The world according to me....

Lots of people report seeing “albino” hatchlings when excavating nests. But strictly speaking, albinism means lacking melanin and hence no pigment. All albino animals have pink eyes, because without any pigment the blood vessels in the eyes are visible. In contrast, most “white” turtles remaining in nests that already emerged usually lack only some pigment, but have dark eyes. When kept in captivity, these “amelanistic” turtles will develop darker colours on their carapace as they grow, as I was told by Henk Reichart. He used to be involved with a green turtle ranch in Suriname, and often raised these “white” hatchlings in captivity, and saw them become progressively darker with age.

When I first went to Brazil in 1995, I saw in captivity an amelanistic green turtle (photo above) and a true albino loggerhead, complete with pink eyes, (it was one of 22 produced from a single nest in southern Brazil). Note how the green turtle in the photo has some dark colour (melanin) in its carapace. As Henk had predicted, this turtle became darker over time, and the last time I saw it (December 2002), its flippers and head had become darker. I forgot to take a photo, but you can see a recent picture here. In contrast, the albino loggerhead hatchling died within a year, as had most of its nest-mates. I believe that only one albino loggerhead from this nest still survives at the Ubatuba aquarium, near São Paulo, and it is still white with pink eyes.