One thing we can all agree on, giraffes are awesome! They are a symbol of Africa and can be found all over the continent.
These creatures are already beautiful dressed in their normal skin, but here I present you the black melanistic giraffe and the white leucistic giraffe.
The black giraffe:
Melanism is a genetic disorder that affects an animals melanin making them appear a black color, it is the opposite of albinism.
Melanism is more common in some animals than others, for example, the black panther is simply just a melanistic leopard/jaguar.
With giraffes, being a melanistic adult is extremely rare, most of the time they will get killed off when they are a child, especially due to the lack of natural camouflage.
The White giraffe
When you think of a white animal, you usually think of albinism, which is true in most cases. But albinism affects all pigments in the body, meaning even the eyes turn pink.
The white giraffe is in fact leucistic, which is similar to albinism, but means some pigments have retained their original color.
Now, there is only 1 white giraffe left in the world, this is mainly due to poaching, as well as their struggle to fit in, in the wild.
The pigment defect usually indicates other health problems such as skin cancer, weak immune system and more.
