rare

Off the coast of Australia, near Lady Elliot Island, the world's only known pink manta ray has once again been spotted! 

Nicknamed "Inspector Clouseau," after the the main character of the classic "The Pink Panther," was photographed by Kristian Laine. 

According to Laine, she was original confused when seeing the pink manta, believing the ray's vibrant hue was due to a camera malfunction. Laine told Australian Geographic, "I was in the middle of a manta train with seven other mantas. I was looking through my viewfinder and was thinking it's weird that one of the mantas looks pink. I actually thought my strobes were playing up, making the manta look pink."

When she returned to land, Laine discovered that the sighting was authentic, and later took to Instagram to share photos of the "amazing and absolutely unforgettable encounter."

The last, and first, time the rare manta ray was spotted was in 2015, by diving instructor Ryan Jeffery off Lady Elliot Island (once again). 

The pink coloring on this manta ray remains a mystery. Project Manta's Asia Armstrong said, "The working theory is that it is just a different and very unique expression of the melanin, but that is still to be confirmed."

In 1911, a group of scientists and adventurers left Hobart under the leadership of Dr Douglas Mawson. They were bound for Macquarie Island and then, to the unknown parts of Antarctica. The scientists of the expedition achieved enormous information that later made a major contribution to the knowledge of the region. Here are some amazing photos from their adventure, including some adorable seals and penguins. 

Via: Vintage Everyday  

Meet the cutest "Frankenstein" you'll ever see --Frankenkitten!

Frankenkitten had a rough start, a stray out in the streets and born with special needs. After homeowners noticed the kitten, along with his sibling, they surrendered the two to the Geelong Animal Welfare Society in Victoria, Australia. 

Immediately upon arrival, Frankenstein was causing quite the buzz throughout the shelter -- a cat born with four ears and one normal eye. 

Story viaCole and Marmalade

The silver-backed chevrotain, a mammal believed to have gone extinct to science, was spotted by cameras in Vietnam forests for the first time in nearly 30 years.

Meet Narwhal! Paw-bably the best name ever for this individual pup! Why? Narwhal has a tail growing exactly where a Narwhal's horn would be! 

Some are even calling it a 'unicorn horn.'

Narwhal might be the rarest pup around! Being a "magical unicorn" and all. Mac's Mission, a Missouri-based rescue, found Narwhal wandering outside in the freezing cold with another, older pup. Mac's Mission came to the rescue and they were surprised to find a little growth protruding from between the little pup's eyes. 

While the growing tail is completely nonfunctional, luckily it is not attached to anything life threatening! The experienced vet saw no reason at this time for the unicorn tail to be removed. 

We love you, Narwhal! Two tails just makes you twice as cute! 

An extremely rare spotted zebra was spotted (no pun intended) in Maasai Mara! A photographer at the Maasai Mara camp was completely surprised to come across the rare "blacker" newly born zebra. Mr Antony Tira, a renowned tour guide at the camp was able to photograph the black-dotted foal and posted it on the camp's Facebook page, where it has gained a lot of media attention. 

Tira told Nation, "At first I thought it was a zebra that had been captured and painted or marked for purposes of migration. I was confused when I first saw it." Upon closer inspection, Tira realized it was actually a zebra with melanin disorder, hardly a week old.

This is Mara's first record case of such a rare zebra.

Story via Nation

There are different types of depigmentation in felines; Leukoderma ("white skin"), leukotrichia ("white hair") or vitiligo, which leaves cats with a "snowflake" appearance. All the conditions are very rare and purely cosmetic, meaning the animals who have the rare condition aren't physically affected by it.

Vitiligo is one form of leukoderma. It usually causes loss of pigment on the face and feet, and this form of vitiligo has been linked to cats that derived from South-East Asian (Siamese, Burmese and related breeds). 

