From Matthew we get a tweet of an albino bat. It sure sticks out from the other bats, and I hope it will be okay.
A rare and incredible find today. An albino cave myotis (Myotis velifer). A little white jewel standing out in the crowd. #Albinism #bats @BatConIntl pic.twitter.com/bEvIUis1ow
— Dr Winifred F Frick (@FrickWinifred) February 22, 2018
This is a true mutant, unlike my favorite bat, the Honduran white bat (Ectoyphylla alba), which lives in the tropics and makes nests for itself by folding together Heloconia leaves. As far as I know it’s the only species of white bat on Earth. When I was in Costa Rica in the early seventies, doing a graduate course in tropical ecology, I went on a night walk and we found one of these bats in a leaf. We also mist-netted one, which I got to hold in my (gloved) hand. I promptly fell in love (photos from Wikipedia):
Here’s a group, probably a male and his harem, sacked out for the night. They look like cotton balls!
Here’s another photo of a “bat train” from Animal Spot. They are adorable!
Reader Don found a report at Al.com of a yellow Northern Cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) in Alabama. I’ve never seen one of these before. The site reports this:
An extremely rare cardinal has birders and biologists flocking to Shelby County, Alabama this week, as images of a yellow cardinal have circulated around social media.
Auburn University biology professor Geoffrey Hill said the cardinal in the photos is an adult male in the same species as the common red cardinal, but carries a genetic mutation that causes what would normally be brilliant red feathers to be bright yellow instead.
Alabaster resident Charlie Stephenson first noticed the unusual bird at her backyard feeder in late January and posted about it on Facebook. She said she’s been birding for decades but it took her some time to figure out what she was seeing.
. . . Hill — who has literally written books on bird coloration — said the mutation is rare enough that even he, as a bird curator and researcher has never seen one in person.
“I’ve been birdwatching in the range of cardinals for 40 years and I’ve never seen a yellow bird in the wild,” Hill said. “I would estimate that in any given year there are two or three yellow cardinals at backyard feeding stations somewhere in the U.S. or Canada.
They’re keeping the location secret because birders will mob the site if they knew where it was. Here’s a video of this bird:
There are also leucistic cardinals lacking melanin pigment. This one doesn’t seem to be a true albino as its eyes aren’t pink:
Speaking of mutant cardinals, here’s a gynandromorph cardinal (half male/half female), probably reflecting a chromosome abnormality in the bird. This was sent by reader Brian Peer, who photographed it in Illinois. My piece on this was one of the most popular posts I’ve ever made.
TIL yesterday (which may have been common knowledge), bats make up 20% of all mammalian species (~1200).
Reblogged this on The Logical Place.
Sub
Almost a year ago I spotted a yellow cardinal in the next yard. I reported it to my online birding group and there was a discussion – some folks said that young cardinals are sometimes yellow and that diet affects their coloration but I don’t know one way or the other.
ctbirds@lists.ctbirding.org
Your link isn’t working for me.
Love the yellow cardinal! What’s with the pointy nose on the bat??
I think it is something to do with how they use echo location .
Yes. In particular, I believe it is to focus the vocalizations that it sends out.
Makes sense, Mark.
I agree about albino animals not being as pretty but assume it’s the rarity of them that’s appealing.
I once saw an Albion Raccoon in a small zoo in Canada ,looked really horrible .
I agree. Such a stunningly beautiful color.
What is this fascination with Albino animals? White lions, albino pythons, bats, etc.?
Note, I do not want to disparage albino animals, but generally I find the coloured ones more beautiful. I do not understand the fetish.
I think it’s solely based on rarity. I agree colored animals are prettier. And true albinos with red eyes are sort of creepy imo. Though I love the mutants like the yellow cardinal and the red/white cardinal.
The animation of life combined with the shining purity of snow.
There is at least one more mostly-white bat, the Northern Ghost Bat, which I saw in western Ecuador. Picture here:
http://www.worldlandtrust.org/news/2008/04/ayampe-river-valley-top-home-of.htm
These supposedly mimic wasp nests.
Diclidurus albus
We Are All Mutants!™
I love these!
Does that white bat pee pink?
The Honduran bat is very cute. If I ever attend a costume party, I’d like to create a mask just like that.
“Here’s a group…sacked out for the night”.
Are they not nocturnal?
Absolutely beautiful.
The first half of this was my immediate take the other day – the other half just now.
That yellow cardinal probably a mutation in an enzyme at or near the end of the pathway that produces the red pigment, resulting in a molecule lacking one or two substituents (eg a hydroxyl group) that happens to be yellow. (Perhaps the same pigment that goldfinches have? – If it is, engineering that enzyme into a goldfinch could produce a rubyfinch. Or something like that. House finches have red pigment, so it’s not unlikely they may use the same pigment pathway.)
Update: Melanin is mentioned as the pigment. I didn’t think that was right but also figured that whatever it was, the bird was making it itself. Turns out both are wrong. Seems it’s carotenoids acquired from the diet. (IIRC, that’s how salmon get their flesh color, too.) Suspect the yellow birds are from either malabsorption or hypermetabolism of the red carotenoid(s?).
Next question, I guess, is if goldfinches are carotenoid yellow, why aren’t they red? And how do you get multi-colored parrots? The list goes on…
“sacked out for the night” – um – the day!
Is there any (non-destructively) way to tell if the white/red cardinal is hermaphroditic?