ADF&G Wildlife Conservation – Interior and Eastern Arctic Alaska
Blond moose don’t necessarily have more fun, experts say.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) caught a rare sight on camera: a light tan-colored moose in the wild. The creature, which some have dubbed the “blond moose” or “Big Blondie” for its coloring, was photographed during one of the agency’s recent moose population surveys in Alaska.
ADF&G Wildlife Conservation – Interior and Eastern Arctic Alaska posted photos of the unusual moose to its Facebook page on Jan. 13. The post went viral, amassing over 5,000 shares, nearly 500 comments and over 2,000 reactions.
The agency wrote on Facebook that the pictured bull moose likely has leucism, a condition caused by a “genetic mutation that causes a partial lack of pigment in the skin and hair but not in the eye.”
ADF&G also noted that the condition isn’t the same as albinism, which is when “no melanin is present, and the eyes are pink.”
However, while the coloring for the “blond moose” may look uniquely beautiful, Alaska Department of Fish and Game wildlife veterinarian Kimberlee Beckmen told the Washington Post that the light-colored animal might face more difficulties surviving in the wild because of it.
“When your species is supposed to be a certain color, being white or lighter isn’t going to help you a whole lot,” she told the outlet. “This lighter color is a bad thing for a moose. Natural selection selects against it because it either means they’re less healthy or they have a greater chance of being preyed upon.”
ADF&G Wildlife Conservation – Interior and Eastern Arctic Alaska
“These animals are a lot more likely to die young or to get killed — I mean, there’s a reason why they are so rare,” she added.
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Mike Taras, a wildlife education and outreach specialist at the Alaska Department of Fish and Game agency, told the WashingtonPost that he was surprised the post got so much traction. He chalked it up to “a combination of its unique color and the fact that maybe other people around the country aren’t used to seeing moose as we are around here.”
RELATED: First Nation Community Left ‘Outraged and Sad’ After Rare ‘Spirit’ Moose Found Fatally Shot
Big Blondie’s appearance isn’t the only recent record of a light-colored moose. In 2020, a white “spirit” moose was found fatally shot along a service road in Ontario, Canada – marking yet another reason why sightings of the lighter-colored creatures are so rare.
“It saddens me that somebody would take such a beautiful animal,” Troy Woodhouse, a Flying Post community member, said at the time. “Nobody knows exactly how many are in the area, so the loss of a single spirit moose is one too many.”
According to the Alaska government website, about 175,000 to 200,000 moose are scattered throughout Alaska.
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