Story By: Sergiu Nazaru, Sub Editor: Marija Stojkoska, Agency: Newsflash
This is the moment a camera film captures a white wild boar, an animal extremely rare although it was once the official emblem of the English King, Richard III.
Surveillance cameras mounted in a protected area caught the images of the white wild boar in a forest in south-western Romania’s Caras-Severin county on 17th November.
The video was then posted on social media by the Wild Caras-Severin NGO.
As can be seen on the video the albino boar eats with the other wild boars, a sign that it is part of the family group.
Wild Caras-Severin wrote alongside the footage: “Dear friends, as we told you on other occasions, in nature surprises do not take long to appear. The other day we caught a white (albino) wild boar on video. It seems that it is a rather rare phenomenon in our country, it is the second case that we have ever encountered here.”
The biologist Teodora Stinculet saw the images and confirms she believed it to be an albino wild boar with the colouring created by a genetic defect.
Teodora told local media outlet Adevarul: “There are two hypotheses. One is that this is a genetic defect and the other is that it is an albino”.
Although albinism can be caused by factors other than genetic mutations, which can include living conditions, diet, age, injury or disease, she speculated that “mixed parentage of possibly a domestic pig and the wild boar was probably more likely”.
She added: “Albinism is a congenital disorder characterized by the complete or partial absence of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes due to the absence or defect of tyrosinase, a copper-containing enzyme involved in the production of melanin.”
According to statistics published by the Ministry of Waters and Forests, while the optimal number of wild boars in Romania would be around 37,000, it was estimated that there were 117,000 wild boars in 2018 and about 99,700 in 2019.
The White Boar was the personal device or badge of the English King Richard III of England (1452—1485, reigned from 1483).
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