Environmentalists on October 18 found a newly hatched Olive Ridley turtle with a rare white body on Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
Images captured by the Kiawah Turtle Patrol and posted to Facebook last Sunday show the little creature to be creamy white rather than the typical Ridley olive turtle.
According to conservationists, the animal’s condition is caused by leucism, which results in a partial deficiency of melanin, which determines the color of the shell and skin. Unlike albino individuals, albino animals always have the normal eye color.
The sight of white turtles is extremely rare in the world. The Olive Ridley Conservation Project claims that newly hatched turtles with this syndrome often struggle to survive long in the wild because their striking colors attract predators and poachers.
Camouflage is important for all animals, especially small creatures. Turtles typically spend the first few months of their life hiding under algae floating in the ocean until they are large enough. grow, the fewer enemies they have, “said project spokesperson Olive Ridley.
The olive ridley turtle (Lepidochelys olivacea) is a small sea turtle, distributed mainly in the warm waters and tropical belts of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Oceans. Adults are usually only 70cm long and weigh no more than 50kg. They are currently classified as “vulnerable” in the Red List of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
