An animal that cannot generate the pigment melanin in sufficient quantities suffers from a condition called albinism. In such cases, the skin pigments of these animals turn white, and their eyes become pink or bright blue.
While albino animals have a certain beauty to them, albinism can cause severe problems. White is not a common color in the wild, so albino animals are more susceptible to predation. They are also prone to UV radiation poisoning and may have hearing disorders.
List of Famous Albino Animals
1. Alba the Orangutan
Alba Orangutan
Alba was rescued when she was five years old from villagers in Borneo, Indonesia, in 2017. Officials found her dehydrated and infested with parasites and nursed her back to health for over two years. She was finally released in 2018 in Bukit Baka Bukit Raya National Park, a park specializing in protecting orangutans.
2. Alisa the Kangaroo
Alisa Albino Kangaroo
A joey named Alisa was born to two Bennett’s tree-kangaroos in Kazan, Russia, in 2021.
3. Claude the Alligator
Claude the Albino Alligator
Hatched on September 15, 1995, in Louisiana, Claude was at severe risk of dying in the wild due to his albinism. He was brought to the California Academy of Sciences, where he is a major attraction.
Lightning was born to a female antelope appropriately named Thunder during a stormy night. He is the only albino antelope in Scotland and possibly Britain.
Also known as White Cloud, Mahpiya Ska was born on 10th July, 1996, on the Shirek Buffalo Farm in North Dakota. She lived at the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown, North Dakota, for most of her life, where Native Americans would come to see her. Toward the end of her life, Mahpiya Ska was returned to her birth herd and passed away on November 14, 2016.
6. Manukura the Kiwi
Manukura the White Kiwi
Manukara was a North Island brown kiwi born on May 1, 2011, in the Pukaha / Mount Bruce National Wildlife Centre in New Zealand. Her name in Māori means “chiefly status”, which was given to her by the leader of the Rangitāne tribe, Mike Kawana. Initially thought to be male, she was later discovered to be female. She passed away in 2020 after undergoing surgery to remove her ovaries and an unfertilized egg.
While there is some doubt over whether Migaloo is an albino or leucistic, when first spotted in 1991, he was the only known white whale worldwide. In some Aboriginal languages, “Migaloo” means “white fella”.
Migaloo has been given extra protection thanks to his rarity, with large boats and ships fined $16,500 if they come within 500 m of him.
8. Mocha Dick the Sperm Whale
Serving as the inspiration for Herman Melville’s 1851 novel Moby-Dick, Mocha Dick was a male sperm whale seen in the 19th Century. While usually quite docile, as whaling was common during the period, he would be regularly attacked on sight, thanks to his rarity. He was finally slain in 1838, as per explorer Jeremiah N. Reynolds who gathered first-hand accounts of the great beast and published them as a book.
A rare wild albino animal, Pinky was first spotted by a boat captain, Erik Rue, in 2007 in Calcasieu Lake, Louisiana. She has since given birth, with her calf also being an albino.
12. Ruby the Lobster
Ruby Albino Lobster
Ruby, the albino lobster, lives in the Great Yarmouth Sea-Life Centre. The chances of an albino lobster are one in a million.
Arguably one of the most famous albino animals, Snowflake, was captured by a farmer from the Fang tribe named Benito Mañé on October 1, 1966, in the Río Muni region in Spanish Guinea. He would later be sent to a zoo in Barcelona in November of the same year, remaining until he died in 2003. Snowflake would have a huge cultural impact and would father 22 offspring, none of whom were albino but carry the recessive gene for albinism.
14. Snowdrop the Penguin
Snowdrop the Penguin
Snowdrop, an albino African Penguin, was born at Bristol Zoo in England. No other zoo has an albino penguin; only two or three have been spotted in the wild. The keeper noticed that the other penguins in the same enclosure seemed unaware of Snowdrop’s unique color. Snowdrop passed away in August 2004.
15. White Diamond the Alligator
White Diamond Albino Alligator
The only albino alligator in Europe, White Diamond currently resides at the ‘Serengeti’ Safari park in the northern German village of Hodenhagen. While he was born in Louisiana in the U.S. and grew up in Florida, eventually, he was sent to a traveling reptile show.
