subject: Rare Albino Kookaburras Discovered In Australia [print this page] Australia's wildlife carers said on Monday they have uncovered a never-before-seen pair of blue- winged albino kookaburras, believed to have been swept from their nests in a wild storm.
According to Harry Kunz from the Eagles Nest Wildlife Sanctuary, the six-week-old birds, renowned for their laughing cry, were found waterlogged at the base of a tree by a cattle farmer near Ravenshoe, in far northern Queensland.
Kunz said the pink-eyed, pink-beaked and starkly white creatures, believed to be sisters, are the first specimens of their kind ever found in Australia. The pair were handed into a wildlife park at Ravenshoe, south-west of Cairns of Queensland.
The stark white birds rarely live long in the wild, because they have no camouflage, and as their white color sticks out, every reptile, owl or predator will get them.
Eagles New Wildlife Hospital carer Leslie Brown said the pair require special care.
"Because they can't see properly, because of the lack of pigment, they have problems finding food," she told ABC News on Monday. "Because they are so young they still haven't been taught by their parents how to hunt. They're being fed mice and chicken and other delicate morsels."
Brown said it is a once in a lifetime' discovery.
"We've been in contact with a couple of other zoos that have kept white kookaburras in the past," she said.
"At the moment, we can only find that there's three other white laughing kookaburras held in captivity in Australia.
"But these are the only (albino) blue-winged kookaburras that have ever been recorded in Australia."
Australia's wildlife carers said on Monday they have uncovered a never-before-seen pair of blue- winged albino kookaburras, believed to have been swept from their nests in a wild storm.
According to Harry Kunz from the Eagles Nest Wildlife Sanctuary, the six-week-old birds, renowned for their laughing cry, were found waterlogged at the base of a tree by a cattle farmer near Ravenshoe, in far northern Queensland.
Kunz said the pink-eyed, pink-beaked and starkly white creatures, believed to be sisters, are the first specimens of their kind ever found in Australia. The pair were handed into a wildlife park at Ravenshoe, south-west of Cairns of Queensland.
The stark white birds rarely live long in the wild, because they have no camouflage, and as their white color sticks out, every reptile, owl or predator will get them.
Eagles New Wildlife Hospital carer Leslie Brown said the pair require special care.
"Because they can't see properly, because of the lack of pigment, they have problems finding food," she told ABC News on Monday. "Because they are so young they still haven't been taught by their parents how to hunt. They're being fed mice and chicken and other delicate morsels."
Brown said it is a once in a lifetime' discovery.
"We've been in contact with a couple of other zoos that have kept white kookaburras in the past," she said.
"At the moment, we can only find that there's three other white laughing kookaburras held in captivity in Australia.
"But these are the only (albino) blue-winged kookaburras that have ever been recorded in Australia."
by: rowen
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