White otters born at aquarium

A pair of extremely rare white otter cubs seen scampering about at a tourist attraction are believed to be the first to be born in captivity in Britain. The creatures, noticably paler than normal cubs, took keepers at the Blue Planet Aquarium by surprise.

The pair are part of a litter of three baby Asian short-claw otters born at the Cheshire tourist attraction at the end of March. But it was only when they started appearing outside of their holt that keepers noticed their unusual colouring.



Exhibits manager Tom Cornwell said: ''Normally the cubs, like their parents, are dark brown in colour so it came as a major surprise to see these two tiny white cubs running around. We've been doing some checking but it would appear that this is a very rare occurrence indeed.

''There were sightings of a wild albino otter up in Scotland last year, but this is the first time we've seen anything like this in captivity in the UK.'' The cubs are believed to have leucism, which is a rare condition in which the animal's fur develops without its natural pigment.