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Hey guys. saw this giraffe close to Lower Sabie. Whould like to now if it is a Albino.

Hi Marissa,

To me the giraffe doesn't look like an albino. Albino's usually miss all pigmentation and they have red eyes as well.
Maybe someone else knows of this condition???

I think the correct term is leucistic as it does have some colouring on it.

We saw it twice on two consecutive days about 10 km apart! It (almost) excited me more than our cheetah!

Leucistic.
Albinisim is the complete lack of pigmentation

I would say that its leucistic, which is very different from being an albino, an albino has got two traits that are the same and cause the gene to display a characteristic without the melanin, while leucism is more of a co-dominance when the alleles( forms) of a gene are equally represented in the phenotype(physical appearance).

Very special photos marissa, must have been a great sighting

Guess who played with Jik bleach as a child

We saw a zebra that fell into the ink as well. Melanistic?

Nice photo Marissa!

The colour looks a bit like the colour of a pancake...whitish with a bit of light brownish.

That is seriously a weird looking giraffe

Wow! thanks for sharing marissa, special sighting indeed

Nice sighting Looks like it needs a bit of colouring in.

Hi

in my oppinion it looks quite sick. I do not think that is an Albino Giraffe, bu i´m hones I do not have a clue. Surprisingly the herd accept this Giriff, normaly they gonna send Girffas wich can cuase a great Danger of. this is a case like that because Lions can see this Giraff quite early. Surprisingly

Malealea, that giraffe is definitely not ill. It is quite lively and eats and moves quite easily with the rest of the herd. We saw it near Mlondozi on 6 April and again on the Salitje road the next day. It is just a colour aberration that it was lucky enough to survive!

It is not a proove, that if Animals are eating that they are not ill. I still assume that. The thing is, a colour variation like that is for the herd very dangerous, because they can´t hide properly. In this case lions can spot that animal much quiker then a normal coloured Giraffe.

Back to the topic, no I still do not think that is an albino.

As said earlier in the thread, the giraffe is not an albino, but is leucistic.That means that it has some colour, but not all! It was definitely not ill. We watched them for the best part of an hour and after seeing the same giraffes the previous day, I am sure we would have seen if it was ill in any way. It was quite normal except for its colouring!
I suppose it is just very wily and lucky not to have fallen prey to lion before now as is well-grown already. A male if I judge by the horns?