Rare Video Captures a White Giraffe and Her Baby in the Wild

A towering, white giraffe looks like something that's stepped out of a fantasy book. But these creatures, while rare, are very real, and they've recently been sighted in Kenya.

As The Guardian reports, the snowy-white mother and child were filmed by conservationists in the Ishaqbini Hirola Conservancy in the eastern part of the country. After learning of the giraffes from nearby villagers, the Hirola Conservation Programme (HCP) went off in search of them with their cameras ready. HCP wrote in a blog post: "They were so close and extremely calm and seemed not disturbed by our presence. The mother kept pacing back and forth a few yards in front of us while signaling the baby giraffe to hide behind the bushes—a characteristic of most wildlife mothers in the wild to prevent the predation of their young."

The condition that lends the creatures their pale coats isn't albinism but a genetic mutation called leucism. Animals with leucism have trouble producing pigments in their skin, fur, and feathers. (This doesn't affect soft tissue, which is why the giraffes' eyes are still dark.) Leucism can be observed in some selectively bred species, like peacocks and axolotls, but in wild giraffes, it's incredibly rare. According to HCP, this event marks one of only three known sightings of a white giraffe.

Reticulated giraffes of any coloring are scarce to begin with: There are an estimated 8500 specimens alive in the wild today. Fortunately the conservancy where the white giraffes were spotted has more than 75 square miles of land where they can roam safely.