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Sunday, 22 July 2012

16 ODDLY COLOURED CREATURES


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You may be familiar with these animals, but maybe not their range of colours. No need get your eyes checked. Nature's just messing with you.

1. Blue Lobster

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Image source: wallz.eu

Approximately 1 in 2 million lobsters is blue. [More information]

2. Purple Squirrel

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Percy and Connie Emert of Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania [USA] caught a purple squirrel in February, 2012. [More information from: 6abc.com, Wikipedia.]

3. Pink Bottlenose Dolphin

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Image source: udalosti.noviny.sk

In 2009, this pink dolphin was discovered in a Louisiana lake [USA]. [More information from: The Guardian, Squidoo, The Fact Site.]

4. All-Black Penguins

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Very little is known about all-black penguins because they are extremely rare. [More information from: National Geographic Traveler, Daily Mail.] [Video]

5. Pink Katydid

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Image source: bugguide.net

The naturally green katydids become pink due to a condition called erythrism. [More information from: The Ark In Space, Science Blogs, Audubon Nature Institute.]

6. White Peacock

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Image source: fanpop.com

This peacock is not an albino; it is a rare white variant of its normally colourful counterpart. [More information from: Treehugger, eHow.] [The White Peacock Blog]

7. Neon Blue Garter Snake

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Image source: vabbley

Wild populations of these brightly-coloured fellows exist in San Francisco [USA]. [More information]

8. Pink Turtle

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"Caramel Pinks" are a colour morph of red-eared sliders. Image source: forum.sina.com.hk.

9. White Monarch Butterflies

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White Monarch Butterflies are a naturally occurring, but rare variant of the standard orange Monarch. This colour appears in roughly 1% of the Monarch population. [More information from: Monarch Watch | Update.]

10. Purple Corn Snakes

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Corn snakes are normally red with orange saddle marks, but there are a variety of corn snake colour morphs ranging from fluorescent orange to purple. Image source: desmond.imageshack.us/via: imageshack.us.

11. Green Sloths

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Image source: 25.media.tumblr.com/via: bog-burial

Sloths sometimes appear to be green because their fur is an ideal environment for blue-green algae. Unlike most fur-bearing animals, sloths' fur will absorb water, which encourages algae to grow and impart a green hue. Click here to read more about a Finnish study on the symbiotic relationship between sloths and algae. [More information from: Animal Review, Deoxy.]

12. Yellow Lobsters

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Image source: www2.tbo.com

Denny Ingram, pictured above, caught this yellow lobster in Newport, Rhode Island. Approximately 1 in every 30 million lobsters is yellow. [More information]

13. Blue Tree Frogs

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Image source: herpfrance.com

Hyla meridionalis, the Mediterranean Tree Frog, and Hyla aborea, the European Tree Frog, are normally bright green. But every once and a while a blue specimen, like the Mediterranean Tree Frog shown above, is born. [More information]

14. Orange Crocodiles

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Image source: blogs.discovery.com

In late 2011, Snappy the crocodile surprised his handlers by suddenly turning orange. The reptile experts at the Roaming Reptiles Park in Australia attributed the change to a broken filter; Snappy had attacked it prior to his dramatic colour change, and handlers suspected that iron or tannins in the water were responsible. No harm came to Snappy after he turned orange. Coincidentally, an orange alligator was sighted earlier in 2011. [More information]

15. Pink African Grey Parrots

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Pink patches in African Greys (which, as you might guess, are normally grey) began as a naturally occurring colour morph. Over the years, breeders ended up with 100% pink specimens. The first all-pink Greys sold for over $150,000. [More information]

16. Metallic Green Bees

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When we think bees, we think yellow and black stripes. But in reality, bees come in a variety of colours, including red, blue, and green. Bees in the genus Agapostemon are not only green, but shiny. If you can stand the joke: green sweat bees are the shiny Pokémon of the bee world. [More information from: Science Blogs, eol.org, bugguide.net]


Top image: White Peacock

Sources:
[Edited. Some links added.]


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