Robot Claw

My mum asked me to make a post about my favourite animal…

That’s a very rare albino kangaroo, photographed about a year ago near Canberra.

That’s another one in a pack in outback NSW. As you can see, the other roos don’t seem to mind him 🙂

Albino kangaroos are rare for two reasons. First the genetic defect is rare, and secondly their susceptibility to the extreme Australian heat leads to short life expectancy.

Thankfully – and for obvious reasons – zoos and wildlife parks take good care of albinos when they receive them and they can live long and happy lives in captivity. An albino kangaroo in Denmark even became a mother to (non albino) joeys 🙂

Since I’m on the topic, here’s some more albino Australians:

Both the Koala and the Kookaburra are in captivity. The Emu photo looks like it was taken years ago, but there are also albino emu in captivity.

Australia’s (probably the worlds?) most famous albino is of course Migaloo:

He’s a male Humpback Whale, believed to be 28 years old this year, who lives on the east coast of Australia and is sighted every year as he makes his annual migration. Up until 2011 he was believed to be the only albino humpback in the world, but now a second has emerged (‘Migaloo Junior’, although they are unrelated). Migaloo is a national treasure, and protected by Australian law. I’d love to see him one day 🙂

 

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 4th, 2014 at 9:46 am and is filed under Animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.