Meet Speckles, One of Six Dolphins Captured with a Rare Skin Condition

There’s a unique bottlenose dolphin swimming in the waters of Australia. Researchers from Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast have spotted a rare coloration on this marine mammal, which they named Speckles. During a survey of Southern Queensland’s Hervey Bay in September 2022, the researchers saw a pod of six dolphins. One dolphin stood out as it leaped out of the water in an upright position, allowing the researchers to have a clear look at its underside, which exhibited many white areas and stripes across its dorsal and lateral sides.A bottlenose dolphin named This unique “near-symmetrical white patches” have not been previously observed in their research of the species. The dolphin appeared to be healthy except for a healed shark bite on its side, which ruled out the possibility of the discoloration being caused by disease or sunburn. The university revealed that the unusual coloration was due to an “extremely rare skin condition” called piebaldism. Speckles is only one of 24 reported cases in dolphins and one of six documented cases of dolphins with this condition in the world. This is also the first documented case of the condition in the species in Australia and the second in the southern hemisphere.This dolphin spotted in Australia’s waters is one of only a handful in the world photographed with what’s believed to be an extremely rare skin condition. / Credit: Georgina Hume/University of the Sunshine Coast”Piebaldism is a partial loss of pigmentation resulting in patchy coloration,” explained behavioral ecologist Alexis Levengood in the release. She mentioned how rare it is to witness this condition and the excitement of experiencing something for the first time in real life. The findings of this discovery were published in the scientific journal Aquatic Mammals.Researchers aim to gather more information about the dolphin’s sex through genetic sampling and further imaging. Although Speckles is one of a few known dolphins with this condition, there are more documented cases in other species.

Author: OpenAI