The Legendary Seal: Rarely appears at a rate of 1 in 10 million

To protect the seal, scientists have planned to move it from the community to a new, safer location.

Recently, an albino seal discovered by Russian biologist Vladimir Burkanov is attracting a lot of public attention.

A prominent albino seal among the black seals of its kind has been found on Tyuleny Island in the Sea of ​​Okhotsk, Russia.

With a different appearance, yellow fur, blue eyes and pink flippers than usual, it seems that the seal is not accepted by the people around it.

The seal’s different colored fur has caused it to be avoided by its own kind.

Looking at the photos taken by Burkanov, most of this seal is just playing alone, while the others have friends, gathered in small groups to interact with each other.

To make it easier to distinguish, scientists have nicknamed the seal “ugly duck”. In fact, in our eyes, this seal is not ugly, but it has many cute and charming features, only the difference is so great that its fellows are a little wary of contact, so new scientists nicknamed it that way.

Albinism causes the seal to have very poor eyesight.

Scientists have made statistics, the rate of giving birth to an albino seal in the wild is extremely rare , only about 1/100,000 individuals.

Vladimir Burkanov later posted a short clip of the albino seal on his personal page and received much praise from the online community.

According to Mr Burkanov , the “ugly duck” is a case of complete albinism because its feathers are red instead of white and the change represents the absence of any pigment in its eyes. This will cause the seal to have poor eyesight as well as low fertility.

It is difficult to reproduce normally.

Unlike the cases of albino seals being chased and abandoned by the entire pack, the case of the “ugly duckling” seems much luckier. He is still in the pack and still looks very “full”, full of energy. This is a sign that the seal is well protected and cared for by his mother.

The ugly ducklings are currently being closely watched by biologists. If, in the worst case scenario, the albino seal is rejected and chased away by its herd, the experts will take it to a city aquarium for care.

After the images of the “ugly duckling” circulated online, biologist Vladimir Burkanov went on to publish images of another case of albino seals. Accordingly, the seal found in 2017 also has a change in fur color and poor eyes, making it unable to participate in reproduction. In this case, however, it has continued to live a Healthy life to this day at around 5-6 years of age and has been recorded as the first surviving northern albino seal to reach adulthood.