http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2012/04/120425-white-killer-whale-russia-animals-science-albino/
White Killer Whale Spotted—Only One in the World?
“Handsome” whale may be the only known all-white adult orca.
The headline-grabbing all-white adult killer whale spotted off Russia this month may well be one of a kind. But the sighting may not be the first time he’s been caught on camera.
Scientists were studying acoustic and social interactions among whales and dolphins off the North Pacific’s Commander Islands (map) when the team noticed a six-foot-tall (nearly two-meter-tall) white dorsal fin jutting above the waves—hence the whale’s new name: Iceberg.
“The reaction from the team for the encounter, which happened on an ordinary day for spotting and photographing the whales, was one of surprise and elation,” researcher Erich Hoyt said via email. Though he wasn’t aboard the boat, Hoyt co-directs the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP), which had organized the expedition.
Though Iceberg’s moniker is new, he may be the same killer whale scientists spotted in 2000 and 2008 in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands (map), Holly Fearnbach, a research biologist at the University of Aberdeen in the U.K., said by email.
White Whale a Mystery
The 22-foot-long (7-meter-long) Iceberg is probably not a true albino, since he has color on his saddle—the area behind his dorsal fin—FEROP’s Hoyt said.
“Iceberg may or may not be an albino. We really don’t know,” said Hoyt, also a senior research fellow at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.
One way to find out would be to see if Iceberg’s eyes are pink and unpigmented—a sure sign of albinism, Hoyt said. (See pictures of albino animals.)
Scientists have observed other killer whales with a condition called Chediak-Higashi syndrome, a rare disease of the immune and nervous system that affects coloration, Fearnbach said.
But most animals affected with Chediak-Higashi don’t survive to adulthood, meaning it’s unlikely Iceberg—a mature male of at least 16 years—has the disease. The male seen in 2000 and 2008, if different from Iceberg, also didn’t have the disease.
“I do not know a lot about other genetic conditions that may cause such light pigmentation, but hopefully he will be seen again and we can collect a genetic sample,” Fearnbach said.