Rare albino tadpoles have been found in a garden pond in Wales.
The tadpoles have the distinctive pink eyes and off-white skin colouration associated with albinism.
Although isolated single examples of albino frogs, toads and newts have been seen before this is the first time a whole group has been found.
The exact location of the pond in Carmarthenshire is being kept secret while biologists carry out more research.
Jules Howard of Froglife, the UK wildlife charity which works for the conservation of amphibians and reptiles, said: “Sightings of albino frogs are rare so to find so many tadpoles together is exceptionally rare. It seems that the albino tadpoles are already changing colour and becoming darker so we are going to have to study their metamorphosis into frogs very carefully.”
About 10 clusters of spawn were laid in the pond and the albinos emerged from about four of them.
The pond’s owner, who first noticed the white-tinged tadpoles, said he did not see any albino frogs using the pond during the breeding season.
Albinos, more common in mammals, have inherited altered genes that do not produce the usual amounts of the pigment melanin.
Albinism is a ‘recessive trait’, so even if only one of the two copies passed down from male and female frogs is functional, offspring can make pigment, but will carry the albinism trait.
Both male and female amphibians must carry the defective albino gene to have offspring with albinism and in these circumstances there is a one-in-four chance of albino offspring being produced.
The rare discovery was reported to Froglife’s Wildlife Information Service, a public advice service encouraging people to get involved with amphibian and reptile conservation, last month and a careful watch has been maintained at the pond watching the tadpoles develop.
Froglife’s Wildlife Information Officer, Lucy Benyon, said: “This is certainly one of the stranger enquiries we’ve had recently.
“What’s unusual about this is that the batches of white tadpoles suggest that a number of adults that carry genes for albinism possibly exist in the area, not just one.”
“Usually though albino amphibians fail to live to a breeding age – their white colouration makes them a blindingly conspicuous beacon for the various animals that depend on frogs for food.”
An ancient global warming episode drastically changed the planet. Life on Earth needed 200,000 years to recover. What we’re headed for in the next century could be even bigger.
Think blooms lure bugs just by smelling good and looking pretty? Not so, new research shows
Flowers are known to attract pollinating insects through a variety of means, from alluring fragrances and nectar to vibrant colors and shapes. According to a new study in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology, scientists can now add an unlikely mechanism to the list: movement. Researchers from the University of Aberystwyth in Wales observed 300 specific coastal flowers, noting stem lengths, the range of swaying distance, how often and how long they were visited by insects, and how many seeds were ultimately produced.
Those flowers with long and thin stems proved to be the most attractive to insects and produced the most seeds. The scientists concluded their swaying motions made them most visible among others. There are practical limits, however. Those flowers with terribly long stems moved too much to allow insects to make a stable landing and so were generally avoided. Similarly, the flowers with shorter stems were less visited since they were hard to differentiate from the crowd.
