Right whales are already one of the odder looking animals on the planet. Their narrow, arched upper jaws, their enormous lower jaws which cover up their baleen when the mouths are closed, and their bumpy callosity patches are likely to induce a baffled ‘What the heck is that?’ from first time viewers. Now there’s a youngster who has the added unusual trait of missing most of its pigment. Here’s a southern right whale (Eubalanena australis) calf photographed yesterday near Patagonia.
Albino southern right whale calf
Its dorsal (top) side is to the left of the photograph.
Photograph was taken by Maxi Jonas, Reuters; posted by msnbc.msn.com on 9/13/2010.
