At the Mayto Turtle Camp in Cabo Corrientes, Jalisco, a group of conservationists witnessed something that almost never happens in nature: a sea turtle hatchling, one of those born black like the rest of its species, emerged from its shell completely white.
The cause has a name: leucism, a recessive genetic mutation that reduces skin pigmentation without eliminating it entirely, unlike albinism. Marine biologist José Antonio Trejo Robles explains it this way: pink eyes reveal an albino, but here the skin simply decided not to turn black.
It is so uncommon that there is not even a global record of how many sea turtles are born this way. Many do not even manage to get out of the egg. And those that survive carry an enormous disadvantage: without their natural color, camouflaging themselves from predators becomes almost impossible.
