Super rare white killer whale filmed

Whale watchers off the coast of California have spotted an extremely rare creature - a baby white killer whale .

Super rare white killer whale filmed

The unusually colored killer whale is a male, about 3 years old, and has been named Frosty. On April 24, a whale-watching vessel spotted Frosty and six other killer whales about 8 miles off the coast of Malibu. The vessel then alerted other vessels in the area.

Wildlife photographer Mark Girardeau captured Frosty and his companions from aboard the Newport Coastal Adventure tour boat. The seven killer whales belong to a pod known as CA216.

Experts say the orca calf is almost entirely white except for a few dark patches on its dorsal fin and nose. It is not albino, as it still has dark patches. Instead, there are two conditions that can cause orcas to be less than completely white: leucism and Chediak-Higashi.

Killer whales with Chediak-Higashi are prone to bruising and infection, according to Erich Hoyt, a researcher at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) in the UK. As a result, the syndrome can often be fatal. Frosty is likely to have leukoplakia because he appears healthy, according to Hoyt and other experts.

Animals with leucism or albinism are often at an evolutionary disadvantage because they are more visible to predators and their skin is also more sensitive to sunlight, which can lead to sunburn and an increased risk of cancer. These disadvantages mean their survival rate in the wild is low.

Frosty, however, doesn't have that problem. Living underwater protects him from too much sun exposure, and killer whales have no real predators, Hoyt said. So as long as he survives to adulthood, Frosty can continue to live a normal life.

Thu Thao (According to Live Science )

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