The sight of an extremely rare albino turtle on the Australian coast has left an environmental volunteer group dumbfounded by its rarity.
The albino green turtle hatchling was spotted on the Sunshine Coast’s Castaways Beach by the Coolum District Coast Care Group this week.
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On Facebook, the group said it is the first albino Green turtle they have ever come across in their nine years of turtle monitoring. The turtle was one of 122 hatchlings that made the journey from nest to ocean.
“May the oceans be kind to this unique little green turtle!,” they posted.
The chief scientist of the Queensland government Department of Environment and Heritage Protection Threatened Species Unit told ABC News, “Albino hatchlings are extremely rare; it probably occurs at the rate of one in many hundreds of thousands of eggs that are laid.”
The turtles’ unusual appearance does not allow them to blend and camouflage within the environment, meaning their survival rate is very low, the scientist said.