AUGUST 14, 2017
by Chuck Bednar
If there’s one thing science
enthusiasts love, it’s getting a glimpse of a hard-to-find creature, and a new
video that has gone viral this month shows a rare white moose – believed to be
just one of an estimated 100 living in Sweden – as it walks through the grass
and wades across a stream.
The video, which was posted
by BBC News, explained that the white moose – which was
spotted in the Varmland province of western Sweden – is not albino. Rather, its
white coat is the result of a genetic mutation which causes it to be born with
an predominantly unpigmented coat of fur.
This condition is known as
piebaldism, and according to the US National
Library of Medicine, it occurs a creature lacks the cells that produce
melanin (the pigment which produces hair, skin and eye color). Piebaldism can
affect humans, as well as horses, dogs, pigs, cats, birds and cattle.
The term piebaldism dates back to the 16th century, and was a combination of
the word ‘magpie’ and the older meaning of the term ‘bald’ (‘spotted’ or
‘white’) in reference to the magpie’s black and white colored plumage. Unlike
albino creatures, piedbald animals do not have red eyes, and they often have at
least some blackish specks or patches of fur mixed into their coats.
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