White orcas are extremely rare.
In the Northwest Pacific, scientists have found at least five white whales.
The multiplicity of such individuals suggests that among orcas inbreeding has taken on alarming proportions.
Normally, these animals are black and white. Individuals of white, which the scientists saw earlier was alone and undeveloped — it is believed that the color white is associated with genetic diseases and their carriers usually die young.
A group of five to eight white whales zoologists have discovered in the Kuril Islands in August 2016. Such individuals are very rare: for example, in the seas around Antarctica, which is home to tens of thousands of killer whales, scientists have never seen. It remains unclear whether the white color with albinism or other inherited diseases.
“Five, or even eight white predators in only one area of Russian waters of the Pacific ocean — it clearly indicates a problem of inbreeding (mating closely related),” said Erich Hoyt, an employee of the project “killer Whales of the Russian Far East.”
