#the leucism channel

[elodieunderglass]

what do you like .... do? I see people tagging you all the time. Is there a reason or are they just moots who think that post is youcore?

It’s not so much what I do, it’s what other people kindly do. For my part I am just grateful.

Things I am known to collect (and admire and reblog):

#Horrible things with legs for a tag I’ve curated for, like, 10 years.

Relatedly, some absurd/weird fusions and chimaeras fall into this (usually being horrible or having legs) as well as fine art. It’s more about the ~vibe.

Wild animals exhibiting colour morphs, particularly leucistic ones.

Piebald birds in the wild, that made people kindly think of me, because they knew I’d be excited right there with them.

Swans, for obvious reasons (my swan comics, my avatar, the fact that I draw myself as a swan)

Other waterfowl, especially geese (sometimes people mistake geese for swans) and ducks (the ritual reply is usually something referencing “the massive continuity of ducks”)

Equines if they’re especially notable in some way.

Chickens ditto

Feathered dinosaurs ditto

Narrowboats (rarely)

I sometimes make jokes about wanting (a bag of) teeth, and so sometimes I am kindly given tumblr posts that are functionally like being given a bag of teeth.

Lord of the Rings, particularly hobbits

Birds generally, if they have the right flavour. I cannot explain what the right flavour is, but there is one

Deer when they’re completely normal

Art and craft of a certain level of absurdity

I’ve been a fan of the Aubreyad for 8 million years

References to my writing

In-jokes and references

as for why, you will have to ask everyone individually, and I think they’ll probably answer “Elodie sometimes makes funny noises when poked.”

I am sure this explains nothing, which is exactly how I like it. Cheers

[elodieunderglass]

A leucistic sailfish for your leucism collection. https://thinkstewartville.com/2025/04/14/a-rare-silver-fish-caught-by-fishermen-off-the-coast-of-guatemala/

https://thinkstewartville.com/2025/04/14/a-rare-silver-fish-caught-by-fishermen-off-the-coast-of-guatemala/

This is EXCELLENT, thank you!

[elodieunderglass]

Hat tip @lovedthestars-toofondly for making me aware of an article with these beautiful photos of a leucistic barn owl!

Photographer Andreas Schüring has an Instagram here.

[elodieunderglass]

Hat tip @darkmoonstruck for drawing my attention to the lovely rufous snowy owl spotted in Michigan!

[elodieunderglass]

Spotted in the wild: a leucistic Post Office van. Had to keep my distance - it was obviously shy from rejection by its red-breasted siblings - but it seemed healthy and well-developed nevertheless

What a beauty! Thank you so much! It’s so lovely how it still has the Royal Mail markings despite not having the red colouration 🥹 you’re right, initially wondered if it was a domestic cross, but it wouldn’t have the rump visibility markings or the crest if it was. Thank you for this lovely sighting!

[elodieunderglass]

Hey @elodieunderglass, look who I met at the duckpond! I don't actually know if this is a dilute colour morph, or a species hybrid. It just looks like my camera totally washed it out, but in real life.

BABE? I'm so in love with this goose? I would marry this goose. If I met this goose I wouldn't be cool. I would cry. Thank you.

[elodieunderglass]

Saw one of your posts about leucism!

I happen to be in an area that has a population of leucistic magpies! The North American kind. We call them ghost magpies here, and the population is big enough that I see at least a few every year. Usually in the same area. But I know the gene is probably pretty common because I've seen parents with regular colouring with a lecusitic chick. It's something I really like about my city, and I'm really glad the trait has been passed on for so long here!

This is such a beautiful thing, thank you so much! What a lovely photo and what a lovely creature! I love that it's partially fixed in the population.

[elodieunderglass]

Thank you so much! The comment from @ayellowbirds is genuinely part of the reason I adore and collect colour morphs. Without pattern and colour, you’re faced with the surprise of the animal, like experiencing it for the first time.

(Our brains are so good at categorising experiences, that normally, as soon as we experience something, it’s absorbed, and no longer surprising; how delightful to find that we can be surprised by animals again!)

But it also helps you to pick out what’s REALLY inherent to the animal, what pieces of gesture and motion (obscured by colour, pattern or our own familiarity) are actually integral to the understanding of the true Beast….

The albino reminds us to draw raccoons far-footed, and as if they are wearing puffy fur coats that taper comically down each limb.

Albino raccoon

[elodieunderglass]

hey, you’re the albino animals guy right? If so, I don’t have any pictures, but there’s a like 5 year old albino groundhog (dubbed Mozzarella) who lives near my local bank

Don’t worry I see the vision

Oh this is GOOD. Thank you

[elodieunderglass]

leucistic (i think?) pigeon c:

Very nice! Thank you so much! This is a very interesting question in a way. We use “leucistic” to refer to a wild organism with a mutation that affects its pigment in a certain way - but as soon as it’s a domestic animal and the character is fixed, we call it something else!