Learn more about Vitiligo at MessyBeast

The extremely rare strawberry leopard has been photographed for the very first time up close! The image was caught by a couple, Alan and Lynsey Watson, in Thaba Tholo Wilderness Reserve. The couple had seen the leopard skulking around the reserve before but was never able to capture it on film. 

The strawberry leopard gets its name due to its unusual reddish skin pigmentation. The images the Watson's managed to get show the pink-hued creature feasting on the carcass on a giraffe, which had been kill during an intense thunderstorm. 

Story via Fox News

Kurt Cobain was an animal lover and even considered opening a petting zoo. Kurt has said he liked cats over dogs because they don't care about anything that they don't find worth their time.

Meet Toby, the 6-year-old handsome cat who looks wise beyond his years, and who has feline cutaneous asthenia (FCA), also known as Ehlers Danlos syndrome in humans. Which means that his body doesn't produce collagen properly, resulting in loose skin. This also means that his skin is very fragile, easily bruised and cut. 

Story via Love Meow

If you ever were to see one of these snakes in real life, the first instinct would probably be to run away -- and quickly. But if you stopped for a moment longer, you could appreciate just how magnificent their coloring can be. Some of these snakes straight-up just look like dragons. Especially bush vipers that have dragon-like scales and a dragon-shaped head.

Snakes are some of the most misunderstood creatures despite there being lots of snake facts and information available. People seem to have a natural fear and avoidance of snakes, even though some, like the zombie snake, are just big goofy nope-ropes that won't even hurt anyone. 

Snakes in general are fairly common all over the world, as it is believed snakes evolved from burrowing lizards, which were already world-wide. Some snakes are extremely rare, and seeing them is a real treat for enthusiasts. Just be sure to keep a safe distance, and make sure to do that funny dance everyone does if you touch the snake's skin and it grosses you out.

A truck driver was driving through the rice fields of Yolo County, Sacramento, when he came across a white mound in the middle of the road. Quickly swerving to avoid hitting it, he continued on for a split second until he saw another truck behind him swerve as well. The truck driver decided to turn around and investigate but was confused as to what the white mound was, upon closer inspection.  

As first, he thought it was a lamb or maybe some type of goat, but he heard it mew, like a cat. He called up Kindred Spirits Fawn Rescue center and sent the center's President, Diane Nicholas, a photo of the animal. 

Nicholas told LA Times, "He said, 'I don't know what I've got, I said, 'Oh, my gosh, that's an albino fawn!'"

Story via LA Times

According to China Daily, the infrared camera captured the incredibly rare footage of a fully albino panda in the mountains of China's Wolong National Nature Reserve. The images were released to the public this past Saturday and researchers say it is the very first time an entirely while panda has ever been identified. 

Li Sheng, of Peking University, told Xinhua news agency, the never-before-seen albino panda seems to be at most 2 years old. "Judging from the photo, the panda is physically strong and taking steady steps, suggesting the gene mutation is not affecting its normal life."

And being albino, the bear might be more sensitive to the sun but in no way should affect its ability to reproduce. If it were to reproduce, however, the offspring would only inherit the albinism if both parents carried the gene, as it is a recessive trait. In a 2014 census, it was revealed that roughly 1800 giant pandas are left in this world, according to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), marking their status has "vulnerable". 

Officials say that they will attempt to continue track of the bear by installing more motion cameras. 

And while experts knew albinism occurred in pandas, this is the very first time it's been captured on camera! Check out the image below! 

Get your feline fix with these vintage photos of big cats in action. Via: Mental Floss

Grasshoppers are green, ladybugs are red with black dots, dalmations have black spots... don't they? Nature can be so unpredictable and beautiful. Check out these beautiful creatures below:

Originally found via Brightside.me

What an incredible triumph! Tim Wong, an aquatic biologist, took it upon himself to fix a situation that no one seemed to be doing anything about. And he did it all within his backyard! Just goes to show that anyone can make a difference. 

Story originally found via Brightside