Join our zoo community

Mutations

Discussion in 'General Zoo Discussion' started by Vulpes, 6 May 2010.

  1. Vulpes

    Vulpes Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    1 Oct 2008
    Posts:
    668
    Location:
    London, UK
    A lot of people wont like this thread but I thought it would be interesting if we all posted some pictures of unusual coloured animals that they have seen, online, in zoos, or in the wild! not just your typical white tigers or albino burmese pythons.

    here are a couple Ive come across that I thought were unusual.

    [​IMG]

    White Bison

    [​IMG]

    Moose

    [​IMG]

    Piedbald deer

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Anybody know where this little chimp is now?

    [​IMG]

    Albino Macaque
     
  2. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    Those are really cool, especially the moose and chimpanzee. Great thread. When I get home tonight and have access to my pictures, I will post a couple (hypomelanistic diamondback, leucistic serval, maybe others).
     
  3. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    I just noticed, the chimpanzee has one brown eye and one blue eye!
     
  4. Maguari

    Maguari Never could get the hang of Thursdays. 15+ year member Premium Member

    Joined:
    12 Oct 2007
    Posts:
    5,387
    Location:
    Chesterfield, Derbyshire
  5. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    20,707
    Location:
    england
    The white Moose is fabulous.
    Do you know what species the 2nd deer photo is of? (It almost looks like a domestic mutant but I'm sure its not).

    the semi 'albino' chimpanzee died AFAIK.

    From memory I've seen the following Albinos(or other mutants) in zoos;
    Gorilla
    Rhesus Monkey
    Mona Monkey
    Lechwe
    Elephant(Dusit Zoo, Bangkok- wasn't really white though)
    Jackdaw
    Rook (cinnamon)
    Blackbird
    Cornsnakes/Python
    Brown Bear(postcard of one in Berlin)
    Lion
    Tiger
     
  6. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    The pale cheetah was photographed in the Sahara by the late Alain Dragesco-Joffe. Normally I would not post a photo taken by someone else, but when I was going to use this for a zoo talk I made several attempts to contact his publisher in Switzerland and even talked to the IUCN Cat Group and got nowhere. Since the photographer is deceased and I tried my best, I feel comfortable posting it.

    I will do a followup post with the location of the other shots here, all of which were taken by me (except the aforementioned cheetah).

    As instructed, I have not included obvious ones like king cheetah, white or golden tiger, white lion, white alligator, red jaguarundi (all of which I have).
     

    Attached Files:

    • 001.jpg
      001.jpg
      File size:
      34.5 KB
      Views:
      67
    • 002.jpg
      002.jpg
      File size:
      43.2 KB
      Views:
      53
    • 003.jpg
      003.jpg
      File size:
      43.7 KB
      Views:
      41
    • 004.jpg
      004.jpg
      File size:
      49.4 KB
      Views:
      32
    • 005.jpg
      005.jpg
      File size:
      45 KB
      Views:
      37
    • 006.jpg
      006.jpg
      File size:
      38.3 KB
      Views:
      31
  7. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    Ok, so you can only do 6 attachments at a time and I wanted to do 9, so here are the next three.
     

    Attached Files:

    • 007.jpg
      007.jpg
      File size:
      30.2 KB
      Views:
      22
    • 008.jpg
      008.jpg
      File size:
      60.1 KB
      Views:
      27
    • 009.jpg
      009.jpg
      File size:
      57 KB
      Views:
      28
  8. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    Here are the names and locations (in order):

    Cheetah - pale form (Saharan desert)
    Spectacled Bear - semi leucistic?? (Houston Zoo)
    Serval - leucistic (Big Cat Rescue)
    Indian Peafowl - leucistic (Reid Park Zoo)
    Pampas Cat - melanistic (Cincinnati Zoo)
    Vermillion Flycatcher - leucistic (Sweetwater Wetlands)
    American Bullfrog - amelanistic (Nashville Zoo)
    Aruba Island Rattlesnake - amelanistic & typical (San Diego Zoo)
    Coyote - melanistic (Fort Worth Zoo)
     
  9. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    20,707
    Location:
    england
    I would say this Spectacled Bear just shows a more extreme 'spectacle' marking of white on the face, than most. (I think on the other side it has a black patch marking over the eye). I wouldn't term it Leucistic because of this.
     
  10. ^Chris^

    ^Chris^ Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    13 May 2007
    Posts:
    676
    Location:
    UK
    A very famous one in the UK, I know, but I thought I'd get the first photo of it in. (Shame about the smear of algae on its breast!)
    Albino Black-footed penguin, Bristol, 2004.

