Debashish Sharma, an Indian Forest Service Officer in West Bengal, India shared a couple of exciting photos of an extremely rare yellow turtle on Twitter.
Today a Yellow Turtle was rescued from a Pond in Burdwan,WB. It's one kind of a rarely occuring Flapshell Turtle. @ParveenKaswan @SanthoshaGubbi @RandeepHooda @rameshpandeyifs pic.twitter.com/enTyNAkxmP
— Debashish Sharma, IFS (@deva_iitkgp) October 27, 2020
The turtle was rescued from a village in West Bengal and Officer Sharma identified it as a flapshell turtle that was partially albino. Its body and shell glowing bright yellow is unmistakenly eyecatching and so rare that it’s only the second time a yellow turtle of this species has ever been recorded on camera.
The first time a yellow flapshell turtle was recorded on camera was in Odisha, India in July 2016 after being rescued from the wild. It’s much smaller but it’s super cute. See it in the Twitter video below.
A rare yellow turtle was spotted & rescued in Balasore, Odisha yesterday.
Most probably it was an albino. One such aberration was recorded by locals in Sindh few years back. pic.twitter.com/ZHAN8bVccU
— Susanta Nanda (@susantananda3) July 20, 2020
Sneha Dharwadkar, a wildlife biologist said the reason why it has the bright yellow color is because there’s a low amount of a pigment in the turtle’s body called tyrosine, which is normally found in most reptiles.
The Indian flapshell turtle is most commonly found in South Asian countries. The average size they grow to is from nine to fourteen inches long. Their diet mainly consists of aquatic vegetation, shrimp, fish, snails, frogs, and insects.
“News of this rare yellow turtle has, not surprisingly, made a splash on social media, where people are comparing the creature to Moon Pies and egg yolks,” CNET reported.
— Pleo #DOPEFISHLIVES (@PleoTCA) November 1, 2020
It’s an albino kind whose peculiar yellow colour is may be bcoz of either some genetic mutation or congenital disorder due to absence of tyrosine pigment. @SudhaRamenIFS @drqayumiitk @wiiofficial1 @moefcc @susantananda3 @mvraoforindia pic.twitter.com/Yfhdu3D06t
— Debashish Sharma, IFS (@deva_iitkgp) October 27, 2020