Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia claim to have spotted one of the world’s most unusually colored dolphins, known as Speckles, for the first time in Australia.
Speckles, a Common bottlenose dolphin, exhibits patchy black-and-white coloring due to the extremely rare skin condition known as piebaldism. This marks only the second documented case of piebaldism in the southern hemisphere and one of six worldwide with photographic evidence.
The discovery was made during a four-year project on dolphin connectivity in South East Queensland, and the findings have been published in the scientific journal Aquatic Mammals.
The researchers note the significance of this sighting as there are no documented cases of atypically colored dolphins in Australian waters, although atypical whales like the albino humpback whale ‘Migaloo’ have been observed.
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Image Credit: Georgina Hume
