r/Damnthatsinteresting 6h ago

🔥 white orca spotted by Rausu, japan

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u/TerraByteTerror 6h ago edited 5h ago

The pair of orcas, male and female. Have a genetic condition called Leucism. Which only causes a partial loss of color. The pod doesnt seem to care and treats them normally.

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u/_Steven_Seagal_ 3h ago

What do you mean 'partial' color loss? What would their color be if they'd have full color loss?

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u/SurayaThrowaway12 2h ago

There is still some pigmentation present on their bodies, as there are still patterns visible, such as their eyepatches and saddle patches. According to photographer Noriyuki Hayakawa, the eyes of at least one of these white orcas appeared black, also indicating some melanin/pigmentation.