18 Animals That Lost and Won the Genetic Lottery at the Same Time

White turtles, black zebras, golden tigers, pink katydids — they often don’t survive for long in the wild without the benefits of their natural coloring. However, such animals never fail to capture people's hearts.

Melanistic and albino zebras: Unlike albinism, melanism is the over-production of melanin, the pigment that colors skin. Some animals, like zebras, don't lose their pigment completely. A melanistic zebra isn't fully black – it has stripes of different shapes, and the dark markings become thicker and more prominent.