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Angel the red-tailed hawk is leucistic, which is similar to being albino.Almost 2.5 million rad-tailed hawks call North America home, but one of those birds in Tennessee is changing how scientists think, thanks to her survival story. Angel, the red-tailed hawk, is leucistic, similar to being albino. While an albino animal loses all of its pigmentation, a leucistic animal only loses part; both conditions, scientists say, can lower survival rates. “Back in the early 2000s, scientists and conservation biologists would say that leucistic and albino animals cannot exist in the wild.” Window to Wildlife’s Connor O’Brien said. “It would be...

Anderson Cooper defended CNN’s decision to host Wednesday night’s town hall with former President Donald Trump. Critics ripped the event, which came just a day after a jury in New York found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation in a civil case. Detractors also pointed to the fact that Trump tried to cling to power after losing the 2020 election and incited the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection. Not surprisingly, Trump spent much of the town hall lying about various issues. Cooper opened Thursday’s AC360 by addressing the town hall and the ensuing backlash. “Before we begin with tonight’s...

Dec. 15 (UPI) -- A British Columbia animal shelter announced an unusual "new guest" at its facility -- an albino porcupine. The Northern Lights Animal Sanctuary said in a social media post that the porcupine, dubbed Coconut, was found chewing through hydraulic hoses and electric cables on a Smithers resident's property. The sanctuary said the porcupine is an albino, meaning its body and eyes are completely devoid of pigment. They said the condition is very rare in porcupines. The post said the "new guest" will receive "room service" at the sanctuary for a few months. Sanctuary officials said Coconut will...

A group of albino dolphins broke water and greeted delighted fishermen in the Gulf of Thailand off Songkhla's Sathing Phra district. "SOS", a group on Line messaging app, posted a video clip of the dolphins on Tuesday (Jan 14). The group administrator said three fishermen caught sight of the dolphins in the boundary area between Kradang Nga and Ja Ting Phra subdistricts on Sunday. "The fishermen discovered the group of albino dolphins while they pulled their fishing net onto their boat, believing that the dolphins followed the fish that were caught in the net. Some of the dolphins swam around...

SUDBURY -- A pair of "spirit moose" has once again been spotted along a northern Ontario highway, as the elusive animals returned to the same area where they captured national attention late last year. Sightings of the pair of white moose have been reported online over the last two weeks, showing the cow (female moose) and a calf grazing along the side of Highway 101. (White cow and calf 'spirit moose' seen from Highway 101 in northeastern Ontario. Credit: Jackie Burns Loyer) ==================================================================== Jackie Burns Loyer was recently travelling from Timmins to Chapleau, when she spotted the rare "spirit moose."...

One of the four albino anoles, alongside a non-modified example(Credit: University of Georgia) ============================================================ Although they're commonly known as brown anoles, there are now four Anolis sagrei lizards at a University of Georgia lab that are actually a pale pink color. They're albinos, and are the result of what is reportedly the world's first successful attempt at producing a genetically modified reptile. The research could have implications for human medicine. Lead scientist Douglas Menke chose brown anoles for the study because isolated populations of the lizards are known for independently evolving distinctive traits, on various islands in the Caribbean. Genetically...

JAKARTA: The world's only known albino orangutan has been released back into the jungle more than a year after she was found emaciated and bloody in a remote corner of Borneo, an Indonesian NGO said on Friday (Dec 21). Environmentalists rescued "Alba" from a cage where she was being kept as a pet by villagers in Central Kalimantan in April last year. She was found with dry blood smeared around her nose - the result of her violent capture - and weighed just 8 kilogrammes, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOSF) said. The blue-eyed primate, covered in fuzzy white hair,...

Albino five-year-old girl is snatched in front of her mother and found decapitated after ritual murder for her 'magical' body parts in Mali Armed men abducted Djeneba Diarra from her family home in Fana village, Mali Her mother pursued kidnappers but turned back to protect second alblino child Police launched a hunt and later found the five-year-old's decapitated body Killing was feared to be part of a ritual murder for supposedly magic body partsA five-year-old albino girl has been snatched and beheaded after a ritual murder for her body parts, which are deemed magical in Mali. Armed men abducted Djeneba...

he footage of this albino bull moose is as rare as wildlife footage gets. Since Alaska’s human population is extremely low, an encounters with albino bull moose almost never happen. This rare footage shows what looks like a respectable bull moose still wearing it’s velvety antlers. I Love Alaska originally shared the video on their Facebook page and received a lot of positive feedback. One person commented, “WOW it’s like our own Alaskan unicorn!!” Watch the video below to see this amazing animal for yourself.Video: http://www.wideopenspaces.com/albino-bull-moose-alaska-caught-film/

At least 18 people with albinism have been killed for their body parts in the southern African country of Malawi since November 2014, Amnesty International said in a report released Tuesday. The body parts are sold for use in remedies by witch doctors, who say albino parts bring good luck or wealth, according to the report. It added that women and children are especially vulnerable to attack because of the myth that having sex with a person with albinism can cure HIV/AIDS.

