Rare bright yellow turtle goes viral among netizens on social media

Odisha and West Bengal spotted a rare bright yellow turtle and has gone viral among netizens on social media platforms, thanks to its striking looks.

Amid all the discoveries and technology, nature is still full of surprises! The recent beautiful surprise nature has handed us is the rare bright yellow turtle that was been spotted twice. This turtle, speculated to be part of the Indian Flapshell species, was first found back in July at Balasore district, Odisha. The second spotting and the most recent one is a pond at Burdwan village, West Bengal.

Like several turtles that have textures and patterns on their body given the several mixes of colors, this one stands to be different. The whole body and the shell of the turtle is striking rare bright yellow in color instead of just specific parts that are commonly seen.

As per the Weather Channel India, this turtle species can be commonly found in South Asian countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and Myanmar.

Susanta Nanda, an Indian Forest Service officer, who posted the footage of the first yellow spotted turtle at Odisa, through his post on Twitter said, his breed was an ‘albino’. Ramesh Pandey, another officer through Twitter said it’s not very clear whether a new species or albinism or mutant albino.

As per experts, the reason for this rare color in this turtle is attributed to the deficiency of pigment called tyrosine, which is present in high amounts in reptiles including crocodiles.

IFS officer Debashish Sharma posted on Twitter after the rescue and immediately after, the turtle became an internet sensation and the nation’s favorite discovery.

Check out the posts here:

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

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

This is the second incident in the recent past when Yellow Flapshell Turtle has been found. Before this one Yellow Flapshell turtle was found in Balasore, Odisha. Still not very clear whether a new species or albinism or mutant albino. https://t.co/hTL062qN5B

— Ramesh Pandey IFS (@rameshpandeyifs) October 27, 2020

Thank you for tagging me. This is the yellow morph of albino Indian flapshell. Not really rare. Check this explanation here, even though this is about the old news of similar morph from Odisha, the explanation remains the same- https://t.co/vtqXijFCsd

— Sneha Dharwadkar (@Herpomania) October 27, 2020

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