A
whale-watching guide struck white gold last month when he encountered a rare,
albino gray whale breaching off the west coast of Baja California, Mexico.
Footage
of the whale, which
tour guide and scuba instructor Manuel Gonzalez posted to Facebook in March,
has drawn comparisons to Moby Dick, the white whale of literary legend described
by Herman Melville in 1851. Unlike Moby, who was a gargantuan
sperm whale with an appetite for New England mariner
limbs, the gray whale recorded here was probably just chilling in the area for
its annual
mating season.
Likewise,
the whiteness of this whale is not some overwrought metaphor — it's just
genetics. [The 10
Weirdest Medical Cases in the Animal Kingdom]
Albinism
is a genetic abnormality caused by an absence of the skin pigment melanin, which
is responsible for dark coloration in hair, skin and fur. The condition is
considered rare in most animals, though it has been observed in many different
species, including zebras, snakes, gorillas and dolphins.
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