A RARE RECORD OF AN ALBINO EURASIAN OTTER Lutra lutra IN CENTRAL IRAQ

摘要

© 2022, IUCN/SSC Otter Specialist Group Bulletin.All Rights Reserved.Colour aberrations such as albinism and leucism are congenital and heritable disorders in the synthesis of melanin pigmentation, and rarely observed in otters’ wild populations. In June 2022, a rare albino young Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra) was trapped in the Tigris River in Central Iraq and transported by the Iraqi environmental authorities to be raised in captivity at Baghdad Zoo. Here, we report a first case of albinism of the species in the wild population in Iraq