#color mutation

@ trinibats

Japanese Tree Frog (Dryophytes japonicus)

Goran Anastasovski

Neat! I was recording this non-native little orange platyfish (I think) when another oddball stole the show! That salt-and-pepper fella is a melanistic male eastern mosquitofish, which is one of my favorite animal color mutations in the world. We’ve talked about them a little on this blog. You can also appreciate the more muted wild-type mosquitofish coloration (pale gray) in this video near the platy. Cool to catch all three at once!

This is a natural mutation, growing in a protected but not landscaped area, among hundreds or thousands of ordinary yellow trout lilies.

Another piebald from a long time ago.

a green jay exhibits a lack of the coloration it is named for. this bird is a blue morph, a color mutation that is uncommon but has been observed previously in green jays, due to a genetic mutation. it is likely due to an underproduction of yellow pigmentation.

Spotless Cheetah, photographed by Guy Combes