Posted on 06/23/2006 12:04:39 PM PDT by presidio9
A rare albino crow has been spotted in B.C.'s Fort Langley area, but it has now gone missing and members of an animal rights group are asking for help finding it.
Peter Hamilton, of the Lifeforce Foundation, says the group received a call last week that the bird had been spotted in the Fraser Valley community east of Vancouver. "We went down and determined it was, in fact, an albino crow," he said in an interview Wednesday.
The bird was being guarded by its parents and is not a full albino as it does not have the pink eyes which typify albinos.
"The eyes are not pinky-red which is good," Hamilton said. "True albino birds usually go blind because of the constant exposure to sunlight."
Hamilton said the parents attempted to shoo him away from the white baby.
"I'd move 10 feet and the one would move 10 feet to another tree," he said, adding he saw another juvenile crow in the same area, this one black.
"I assume they had a few babies," he says.
But Hamilton said when Lifeforce members returned to the area, they saw the parents but no albino.
He wants anyone who sees the bird to call the group.
Retired Simon Fraser University crow expert Dr. Nico Verbeek said albino crows are very rare.
He recalls one in the Saanich area of Vancouver Island about eight years ago.
"There are a few mentioned in the literature over the past 50 years or so," he said. "Genetically, obviously it's a freak. It's probably a rare combination of genes that cause" the feature because albinism is not common in birds.
While Hamilton blames albinos' high mortality rate on their poor eyesight, Verbeek said they are easy prey for predators.
"I think normally, they wouldn't survive," Verbeek said. "If there's a predator attack on the flock, the white one would stand out. That's the usual explanation given for the disappearances of albinos, the fact that you don't see them very often."
Within a crow grouping, though, Verbeek said the bird would just be one of the flock.
Crows generally live 16 to 20 years and are ready to breed at two years. By the spring of their second year, they're beginning to stake out territory and build nests, where they generally stay for 18 to 20 months.
The female lays three to five eggs and incubates them for about 80 days. The young crows spend about 33 days in the nest as the male brings food to mother and brood. In mid to late June, the young birds come out of the nest.
"Right now, many of them have hatched," Verbeek said. "The early ones are leaving the nest."
He said the Fort Langely albino may be one of those early hatchlings.
Last year, an albino crow was found in a village in southern India, NBC's website said.
Many in the region believed the bird, which was rescued by a 17-year-old boy, was a divine gift from the gods.
The youth rescued the bird as it was being attacked by its black-feathered flock mates.
The world's most famous albino animal was likely Snowflake, a male silverback gorilla in the Barcelona, Spain zoo. He died of cancer on Nov. 24, 2003.
Snowflake fathered 21 gorillas, who have in turn given birth to 10 grandchildren. None of them were albino.
Hang on there, Threepio. : )
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Hope that snowdrift didn't get in the way.
BUSH'S FAULT
A white crow? Suitable for fricaseeing?.......
Doesn't a white crow sing songs and used-to-date a cyclist?
No, but I think he kills Johnny Cash at some point.
Isn't that a bit contradictory?
Albino Dog Spotted
Probably someone tieing some nice lures with those white feathers right now.
I hear they taste like spotted owl....
Does albino crow taste different than black crow when you have to eat it? Just wondering.
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