This is a feral pigeon! It’s a descendant of domestic pigeons that would have been kept as pets, messengers, or food. The color pattern it exhibits would have been bred into it specifically over hundreds of years. People have lost interest in keeping pigeons at an astonishing rate, but once upon a time this was a very common hobby. As a result, the vast majority (virtually all!) of these birds that you see around the world are the feral descendants of pets. That’s why they come in different colours, which wild animals generally don’t - wild animals mostly look completely identical.

So is this domestic-animal-turned-feral-leucistic? Yes in one definition - but by another definition, a pigeon fancier could give this precise colouration a name and history!

Thank you so much!

[aqueenvictorious]

@elodieunderglass today on the way home from getting groceries i saw a field of many black cows and a single white cow, and thought of you and the leucism channel

(we were going too fast to take a picture)

[elodieunderglass]

I absolutely do! Thank you! and I don’t mind seeing it however many times it keeps making us happy (it probably always will)

aw hell yeah

goth manta goth manta goth manta goth manta goth manta

Link.

[quitealotofsodapop]

Been watching videos by Unnatural History Channel on the biology of Monster Hunter creatures and I want to share a theory about the Rathian and Rathalos variants/deviants since I first started playing in MH4U;

The Rath variants are actually examples of Intersex/Gynandromorphic animals - a where a member of a sexually dimorphic species presents with one or more traits of the sexes. This is a trait most assiociated with creatures with distinct sexual dimorphism like butterflies, but has been seen in reptilian and bird lineages too. It's not a far reach for reptiles like the Raths to also display these traits.

Most often it a side-effect of Chimerism - where two fertilized eggs fuse into one, resulting in an individual who presents two DNA sets. If the eggs are carrying different sex chromosomes it leads to the individual being born/hatched intersex. Most often this is presented as a mutation called; Bilateral Gynandromorphism where the individual's traits are "split" down the middle.

In the case of the Raths; Male Rathalos have red scales and smaller bodies. Whilst, Female Rathian have olive-green scales and are larger.

It's not a far reach for sexually dimorphic reptiles like the Raths to also display intersex traits. The lore of Monster Hunter specifically describes Pink/Azure variants as genetic mutations. The different coloured variants also aren't very accepted by their more common counterparts - making it likely that there is a deeper difference than colouration.

Pink Rathian could very well be an intersex female whose body is producing the red pigmentation of a male Rathalos. Pink Rathian is more agile than it's usual Green counterpart because it lacks the size dimorphism of the female. She could also be more aggressive due to having the territorial nesting behaviour of Rathalos.

The vice versa being; Azure Rathalos is an intersex male with insufficient testosterone to produce the red pigment. He could be more aggressive than Red Rathalos due to being seen as same-sex competition by Rathian rather than a potential mating partner.

The regular Raths are violent towards them because they see them as same-sex competition rather than potential mating partners.

On the flipside;

The Silver and Gold variants however, could be individuals who've undergone a full dimorphic sex change - not unlike a Lioness who grows a mane and takes on the role of a male lion in a pride, or a male Clownfish who changes it's sex to become the dominant egg-laying female. The difference in scale-colours could be caused by sudden hormonal shifts in the body eliminating previous red/green producing pigment cells - leading to xanthochromism/leucism in the individual.

Basically they're transgender Raths.

They can only breed with each other simply because their bodies do not match the dimorphism of more common Raths. Though I can imagine there is at least one regular/variant Rath couple out there who fell in love, and don''t care a single bit that they don't seem to lay eggs together - instead adopting eggs left orphaned by hunters.

[delightrolls]

A refined version the redesign used for Silver the Hedgehog in Sonic Thunderstorm. Shown without shading & lighting and with shading & lighting as well as with & without the Telekinesis overlay for color clarity.

Silver's redesign involved cutting a tuft a Silver's hair to appear less comparable a marijuana leaf and he has more visibly silver parts than the official design which a more off-white gray and the silver parts take the form of streaks so that Silver can have the futuristic markings as a part of him as well.

The blockiness of the Silver's cuffs was switched to rounded bracelets and were altered to be blue to pair with the other shades of blue used throughout the design. Furthermore, the bracelets are intended to resemble crystal since Chaos Jewels are often channel Chaos Energy.

Lastly, Silver is designed to be a Leucistic Brandt's Hedgehog since Mobian Brandt's Hedgehogs have streaks and similar to the ones Silver was redesigned to have and Silver's fur is very pale while lacking the red eyes like Albino animals which is somewhat similar to Leucism.

⬇️Beyond the Read More lies the original redesign⬇️

My personal redesign for Silver the Hedgehog with and without shading/lighting.

[elodieunderglass]

A blonde squirrel and a red pigeon for your leucism channel!

(do squirrels count as horrible things with legs...?)

Oooooh YES, I love them both, thank you! You do a good line in croissant-coloured things in your neighborhood!

[elodieunderglass]

Hat tip @chaosaccountant ! Enchanted!

this unique ‘blonde’ canada goose shows off one of a kind coloration due to leucism, a genetic mutation that results in a partial lack of melanin. the condition is frequently confused with albinism, but albino animals have a full lack of melanin; albino birds will most likely display all-white feathers, pink skin, and red or pink eyes.