A koala at an Australian zoo has given birth to a rare white joey. Handlers at the Australia Zoo on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast say the pale animal born in January owes its white fur to a recessive gene inherited from mother Tia.
The mother has given birth to light-coloured joeys in the past.
“In veterinary science it’s often referred to as the ‘silvering gene’ where animals are born with white or very pale fur and, just like baby teeth, they eventually shed their baby fur and the regular adult colouration comes through,” said the zoo’s wildlife hospital director Rosie Booth. . Koala fur differs in colour — from light grey to brown—depending on their environment. Animals in the south of Australia tend to have thicker and darker fur than those in the north. But a white koala is incredibly rare, Booth said, and “quite unfortunate” if born in the wild, since it is more visible to predators.
A white koala joey at the Australia Zoo. The female joey’s extremely pale colouration is caused by a recessive gene and thought to be inherited from her mother Tia who has had other pale coloured joeys in the past.