    On a side note, as a child I once caught a wild, adult common shrew that was completely albino. A great animal, but sadly no photo of it!
     
  11. Vulpes

    Vulpes Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    1 Oct 2008
    Posts:
    668
    Location:
    London, UK
    some great pictures there, I found a couple of more:

    [​IMG]

    Piebald squirrel

    [​IMG]

    Piebald Reticulated python, this is a wild caught mutation and is going to be used in future captive breeding.

    [​IMG]

    Piebald moose

    Does anybody know if there are any piebald deer in the UK?
     
    birdsandbats likes this.
  12. Meaghan Edwards

    Meaghan Edwards Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    20 Mar 2008
    Posts:
    1,294
    Location:
    Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
    I took this picture of a partially albino (?) or pied American Robin at the Royal Boctanical Gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. I apologize for the poor quality. I used the wrong setting :p
     
    Last edited: 8 May 2010
  13. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    You are probably right. One interesting note which is not visible in this photo is that both of its rear paws were also white.
     
  14. Arizona Docent

    Arizona Docent Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    10 Feb 2009
    Posts:
    7,702
    Location:
    Arizona, USA
    Speaking of spectacled bears, I forgot about this reddish one from The National Zoo (DC).
     

    Attached Files:

  15. pinkback

    pinkback Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    22 Apr 2010
    Posts:
    80
    Location:
    London, England
    The most interesting collection of albino animals I have seen is in a museum of natural history in Moscow. Most of the European mammals were represented and many bird species. I remember particularly the Lynx, Otter and Mole, Diver and all the European species of tit.

    p.s. The albino Lechwe at Newquay was euthanized two years ago due arthritis and other age related problems.
     
  16. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    20,707
    Location:
    england
    That puts a different slant on it perhaps.. and makes it a more unusual bear. I wonder whether they occur in the wild like that?
     
  17. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    20,707
    Location:
    england
    Do you know if that's a UK (grey) squirrel?

    Regarding Piebald Deer;

    I have seen photos of 'bald-faced' Red deer when they have a blaze or white face. They can also occur as a white(cream) phase occassionally both captive(there was/is a small herd in Bramshill Park near Basingstoke) and wild (as in occassional individuals on the Quantock Hills and elsewhere).

    Fallow-White Fallow are well known but I have only ever seen 'pied' fallow at Woburn(deer Park)- they have a silver/pastel blue mutation in their herds, which is not seen elsewhere. Some of these are really white deer with 'blue' patches, but I've not seen this broken pattern in any of the other colours they have there.

    I've seen photos of 'pied' European Roe Deer but not from the UK.
     
  18. Vulpes

    Vulpes Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    1 Oct 2008
    Posts:
    668
    Location:
    London, UK
    It is curious how the pied mutation surfaces in different species, it seems to be a trait associated with domestication. I wonder have the American deer wen through a bottle neck in the population to show this trait?

    Im sure most of you have read about the experiments of Dmitry Belyaev a Russian geneticist. He bred silver foxes for their tameness and after only 10 generations, mutations began to appear such as piebald!

    The animal in picture A is a pure bred silver fox Vulpes vulpes however you would be forgiven for thinking it was a collie pup or some sort of dog fox hybrid!

    [​IMG]


    I was interested to hear about an albino otter so I googled it and came across this most impressive photograph of one

    [​IMG]

    Dont West Midlands have white lechwe?
     
  19. Pertinax

    Pertinax Well-Known Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    5 Dec 2006
    Posts:
    20,707
    Location:
    england
    The piebald(!!!:eek:) silver fox does look quite 'border-collie-ish'. Its also Interesting how the 'dutch rabbit' pattern with facial blaze etc can occur in quite different species under domestication.

    The White otter is as impressive as the Moose(just smaller). Do you know if its a UK/european one?

    I think(but am not 100% certain) that the White Lechwe which crop up in various UK collections (e.g. West Midlands) are probably all descended from the Chester stock, which carry the white gene.
     
  20. Vulpes

    Vulpes Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    1 Oct 2008
    Posts:
    668
    Location:
    London, UK
    Yes the white facial blaze seems to be very much associated with domestication. Infact I have also come across this in Arctic foxes. A domestic mutation known as a shadow fox on the fur farms exhibits this trait

    Im not sure if this mutation also appears in teh wild? this photo looks like it was taken in the wild

    [​IMG]