There are two albino sharks swimming leisurely in a large shore bird exhibit at the Denver Downtown Aquarium
Albinism is extremely rare in marine life and one of the last animals we’d expect to lose the melanistic gene is an elasmobranch, but in the case of the prolific bamboo cat sharks, Chiloscyllium punctatum, that is a little less of a surprise. The albino bamboo cat sharks were born about three years ago and four albino shark pups were born at the Denver Downtown Aquarium to regularly-colored, captive bred adult bamboo cat sharks.
The four albino sharks were distributed to other Landry’s Aq1uarium location with two of the albino sharks remaining in the mile high city. This past week we made a special visit to see the albino sharks on display, with one of the two albino shark specimens actively cruising the exhibit and frequently pausing to photogenically pose for the camera. The albino bamboo cat shark is really pink, with a lack of markings anywhere, save for an irregular ‘background’ blotchyness. Pictured above you can see how different the albino shark appears from its regularly colored bamboo cat shark tank mate.
