Photographer, 58-year-old Nicki Coertze, was on an African safari where he was taking photos of all the amazing sights around him when he captured something really rare: an albino baby elephant.
The small pink baby was close to the rest of the herd and playing in the water. It stayed near the safety of its mother however, as it drank from the river. Coertze said that he has been visiting that National Park for decades and that is his first ever sighting of an albino animal there.
He went on to say that the shots he took of the rare elephant were beautiful, especially contrasted among the others in the herd. Coertze said that the “contrast in color between the two as the calf shows off its unique pinkness beautifully”.
Albino animals have many of the same traits that albino humans do. Those animals that are albino suffer from a lack of sufficient pigment in their skin, which leaves them more likely to suffer damage if they are exposed in the sun for too long.
Albino animals can also suffer from blindness later in life as well. Luckily for this baby elephant, it will grow up inside a National Park where it will be safe from any hunters or poachers looking to take advantage of such a rare find.