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***Credits*** The dancing ravens were provided by Lisa Konrad and the Animation Arthouse
Special thanks to the North Island Wild Life Recovery Centre for the beautiful picture of the white raven.
There are varying degrees of albinism in ravens. Some ravens have partial albinism, which is where the whole body is not white. Instead, the body will have parts that are white. Often it will be symmetrical, like the same area of a wing for instance. This is the most common form. Imperfect albinism is where it is common for the raven to be mostly white but not totally so. The next degree of albinism is incomplete albinism. The bird is has no pigment in eyes, skin or feathers, but not all three of them. Then there is total albinism, which is very very rare. There is no dark pigment anywhere on the bird.
The world is not a safe place for an albino raven, and the greater the degree of albinism the worse it tends to be. Besides the fact that albinism is a natural anomaly, it is believed that there are not many birds with total albinism due to natural selection - they are easy for predators to spot. They also tend to be more unhealthy than a non-albino raven, having poor eyesight and brittle feathers. Besides these factors, normal ravens will shun or even attack the white ravens in their territory.
Some cultures claim that the white raven is the "King of Ravens" who will reign until he is dethroned by another white raven.
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