I came across this article from the Botswana Tourism Authority. I hope you find it as interesting as I did.
Ever heard of a pink elephant? Well, now you can see one! A rare sighting of what appears to be a partial albino calf was recently captured on film in Northern Botswana. Mike Holding, a wildlife cameraman who captured the sighting while filming for a BBC wildlife program, said: “We only saw it for a couple of minutes as the herd crossed a river in the Okavango Delta. This was a really exciting moment for everyone in camp. We knew it was a rare sighting – no one could believe their eyes.”
Experts believe it is probably an albino, which is an extremely rare phenomenon in African elephants. Albino elephants are not usually white, but instead they have more of a reddish-brown or pink hue. While albinism is thought to be fairly common in Asian elephants, it is much less common in the larger African species. Ecologist Dr. Mike Chase, who runs the conservation foundation Elephants Without Borders, said: “This is probably the first documented sighting of an albino elephant in northern Botswana.”
You may not be lucky enough to spot a ‘pink’ elephant on safari in Botswana, but you will be sure to spot many other elephants while there. Boasting an elephant population of over 130,000, Botswana has the largest population of elephants on the African continent.
Article Adapted from BBC News / Photo Credits: Mike Holding.
Tags: Albino Elephant, Botswana, Okavango Delta, Pink Elephant
