14 Animals Painted by the Night Itself

If there’s something that never ceases to amaze us, it’s nature’s tricks. A perfect example is melanism: a phenomenon that gives animals a much darker coloring than their relatives. We collected 17 photos proving that black suits absolutely everyone.

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We thought to present you a gallery of some such animals which are totally black in colour. No one will be able to find them if seen during the night. Of course, they are similar to a black painting. However you will realize the prestige and the uncommon beauty of black when you see these pictures. Let’s scroll down to check out these amazing pictures. Please do not forget to share the content among your friends who are interested in black.

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There are four breeds of chicken that have black insides, and all of them possess the same genetic mutation. A scientist explains how it came about. THE Ayam cemani chicken may be the most deeply pigmented creature on earth. Not only are the bird’s feathers, beak, comb, tongue, and toes a striking, blue-ish black, but so are its bones. Even the chicken’s meat looks like it has been marinated in squid ink.

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Servals are normally tan with black spots, but an unusually dark animal in Kenya surprised photographer Sergio Pitamitz. The animal is melanistic—its genes carry a mutation that creates more dark pigment than light pigment, according to Eduardo Eizirik, a biologist and cat-melanism expert at Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. Though melanism is common enough among wildcats—it’s reported in 13 of the 38 known species—the trait seems to be relatively rare in servals: There are just at several records of black servals in the scientific literature from Kenya and Tanzania.

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The jaguar, like a number of other feline species, is occasionally subject to melanism, which gives the cat a black fur coat. In some instances, a melanistic jaguar’s spots can still be seen, but much of its its tan fur will be obscured by higher-than-normal amounts of dark pigmentation, which is a result of an ancestral genetic mutation. Since the jaguar is endangered, spotting a black jaguar is especially rare, with only an estimated 600 extant individuals in the wild. Black jaguars are often mistakenly lumped into the category of “black panther” with other melanistic big cats like the leopard, but they are a completely separate species.

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A giraffe like you’ve never seen before. Darker male giraffes have been found to be more solitary and less social than their lighter-colored counterparts, according to new research from The University of Queensland. A long-term study revealed that the color of male giraffes’ spots more strongly relates to their patterns of social association, rather than their age, as previously thought. Giraffes have recently been moved from ‘of least concern’ to ‘vulnerable’ on the IUCN Red List, so further research on these gentle giants is critical.

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The best example are flamingos who owe their stunning pink color to the beta-carotene found in their usual food – shrimp and plancton. A flamingo in captivity who doesn’t get its habitual food will turn white. Speaking of flamingos, three years ago a unique black flamingo was photographed in Cyprus. A similar bird had been previously spotted in Israel, but experts think it is the same flamingo seen in Cyprus. This example of melanistic flamingo is considered the only one of its kind in the world.

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All black penguins are so rare there is practically no research on the subject–biologists guess that perhaps one in every quarter million of penguins shows evidence of at least partial melanism, whereas the penguin we saw appears to be almost entirely (if not entirely) melanistic. So far, king penguins represent the most documented cases of melanism, though there is evidence of partial melanism appearing in other penguin species, namely Adélie, chinstrap, gentoo, macaroni and royal penguins.

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The opposite of albinos, melanistic deer can be found in a small segment of the Hill Country. Simply put, a melanistic, or “black,” deer is one whose body produces excessive amounts of the pigment known as melanin, resulting in an animal that’s much darker than we’ve come to expect. Unlike albinism, which is an all-or-nothing proposition (albino animals are either white or they aren’t), melanism is a continuum, with deer that range from chocolate brown to jet black.

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Dog coat color is governed by how genes are passed from dogs to their puppies and how those genes are expressed in each dog. Dogs have about 19,000 genes in their genome but only a handful affect the physical variations in their coats. And the usual rules apply—most genes come in pairs, one from the dog’s mother and one from its father. Genes of interest have more than one version, or allele. Usually only one or a small number of alleles exist for each gene. So, at any one gene locus a dog will either be homozygous, that is, the gene is made of two identical alleles (one from its mother and one its father) or heterozygous, that is, the gene is made of two different alleles (again, one inherited from each parent).

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Black squirrels are a melanistic subgroup of squirrels with black coloration on their fur. The phenomenon occurs with several species of squirrels, although it is most frequent with the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) and the fox squirrel (Sciurus niger). This is a Melanistic Eastern Grey Squirrel. Melanism is the opposite of albinism, it is a dark coloration of the skin, hair, fur, or feathers because of a high concentration of melanin.

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The presence of a dark-coloured body colouration polymorphism (melanism) is a pervasive phenomenon in the animal kingdom, particularly in reptiles. We provide the first reporting of melanic individuals in a subspecies of common lizards, Zootoca vivipara carniolica or the Eastern oviparous lineage. Two melanic females were found out of 194 individuals collected. Melanic females did not differ in size or weight from non-melanic females. No melanic individuals were found (N= 134) in the nearby viviparous population. Melanism has been reported in related lineages of Z. vivipara, so the discovery in this sister to all other lineages suggests that it is an ancestral polymorphism. The frequency of melanism varies but other studies also find it is usually very rare (< 3%) and may be sex-biased. The processes mediating advantages and disadvantages of melanism in Z. vivipara are unclear and require more research. 12 | 14
The black coloration of the Black Moor Goldfish comes from an excess of melanic pigment deposited in the scales. Most young Moor under 30 days old are quite bronze with normal eyes, but from five or six weeks of age the black pigment begins to appear in some early developers along with the telescopic eyes.

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Rare melanistic seals have been captured on camera in north Norfolk. National Trust rangers have spotted 10 of the black-coated animals at the Blakeney Point colony over the course of this winter’s pupping season. Rangers have spotted 10 melanistic seal pups during the winter 2020-21 pupping season at Blakeney Point. – Credit: National Trust Images/Hanne Siebers

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The Silver Fox is a melanistic form of red fox. Melanism is an undue development of dark-colored pigment in the skin, and is the opposite of albinism. Silver foxes display a great deal of pelt variation: some are completely black, save for the white tail tip, while others may be bluish-grey. Wild silver foxes do not reproduce exclusively with members of the same coat morph, and can be littermates with the common red variety.

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