A newlywed couple went to the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa with their family and friends on April 4. One of the projects they are most looking forward to is the whale watching boat trip to the marine wildlife hotspot of Algoa Bay, which allows them to directly watch wild marine wild mammals.

The newlyweds may have filled up their lucky buffs, but they actually saw a pure white dolphin not long after they arrived at the sea. It and its companions swam happily in the ocean, not caring about the distance. Humans' surprised gazes.

According to the groom Edwards' recollection, they saw a group of 200 dolphins at that time It was tumbling repeatedly in the water and on the sea surface, and mixed in was a beautiful dolphin. It must have been underage, and it was much smaller than other dolphins. The captain of the whale watching boat, Lloyd Edwards, said that he had been working for nearly 20 years and this was the first time he saw a white bottlenose dolphin.

This is the first time on record that an albino bottlenose dolphin has been seen in Africa. An expert is interested in this matter. Based on the observation of the photos, he believes that this little dolphin is just a cub. It should be only one month old and about 1 meter long. It is likely to be a real albino patient.

Albino bottlenose dolphin?

Most of the animals’ skin, fur, feathers and eyes, which appear to be colored, require melanin, but a genetic disease like albinism blocks the production of melanin. , in this case, the sick animals will appear unnaturally white and have pink eyes.

But there is no way to confirm whether this dolphin is really albinism, because albinism is often confused with leukoplakia, which also prevents individual cells from producing melanin, but not so completely, so albinism Animals with the disease may be completely white or dark yellow, or they may have patches of both mixed with the normal color.

These photos are very clear, but the color of the dolphin's eyes cannot be seen clearly, so it is difficult to determine whether it is white.For patients with diabetes, genetic testing is the only way to be sure.

The dangers of albinism

The animals in this case resist Without sunlight, it is easy to get melanoma, vision will be affected, and they may be abnormally sensitive to light or even blind. Moreover, because of their special color matching, they become very conspicuous, which is a sight for predators. As a result, albinism significantly reduces an animal's chances of survival, which is why albinism remains very rare in the wild and more common in zoos and aquariums.

But the situation may be different for dolphins.

Dolphins communicate and hunt through sound. Even if this little white dolphin has low eyesight, it will not have much impact on its life; and there are very few predators that can hunt dolphins. Therefore, it is much safer than other abnormally white animals. In addition, unless its future partner also has the albino gene, the future offspring of this individual will be normal dolphin colors.