Backyard surprise: Jet-black kookaburras

Deborah Winfield's suburban Sydney backyard has become a haven for unusual dark birds - but she had no idea what they were or where they had come from.

"They looked like kookaburras but were covered in beautiful glossy black feathers so I got on the net and it turns out they are kookaburras," she told the Daily Telegraph this week.

Australian Museum naturalist Martyn Robinson said: "It's the result of a genetic mutation called hyper-melanism - an excess production of dark pigmentation and a similar, but opposite, mutation to albinism.

"Not a lot is known about them but it appears it might be more common in young kookaburras and that they might change back to almost normal colouration on their first moult."

And that's where the story of the visitors, who appeared two weeks ago, gets even more strange.

"The first black kookaburra was a young one and turned up with two normal-looking ones, then two adult black kookaburras started appearing as well," Ms Winfield said.

"Now the younger black bird is actually getting darker, not lighter, and it only appears and stays with the two older black ones, and we even have a fourth darker kookaburra, but not as dark as the others, turning up too."

It should be noted kookaburras are very territorial and all of the birds visiting Ms Winfield's backyard will likely be part of the same close family group.

Whitening strikes wombats twice in Ceduna

Last year we brought you the charming tale of an albino wombat rescued in South Australia and left in the care of, well, a wildlife carer. Nicknamed Polar, the ghostly white marsupial was the toast of Ceduna, the small town near where he was found, and proved an internet hit.

Now it turns out lightning, or in this case, whitening, can occur in the same place!

Joining Polar a scant few months later was the imaginatively named Icy.


Val Salmon, who has been rescuing wombats since she was 14, said Icy and Polar were from different families and aged 14-18 months. The two wombats have been nursed back to health, with Polar now weighing 10.75 kilograms, and Icy 10.45 kilograms.

Under South Australian law, rescued wombats cannot be returned to the wild and are usually adopted by zoos or other educational parks after they recover, but some of the rescued animals at Ms Salmon's centre are so badly traumatised no one wants to adopt them.

The centre - which is split between Ms Salmon's half-acre backyard and a 200-acre fauna park - is home to eight wombats, eight joey kangaroos, birds, possums, emus, pet lambs and sheep and many lizards.

Ms Salmon manages the Wombat and Fauna Rescue Centre "off my own bat" and runs a free daily educational talk for tourists that is funded by donations. But she is hoping to get more contributions so she can build up the fauna park and provide a permanent home for all the rescued native animals.

To donate, write to P.O. Box 760, Ceduna SA 5690 or email donval110 AT bigpond.com

Baby wombat found in Ceduna is all white

A rare southern hairy nose wombat, all the rare for being white, has been rescued in Ceduna, Australia, and is recovering under the watchful eye of a wildlife carer after being discovered a month ago near the township alone and in poor condition, close to death.

Nicknamed Polar, the little wombat is now in the care of Val Salmon, an Aussie national wildlife rescuer. Salmon has been rescuing and taking care of wombats for four decades.

Polar isn't the first white wombat to attract the limelight in Australia.

'Stuart Little', as he was christened, was rescued and rehabilitated in care at the Maryknoll Wildlife Centre in Victoria, pictured below with a fellow patient, in 2009.

And there's this historical gem, proving even in the early 1900s white wombats were making an albeit infrequent appearance.

Rare albino whale visits Australian waters

A white whale calf spotted off the Whitsundays coast is believed to be just a few weeks old but it's impossible to tell yet whether the animal is related to Migaloo.

Species expert Mark Read, of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, said without DNA information experts would be unable to link the calf to the other famous white whale.

"We know from basic genetics that this animal could have come from a dark mum and dark father and Wayne Fewings, who took the photograph, said the female was in attendance was a standard dark humpback."

Wayne Fewings captured the white calf on camera while diving near the entrance to Cid Harbour last week.

Mr Fewings, who calls both the Whitsundays and the Gold Coast home, said he and his son's family were in a 4.5m runabout boat when the white calf, believed to be around 4m in length, and two predominantly black adult humpback whales swam towards them.

Wolgan Valley's Albino wallaroos

A rare albino wallaroo has been delighting staff and visitors at the Wolgan Valley Resort and Spa in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney.

"We've had sightings of one mature albino wallaroo on the property since opening 18 months ago, but to have two more spotted on the property is incredibly rare and exciting for us and our guests," the resort's general manager Joost Heymeijer said.

The resort's field guides have noticed the albino wallaroos are more timid and less trusting of humans than their grey brothers and sisters, and wait until it is darker to come out to feed.

The education program co-ordinator at Featherdale Wildlife Park in Doonside, Peter Spradbrow, said albinism is a rare condition where the skin, hair and eyes lack the pigment that gives them colour.

It is observed across many animal species, but in the wild it is difficult for an albino creature to reach adulthood.

For more examples of albino macropods, check out earlier CFZ posts.

More Australian albinos

Some time ago we blogged about albino kangaroos, and their popularity as zoo exhibits in the early days of zoological parks in Australia. Well the macropods were not alone! (Although we did find one more for you to enjoy - see below).

We have uncovered a fresh selection of albino wildlife featured in the pages of old Australian newspapers that we thought we'd share with you all. Have you got an interesting shot of Australian albino wildlife? Send it in...