Leucistic sea turtle
Kosgoda
Sri Lanka
This is the oldest Conservation and Research project started in Sri Lanka in early 1978. It was at a time when all 7 species of sea turtles were on the Endangered list. Of the 7 species, 5 of the species were found to be frequenting the beaches of the southern coast of Sri Lanka where they beached, to lay their eggs. These eggs were collected by the villagers and sold in the open market.
It was about this time when the famous Swedish camera maker Victor Hasselblad whose cameras were the first to be used on the moon, came into the picture. He happened to be a close friend of the highly renowned Sri Lankan bird photographer, Dr Upane de Zylva , and Victor, having similar interests in photography, had made a donation through Dr Zylva to be used in any form of conservation and research, in Sri Lanka.
Albinism and leucism are two types of color mutations involving color loss producing different phenotypes. There are different definitions of leucism, with some authors referring to it as partial albinism
However, true albinos are easily differentiated, because they lack pigmentation and feature red or pinkish eyes, while leucistic animals have reduced/absent coloration but with normal eye pigmentation (Krecsak 2008; Turner 2011).
They referred to this turtle as albino,but I guess this one is rather leucistic than albino as the eyes were dark and not red or pinkish.
Leucistic sea turtle
Kosgoda
Sri Lanka
This is the oldest Conservation and Research project started in Sri Lanka in early 1978. It was at a time when all 7 species of sea turtles were on the Endangered list. Of the 7 species, 5 of the species were found to be frequenting the beaches of the southern coast of Sri Lanka where they beached, to lay their eggs. These eggs were collected by the villagers and sold in the open market.
It was about this time when the famous Swedish camera maker Victor Hasselblad whose cameras were the first to be used on the moon, came into the picture. He happened to be a close friend of the highly renowned Sri Lankan bird photographer, Dr Upane de Zylva , and Victor, having similar interests in photography, had made a donation through Dr Zylva to be used in any form of conservation and research, in Sri Lanka.
Albinism and leucism are two types of color mutations involving color loss producing different phenotypes. There are different definitions of leucism, with some authors referring to it as partial albinism
However, true albinos are easily differentiated, because they lack pigmentation and feature red or pinkish eyes, while leucistic animals have reduced/absent coloration but with normal eye pigmentation (Krecsak 2008; Turner 2011).
They referred to this turtle as albino,but I guess this one is rather leucistic than albino as the eyes were dark and not red or pinkish.