You want your OutDoors with a story? How about this one? A rare albino caribou calf was photographed recently in Alaska for what very well could be the first time.
Jordan Pruszenski, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist, was counting caribou calves in a small plane north of Fairbanks when she spotted a white speck.
A Super Cub private bush plane takes off from the gravel runway at Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage, Alaska. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
The late June routine activity to determine how many calves survived their first month was about to become anything but routine. The white speck was a rare albino caribou.
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“I’m just like, ‘What is happening'” Pruszenski said, reports KOTZ. “You could totally see it like on the horizon, and then it steps onto like the snow patch and totally disappears.”
The pilot turned the plane back towards the animal for another look. As the plane took another pass, Pruszenski snapped several photos. In addition to the white fur, this calf also had “incredible, beady red eyes” and pink hooves.
This rare sighting came with even rarer photographic evidence.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s last record of an albino calf was from 1976. It had been observed through a spotting scope for a couple of minutes and no photos were taken.
Stock image of a Svalbard reindeer, which is closely related to caribou. They belong to the same deer family. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
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As for this calf, there’s no way of knowing if it has survived past the one-month check in late June. Biologists didn’t collar the calf or the mother and its white fur is going to make it stand out to predators.
“Once it steps off of the snow it just really stands out,” Pruszenski said. “So we’re really not sure how long it’ll last.”
The name of the albino caribou’s herd isn’t being shared, so that people don’t head out on their own looking for it.
Stock image of a momma and her calf. (Getty Images)
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“If you happen to see it, it’d be great to let us know. But what we don’t really want is people to really be sort of trying to bother this caribou,” Pruszenski told the outlet.
“We want to be able to give it its best shot, which will be to kind of just let it be a normal caribou.”
That sounds perfectly reasonable. Let the caribou do caribou stuff. It’s not looking for fame. Enjoy the photos of the rare animal and keep it moving.