Most Amazing Melanistic Animals
1. Lizards
Melanistic Eastern Blue Tongue Skink (Tiliqua scincoides scincoides).
Melanistic Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel; there are still a few of these squirrels
in the area from periods when fires had been frequent. Melanism is just an extreme pigment mutation that causes deeply dark-colored animals.
In recent weeks, two very stunning black lion photographs have been circulating
online. Why they attract such interest is that according to mainstream zoology,
black lions simply do not exist. If they did, and were wholly black in color, they
would most probably be melanistic specimens; analogous if not homologous
genetically with black panthers (melanistic leopards) and mutant all-black
individuals of other felid species.
Sadly, for those hoping that these two photos therefore represented some
major crypto zoological discovery, the reality, as is true ever more frequently
nowadays, is that they are nothing more than Photo shopped images.
Photographer R.M.Buquoi shot these pictures of a rare black fawn in Austin, Texas.
An extremely rare all-black penguin was photographed near Antartica by
Andrew Evans of National Geographic. The king penguin doesn't look
like his tuxedoed counterparts because of what one scientist described
as a "one-in-a-zillion kind of mutation."
The Silver Fox is a melanistic form of red fox. Melanism is an undue development
of dark-colored pigment in the skin, and is the opposite of albinism. Silver foxes
display a great deal of pelt variation: some are completely black, save for the
white tail tip, while others may be bluish-grey. Wild silver foxes do not
reproduce exclusively with members of the same coat morph, and can be
littermates with the common red variety.
Two Plains Zebras, one with a rare dark melanistic coloration at
Etosha National Park, Namibia.
8. Seal
Melanistic seal pup in Shetland UK. Courtesy of Hillswick Wildlife.
9. Jaguar
Black Panther - a typical melanistic color of any species of big cats.
In Latin America, a Black Panther is just a melanistic jaguar;
in Asia and Africa it's a black leopard, and in North America
it may be black jaguars or pumas. By the way, it has been proven
that black cats have a more balanced nervous system and faster
response than other colors of cats. In the photo: Jaguar-melanistic.
10. Tortoise
Red foot melanistic tortoise.
Syed Abdul Qadeer Jaffery
Cost Control Dept.
P O Box 9887 Jeddah 21423
Saudi Arabia
Phone: +966 2 6400 004 Extn 5440
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