A rare yellow turtle has captured a lot of people’s attention after a video of a brightly colored turtle was shared on Twitter recently.
The turtle, which is the same shade as a lemon, was rescued by a farmer in Odisha in southeastern India and brought to forest officials who then notified the Indian Forest Service.
Susanta Nanda shared the now viral video and speculated that the yellow turtle was albino.
Siddhartha Pati, executive director at the Association for Biodiversity Conservation, agreed and told CNN that the turtle, an Indian flapshell turtle, was yellow due to albinism.
“It is a congenital disorder and it is characterized by complete or partial absence of tyrosine pigment,” he said. “Also, sometimes a mutation takes place in the gene sequence or there is a deficiency of tyrosine.”
The turtles eyes are also pink, another indication of albinism.
Although albinism doesn’t occur that often, it occurs across many species. This is at least the second time that an albino turtle has been found in India.
According to reports, this turtle was released back into the wild.
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