Garissa County (Kenya) – A Kenyan villager stumbled upon an unbelievable sight earlier in June in Garissa County, and he was so amazed that he immediately ran away to tell everyone about it! He quickly informed the rangers at the Hirola Conservation Center. He stated that he saw two white giraffes! White giraffes? How could that be? Well, folks at the Hirola Conservation Center were quick to act, and they also snapped a few shots of these giraffes. They are truly fascinating beings. Troopers were fortunately right on time, and they brought a camera with them. Alongside these shots, there is also a video of the giraffes that is slowly but surely becoming viral.
The released footage shows a pair of giraffes out and about in African wilderness. According to few experts, we saw a baby giraffe and its adult parent. Many thought that their white color stems from albinism, but experts claim that it isn’t the case. These giraffes suffer from a condition called leucism. Leucism is characterized by a loss of pigment. Albinism usually indicates that there is no melanin pigment but this condition usually makes skin look patchy or entirely pale. The baby giraffe in the video still has some faint spots, but the experts claim that those will disappear in the near future.
There haven’t been many sightings of leucistic giraffes. The first time people encountered these white giraffes was in 2015 when they spotted a calf at Tanzania’s Tarangire National Park. The calf was named Omo after a detergent, and it also suffered from leucism. Omo was again sighted in the same park a year later. In April 2016 there was a case of leucistic giraffe appearing in the vicinity of the most recent sighting, and that’s it. Considering how rare this condition is among giraffes there is no surprise that people haven’t had many chances to see them.
All in all, we believe that these animals don’t suffer from a condition, we’d much rather opt for some less rigorous words. We’d say that they are a gift from God and that people should be happy that they saw something marvelous like this. We can only hope that they will be spotted more often in future.