Finally, our distinguished president, our Nobel Peace Prize Laureate has spoken out about the infamous scandal of body parts being trafficked. “It is infuriating and I have no patience for it,” President Obama said in a strong show of righteous indignation. But wait, that was in response to a question about the killing of Albino people in Africa. Of course, he is absolutely right in his visceral reaction against trafficking in body parts for pagan ritual purposes in parts of Africa. And the young African leaders—to their great credit—asked the President to lend his moral authority to their effort to...

NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - At least 15 people with albinism, mostly children, have been killed, wounded, abducted or nearly abducted in East Africa in a surge in violence against albinos in the past six months, the United Nations (U.N.) said on Tuesday. The UN said there has been a marked increase in the number of attacks on albinos in Tanzania, Malawi and Burundi, where their body parts are prized in black magic with three incidents in the past week as gangs roam southern Malawi hunting for them. "These attacks are often stunningly vicious, with children in particular being targeted,"...

AUTHOR Eric C Bartholomew has photographed lots of animals – elephants, tigers, wild boar – but none were as tricky to capture as Thanet's albino squirrel. The 67-year-old scribbler, of St Lawrence Chase, Ramsgate, spotted the white wonder in a park close to Ramsgate's Royal Esplanade on Monday, April 16. Wildlife experts estimate that the odds of a pure white squirrel being born are one in 100,000. Mr Bartholomew, a safari lover, chased the rare rodent around the park for 20 minutes before he got his shot at about 7am. He said: "I was in the right place at the...

GREENVILLE, Texas — Thousands of people came from miles around Wednesday to see and honor a legend in the flesh - the white buffalo born in a thunderstorm on a northeast Texas ranch. The rare white buffalo calf, regarded as sacred by Lakota Sioux tradition, was honored with Native American prayers, religious songs and the solemn smoking of a pipe in a special naming and dedication ceremony at the Lakota Ranch in Greenville, about 50 miles northeast of Dallas. Flag-flying patriotism, a steady Native American drum beat and scorching heat provided the backdrop for the spiritual event that drew about...

SYDNEY (AFP) – Australian wildlife workers on Monday said they had discovered a never-before-seen pair of blue-winged albino kookaburras, believed to have been swept from their nests in a wild storm. The six-week-old birds, renowned for their laughing cry, were found waterlogged at the base of a tree by a cattle farmer near Ravenshoe, in far northern Queensland, said Harry Kunz from the Eagles Nest Wildlife Sanctuary. The pink-eyed, pink-beaked and starkly white creatures, thought to be sisters, are the first specimens of their kind ever found in Australia, Kunz said. They are still too young to feed themselves or...

The dismembered body of a young albino boy has been found in a river on the Burundi-Tanzania border. The boy, aged nine, was taken from his home province in Burundi by a gang that crossed the border. His remains were recovered from the river and given a formal burial. Albino body parts are prized in parts of Africa, with witchdoctors claiming they have special powers.

An extremely rare albino seal has been admitted to the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre Lenie ‘t Hart (SRRC ) in Holland for treatment of a very serious lung infection. The SRRC is a Dutch veterinary hospital that treats and releases seals that have fallen ill rather than euthanizing them. The SRRC has reportedly only treated 6 such seals in the last 40 years. The last albino seal that was treated at the SRRC was treated there 10 years ago. The SRRC is a treatment facility for seals and an education center for visitors from around the world. Seals are...

An 11-year-old albino girl from Swaziland was shot dead in front of her friends and then beheaded in what police believe was a ritual murder.The child had been washing clothes and bathing at a river with friends and was returning home when she was grabbed by a man wearing a balaclava. As her friends looked on, the man shot her in the back before dragging her away. Her headless body was found upriver a short time later. The murder is the latest in a series of albino killings in Sub-Saharan Africa, where sufferers of the rare skin pigmentation condition...

MWANZA, Tanzania, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- A Kenyan man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for tying to sell an albino to witch doctors, officials say. Nathan Mutei was convicted of one count of trafficking in a human being and another for abduction with the intent to murder, a Kenyan newspaper, The Daily Nation, said Friday. Investigators said Mutei, 28, convinced 20-year old Robinson Mkwama he was going to help him find a job, but he really meant to sell him to witch doctors who planned to cut him up and use his body parts in ceremonies. Mutei...

Police raiding a drug den in the Italian capital have been confronted by an aggressive albino python which was used to intimidate addicts. Police had been tipped off that they would find "an animal" during the raid on the apartment in the centre of Rome, and when they opened the door they saw a striped yellow and white snake curled up on a heat mat. The snake, which was three metres long and was kept hungry so that it would be more aggressive, was allowed to roam the apartment to scare addicts into paying for their drugs, police said. Animal...