[Animals] Extremely rare white killer whale spotted off California coast

[BirSaNN]

The mostly white orca calf was spotted by a whale-watching vessel. It most likely has a pigment-related condition called leucism, experts say.

Whale watchers off the coast of California recently witnessed an extremely rare sight — a young white orca (Orcinus orca). The calf, which was almost completely white except for dark patches on its dorsal fin and snout, most likely has a pigment-related condition known as leucism, experts say.

The unusually colored calf, nicknamed "Frosty," is a 3-year-old male that was already known to whale watchers and orca researchers in the area. On April 24, a whale-watching vessel spotted Frosty along with six other orcas around 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the coast of Malibu, according to Newsweek(opens in new tab). The vessel then alerted other boats in the area, including a vessel belonging to Newport Coastal Adventure, whose crew filmed(opens in new tab) Frosty with a drone when they arrived on the scene.

Wildlife photographer Mark Girardeau also captured footage(opens in new tab) of Frosty and his cetacean companions from on board Newport Coastal Adventure's vessel. The seven orcas belong to a pod known as CA216 — a group of transient, or Bigg's, orcas that have been spotted as far south as the Mexican border and as far north as Canada, Girardeau wrote on Instagram. (Transient orcas are an ecotype, or subspecies, of orcas that have a wide geographical range, while the closely related resident orcas often stay in the same place for their entire lives.)

link: https://www.livescience.com/animals/orcas/extremely-rare-white-killer-whale-spotted-off-california-coast