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"White" common toad

Printed From: Reptiles and Amphibians of the UK
Category: Herpetofauna Native to the UK
Forum Name: Common Toad
Forum Description: Forum for all issues concerning Bufo bufo
URL: http://www.herpetofauna.co.uk/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=4266
Printed Date: 28 Mar 2024 at 9:23am
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Topic: "White" common toad
Posted By: Mark_b
Subject: "White" common toad
Date Posted: 13 Jun 2012 at 5:46pm


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Replies:
Posted By: GemmaJF
Date Posted: 13 Jun 2012 at 6:45pm
We having a run on 'white' animals Wink Thanks for sharing Mark.


Posted By: tim hamlett
Date Posted: 13 Jun 2012 at 9:56pm
very interesting...lovely looking animal

tim


Posted By: will
Date Posted: 14 Jun 2012 at 6:50am
nice! I wonder what the correct technical term for this colouration is - would it be amelanistic? 


Posted By: liamrussell
Date Posted: 14 Jun 2012 at 10:56am
Originally posted by will will wrote:

nice! I wonder what the correct technical term for this colouration is - would it be amelanistic? 

Isn't this an albino? It had pink eyes. Albinos only lack melanin so often appear a bit yellowish.

I found a huge albino toad a few years ago. Obviously no camera that dayDisapprove


Posted By: sussexecology
Date Posted: 14 Jun 2012 at 9:33pm





Posted By: Caleb
Date Posted: 15 Jun 2012 at 9:57am
Originally posted by liamrussell liamrussell wrote:


Isn't this an albino? It had pink eyes. Albinos only lack melanin so often appear a bit yellowish.


It has no melanin (hence the pink eyes), so it is amelanistic. 'Albino' is a bit imprecise. The term was first used for mammals, where melanin is the only pigment. This means for mammals, albinism and amelanism are the same thing. In other animals, 'albino' is sometimes reserved for specimens with no pigment at all (which will appear white, like albino mammals), and sometimes used for specimens like this one, which clearly has pigments other than melanin.

There are some more pictures of 'albino' toads on the old forum (including two from me):
http://www.herpetofauna.org.uk/forum_archive/forum_posts.php?forum_id=15&Topic_ID=559&Subject=Albino%20toad%20pics&PN=1 - http://www.herpetofauna.org.uk/forum_archive/forum_posts.php?forum_id=15&Topic_ID=559&Subject=Albino%20toad%20pics&PN=1


Posted By: sussexecology
Date Posted: 15 Jun 2012 at 8:34pm

I've edited out my colleagues previous comments so that this thread makes more sense. Albino is referred to a white animal - whether it is a mammal or amphibian, reptile etc, etc.
Amelanistic is a bit more posh way of saying it has no melarin.
In fact we are all referring to the same ecological term, whether it is albino or amelanistic.

Why are we getting so many white animals recorded at the moment, that is a question that i would like to ask.


Posted By: GemmaJF
Date Posted: 15 Jun 2012 at 10:44pm
um because people like to post them up! Wink

As these conditions are controlled by recessive genes they are going to crop up in populations at some point. How it effects the individuals animals survivorbility in the wild is perhaps the big question. Interesting that we are seeing adult animals that are surviving in the last couple of threads.

I think the distinctions between albino, amelanistic, leucism etc are worth understanding but very often they are best understood by captive breeders who may select for these traits, so they understand the phenotypes in terms of exactly what the genes are doing. I certainly wouldn't get too hung up about any of it myself. To 99% of people a white animal is albino. I only pulled up Jon on the other thread because I was 100% sure it was not just a light coloured slow worm about to slough that had been posted up.





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