Abstract
Coat coloration plays an important role in communication, camouflage, and sexual selection in animals. Genetic mutations can lead to anomalous colorations such as melanism and leucism, where animals appear, respectively, darker or lighter than normal. Reporting abnormal coloration in wild animals is an important first step to understand the distribution, prevalence, and potential fitness consequences of these rare events. Here, we report several records of suspected leucism in the Eurasian badger (Meles meles) in a population in central Norway. Several camera traps recorded at least two leucistic individuals between 2017 and 2020. It took considerable effort, almost 400,000 camera trap nights over a period of 10 years all over Norway, to obtain a total of eleven records of leucistic badgers, indicating the rarity of this phenotype. It is unclear what has caused the presence of multiple leucistic badgers in a single population, but recent colonization and lack of predators might have played a role. Due to our observations, future studies can now be developed to study the underlying mechanisms and potential consequences of leucism in this badger population. The increasing use of networks of camera traps in wildlife research will provide new opportunities to record rare coloration in wild animals.
Highlights
Coat coloration plays an important adaptive role in mammals, functioning as camouflage and in both intra-and interspecific communication (Caro, 2005)
Melanism is characterized by an excess of melanin resulting in a darker than normal coat coloration, while albinism and leucism are characterized by a deficit of melanin, where albinos are distinguished by the total lack of pigmentation including in the eyes, resulting in a lighter-than-normal coat coloration (Sage, 1962)
Erythrism is characterized by a deficit of melanin, but with an abundance of reddish color resulting in a lighter and more red appearance compared with the normal phenotype (Laacke et al, 2006)
Summary
Coat coloration plays an important adaptive role in mammals, functioning as camouflage and in both intra-and interspecific communication (Caro, 2005). Erythrism is characterized by a deficit of melanin, but with an abundance of reddish color resulting in a lighter and more red appearance compared with the normal phenotype (Laacke et al, 2006) These colorations often occur in isolated and genetically homogenous populations as they are caused by single mutations in specific genes (Hubbard et al, 2010). Leucistic, melanistic, and erythristic Eurasian badgers have been described before (Roper, 2010) and seem to occasionally be sighted in the UK (Badger Trust, 2021) To date these observations have not been recorded in an accessible format, such as in the scientific literature, making it difficult to assess the frequency of occurrence and study the causes and consequences of coat color anomalies in Eurasian
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