i have unaveragely good knowledge of conditions that affect pigment in animals, and i dont really know why
so fun facts with gold (take with grain of salt):
we all know about the albino condition, but what about lutino? the lutino mutation affects birds that can have a yellow color. it is genetically identical to albinism, but instead of making the bird white, it makes them yellow. Together they are known as the Ino mutation. Other animals can have this too but it most commonly occurs in birds, and the term lutino mainly refers to birds. Other animals are called xanthochromistic.
There is also leucism. In leucistic animals, the pigment cells rack up defects during their growth. Not all pigment cells are affected, meaning that leucistic animals can still have color and often retain color in parts of their skin and eyes. This is where piebalds come from!
Melanistic animals are completely black. They produce an excess of melanin, darkening their features drastically. This is the condition black panthers have.
One bird takes it further: the Ayam Cemani chicken breed. They have hyperpigmentation, which makes their bones and internal organs black as well. pretty metal little birdies
Abundism and pseudomelanism can make an animal appear completely melanistic, but they are not. They will usually have some lighter patches, which melanistic animals do not have.
Melanism and associated conditions are usually much less dangerous for the animal than albinism. Albinism basically means some animals get fuckin cooked real quick by the sun. Gators and crocs with albinism, for example, don’t last very long outside captivity. 24 hours tops.
Also fun bird color fact: The darker a bird feather is, the more resistant to damage it is. This means that albino birds get raggedy feathers much quicker. You might see a lot of birds with black feather tips specifically because that keeps them from getting damaged as easily. You may find that a lot of worn seagull feathers still have the black tips intact, or at least more intact than the rest of the feather.
colors is cool