Spot the difference.
A US zoo has welcomed one of the rarest animals born in captivity: a giraffe without spots.
The female Reticulated giraffe, with a uniform brown colour, arrived at Brights Zoo in Tennessee on July 31. According to zookeepers she is the first to be born with the rare pigmentation since 1972, when Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo reported the last all-tan specimen.
In the wild, giraffes’ distinctive pattern is designed to camouflage them in the scrub of sub-Saharan Africa. The spots also contain vascular blood vessels that can allow them to regulate their temperature in the heat.
While each giraffe is born with a different cluster of marks, like a fingerprint that is unique to the animal, it is extremely rare for them to be born in a uniform colour.