Since the creation of life is never an exact and uniform process, we can see a lot of big differences in how people can turn out.
As you expect, the same is true in nature as the way that genetic materials mash together to create a new animal is just as unpredictable as it is for us.
But while certain mutations can certainly be rare in our world, it’s easy for them to become even rarer in the animal kingdom. After all, many animals end up with the colors they do for a reason and a green animal will definitely have an easier time hiding among the brush than a white one.
Nonetheless, some animals with this disadvantage can still find themselves surviving long enough to amaze and fascinate us and one particular bird doesn’t seem to be letting anything slow it down.
On Wednesday morning, this black flamingo was spotted walking along the banks of a salt lake in Cyprus.
According to Reuters , this encounter on the Mediterranean island marked only the second known time anybody has ever spotted a flamingo of this color.
The bird was described as almost entirely black with only a tuft of white feathers visible by its tail.
As Reuters reported , it was spotted during a flamingo count at the Akrotiri environmental center on the island’s southern coast.
Although it’s hard to confirm this without examining the bird directly, the flamingo is believed to have melanism.
This is a genetic condition that stimulates the body to create more of the pigment melanin than usual, resulting in darker fur, skin, or feathers.
Obviously, which of those features this applies to depends on the affected creature.
The last time anyone had seen a black flamingo was back in 2014.
This sighting took place in Israel and was confirmed by Pantelis Charilaou, head of the environmental department of the British Sovereign Bases.
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Given the scarcity of sightings and the circumstances around each one, experts suspect both sightings involved the same flamingo.
Not only is five years a relatively short time between the first recorded sightings of a black flamingo in history, but it’s also reasonable to assume that a flamingo could make it from Israel to Cyprus given their relatively close positions.
h/t: Reuters
