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As someone who has researched zoology and biology for about 40 years as a hobby, I gotta chime in. That rearing horse? NOT albino or leucistic. True albinism is not known in horses--the blue-eyed all-whites are either homozygous for the cream dilution gene or from a Dominant White bloodline, tho' most of the DW lines currently known do not alter eye color. That spotted pattern is the result of two gene complexes, Leopard and Pattern, and a frozen Ice Age horse hide found in the taiga tested positive for LP so it's been around a LONG time. Note that the horse (it's either a mini, a German-bred Shetland pony, or a Danish Knabstrupper pony) has dark eyes and skin. The all-white moose does look like it could be an albino--that eye looks dark but could be dilated and have a pale blue iris. Since all true antlers are bone, no color dilution will affect their colors. I haven't read up on any theories about "piebald" moose and whitetail deer.
Leucistic animals do NOT have normally-colored skin or eyes in most cases. They will often have blue eyes and pale-brown or grayish skin instead of an albino's vivid pink. Quoth Wikipedia: "Unlike albinism, it (leucism) is caused by a reduction in multiple types of pigment, not just melanin." Affected animals come in 2 varieties: pied, which is more common in birds and produces patches of all-white feathering randomly, and faded--which I'd bet is what the bison is. I've personally seen a leucistic black-billed magpie here in MT (tho' I was not able to get a photo). I thought it was a white shopping bag blowing in the wind until I saw the tail feathers and noticed that the areas that should have been black were instead a soft cream-tan almost identical to that bison's forehead. Snowflake, the gorilla shown in the collage, was an albino although updated information says DNA testing proved him to be the likely result of an uncle-to-niece breeding in the wild.
As for the bear, again quoth Wikipedia: "The U. a. kermodei subspecies ranges from Princess Royal Island to Prince Rupert, British Columbia on the coast, and inland toward Hazelton, British Columbia." Approximately 10% of U. a. kermodei are born white and their color does not change through their lives.
quote: But white mice are an abomination and must die.
ALL domesticated mice are abominations. I've never cared for their attitude, particularly the like of one I bred myself many many moons ago while raising snake food and fancy color pet store stock. One escaped, and when caught he not only bit me (despite being in the pet store tank!) but I watched him set his lower jaw and then force his mouth as far open as he could--thankfully I had him re-tanked (snake food tank for jerks who bite!) before he could chomp down.
If you do further research on white and "tabby" (hypo-melanistic) tigers, you'll quickly find it's an ethics-charged minefield out there. I remember the original Nat Geo article about the white tigers of Bengal--sorry, "dances wif bunniez" crowd, but no they are not originally Siberian--and it mentioned some things glossed over now. Things like the tigers only survived due to being fed by the locals, and how many serious defects were ignored in the first few inbred generations. There are estimated to be around 30 "tabby" tigers, 2 of which I was lucky enough to see for myself at a small traveling circus many years ago, and unethical breeding was pretty much necessary to produce them.
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