out very small turtle "White with pink fins" from what they believed was an empty nest.
Group chairman Leigh Warneminde says that at first it looked like a normal little green turtle, but closer inspection revealed that it “had a white shell and had small white fins. And you could see a little pink under his fins “.
In short, it is a very rare discovery and if, generally, only one green turtle out of a thousand survives to maturity, the chances for an albino specimen are necessarily lower. Their "unusual" appearance, in fact, it does not allow them to blend in with their surroundings, so they end up being much easier prey.
"Albino babies are extremely rare," volunteers explain. And such a thing "occurs at the rate of one in many hundreds of thousands of eggs."
That of the sea turtle is certainly not the first nor the last example of albino animals. From monkeys to squirrels, from hedgehogs to snakes, albinism is a genetic defect that affects many species and Nature is always ready to amaze us!
Germana Carillo
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