SATARA – Have you ever seen an albino elephant, or perhaps a white elephant? When Lowvelder recently saw photo’s of the latter, the paper realised that this was an unusual sighting and decided to talk to the photographer.
Nature lover Mr Dave Johnson thought it might have been a different kind of animal, like an impala, walking with a herd of elephant. But what he saw through his binoculars blew him away. “How was this for an unusual sighting? I was looking at this herd walking about 150 metres from me, when I saw this pinkish-brown animal running with the herd. It was a baby elephant and I immediately thought albino!”
Johnson and his family visited the Kruger National Park (KNP) over the festive season when he sighted this animal early in January between Tshokwane and Satara on the H1-3.
Lowvelder approached the experts in the park and managed to speak to Mr Johan Malan, operations manager of Veterinary Wildlife Services, who told the newspaper that he had seen an albino calf many years ago in a boma in the KNP, but it was a bit darker. He added, “The photograph of the latest sighting makes it difficult to really say. The even shade of pinkish-brown colour shows that there is a pigment abnormality. The one that I saw, and I must say the only one I have ever seen, was older and although he was a bit darker you could see the abnormality in its eyes and behind the ears.”
This publication also spoke to Dr Freek Venter, the general manager for conservation management at the South African National Parks (SANParks), about this sighting. “None of us have seen this particular little elephant, so it could be albinism but it could also be leucistic.”
The white elephants of Burma and Thailand are leucistic.
Leucism is a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy colouration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes. Unlike albinism, it is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigments including melamine, the pigment responsible for skin colour.
All animals with leucism, like white lion, white tiger, and even white snake, are quite rare and also special and associated with the good things in life.
They are often mentioned in old Buddhist scriptures: “The white elephants represent peace and wealth. They are a sign of the good future awaiting a country.”
These animals’ lofty status originates in the ancient texts of Indic religions.
Indra, the lord of Hinduism has been shown as riding a mighty multitusked white elephant in the ninth century. In the first century, Buddha’s mother dreams of a white elephant entering her womb on the eve of her son’s conception. In the fourth century Buddha appears as a supernatural white elephant in two of his past lives.
As sacred animals, white elephant were – and are still often – treated lavishly.
The general feeling in Skukuza was nonetheless that this little one was indeed a albino. Dr Markus Hofmyer also of Veterinary Wildlife Services says,
“The photo that I saw with the pink-coloured elephant calf is very rare. If only I could have a closer look at the eyes I could be certain, but looking at the size of the calf it looks like it is a real albino calf. This means that the skin has no pigment at all. Chances are that this little one will develop serious problems with its skin because of sun damage, as it does not have any protection against the UV rays of the sun.”
According to Hofmyer this calf is between three and five years old.
Veterinary Wildlife Services told Lowvelder that it would not make any special effort to go and look for this elephant family, but it would let the paper know if there was any more sightings of the pink or white elephant.
