MalaMala Reserve game ranger Timothy Jansen Van Vuuren was in for quite the treat last month as an otherwise routine tour led him to stumble upon quite the uncommon sight: a pink elephant calf.
Though it is now known that the elephant was born with leucism, an abnormality involving pigment loss, MalaMala Reserve says the elephant's initial sighting sparked a debate on whether it had leucism or albinism.
In explaining how rare the occurrence is, Van Vuuren noted that in his lifetime of visiting the bush, he had never encountered a wild animal with either genetic disorder.
"Things like this are not very well documented, so it's very interesting to witness, as you won't find things like this in books."
