World News for Students of English

09-06-2022 07:00

A rare albino Galapagos giant tortoise has debuted at a Swiss zoo.

The success rate of babies for Galapagos tortoises is extremely low. Last month, two tortoises were born at the zoo as a part of a program to preserve endangered species. One tortoise was black, like its parents, and the other was albino.

The staff waited for two days to be sure it would be albino. After several months of incubation, the staff had the chance to see the hatching which was the zoo’s second hatching. Everyone was surprised by the tortoise’s color because it was very unusual for this species. The chance of an albino tortoise that is about one in 100,000.

Albinism is the absence of color in an animal, plant, or person and results in white hair, feathers, and skin and pink eyes. Albinism can decrease the chance of survival due to the lack of protection from UV radiation and the camouflage to avoid predators.

Difficult words: albino (a person or animal that doesn’t have pigment in the skin, hair, or feathers), incubation (the time that a bird or other animal that keeps its eggs warm until the young hatch), camouflage (the ability of an animal to try to look the same as its surroundings to hide).

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