14 DAY TRIAL // Domestic goat kids can be white and fluffy (depending on the case). But that's normal, and this is a genetic pattern that does not match the genetic condition of albinism, when the brown melanin pigment cannot be synthesized.
But now, forest rangers in the northern Italian Alps have confirmed and got image proofs for the first time of the existence of an albino mountain goat, named by them "Snowflake."
"Rangers took photos of the albino capra ibex climbing with its mother Sunday at about 10,000 ft (3,300 m) above the Les Laures valley in the northwestern Val d'Aosta region. This is the only one ever documented, the only one ever seen," said Christian Chioso, a regional wildlife official.
"Albinism is rare in any species and has not been previously documented among the capra ibex, a type of wild mountain goat with large curved horns that lives in mountainous areas."
The albino animal was estimated to be about a year old.
"Hikers had been reporting seeing a white animal at higher elevations for months, and forest rangers have been keeping a lookout", Chioso said.
The albino individual was spotted close to the boundaries of the Gran Paradiso (Big Paradise) National Park which was chosen more than one and a half century ago to protect the species.
The Alpine ibex has been regarded as a mystical animal for a long time; all its body parts and its excrement were sought after as cures for numerous illnesses and as ingredients for magical potions. That's why overhunting led almost to extinction the species as early as the beginning of 19th century, with the last surviving population in Gran Paradiso. All the current individuals come from that remnant population and many zones of the Alps in various countries have been repopulated. The Italian park is now home to about 4,000 wild Ibex goats.