Original Article: https://blog.theanimalrescuesite.greatergood.com/rare-bright-yellow-albino-turtle/

image - Rare Albino Turtle Goes Viral For Resembling A Slice Of Melted Cheese

A farmer found a rather unusual turtle in India that looks different than most turtles we have seen before. It is a yellow color that resembles a slice of cheddar cheese or perhaps an egg yolk.

When the picture of the turtle appeared online after being posted by the Indian Forest Service, people went crazy for it and started sharing it. When you see it for yourself, you might wonder what it is. We won’t make you wait though. It’s an albino Indian flapshell turtle.

If you’ve never seen an Indian flapshell turtle before, don’t feel bad. They are typically found in South Asian countries, such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan. Most of these turtles are green and brown but this one is surprisingly bright colored. A local farmer was working in the field in the eastern Indian state of Odisha when he made the discovery. He brought the turtle home, let the forest officials know about it, and they got in touch with the conservationists.

The albino appearance of this particular Indian flapshell turtle is all about genetics. According to CNN, the executive director at the Association for Biodiversity Conservation, Siddhartha Pati, shared: “It is a congenital disorder and it is characterized by complete or partial absence of tyrosine pigment. Also, sometimes a mutation takes place in the gene sequence or there is a deficiency of tyrosine.”

As an amino acid, tyrosine is responsible for many processes in the body, but one is the production of melanin. It is melanin that provides pigment in our eyes and skin, but for turtles, it also helps to color the shells. This turtle also has pink eyes, which shows even further that it is an albino. If it was just a matter of a loss of pigmentation, it will be known as leucism.

The turtle is thought to be about 1 1/2 or 2 years old and he is now living in the wild again. They hope that he will continue to live a long, happy life.

Once it was posted on Twitter, people started comparing the color to various types of food.

Source: The Animal Rescue Site Blog