Man Captures Photos Of One Of Country's 50 Rare Albino Squirrels

A father captured a series of extraordinary pictures of a rare albino squirrel outside his house. Richard Waugh, 51, was thrilled when he spotted the white squirrel scampering around outside his flat in Edinburgh. The rare squirrel named Lexy has become a regular visitor to the garden.

Another problem faced by creatures with albinism is poor eyesight. The signature pink or reddish eyes albinos have have usually developed abnormally, and so they often struggle with depth perception and focussing on objects. The increased difficulty in surviving on top of the fact that albinism occurs in just 1 in 100,000 mammal births means that albino squirrels are incredibly rare. However, it is important to draw a distinction between albino squirrels and the far rarer white squirrel. White squirrels suffer from leucism, a mutated gene which turns their skin white but leaves their eyes black, meaning they do not suffer with any of the eye problems albinos have. There are around five million grey squirrels in Britain, but experts believe there are fewer than one in a million that have leucism.