Ever Wondered What the Opposite of an Albino Animal is?

Albino animals look the way they do because of a lack of melanin in their skin.

The opposite condition is therefore caused by too much melanin in the skin, and is known as melanism.

Melanin is the dark pigment that can affect hair, skin and eyes.

It’s not just animals who have this pigment – humans have it too.

The darker the skin of a person or animal, the more melanin they have.

Even if you have light skin, you’ll get more melanin when you tan in the summer.

Scientists believe that many animals have evolved to be very dark so that they are easily camouflaged in their natural environments.

The black panther, for example, hunts in the middle of the night, and sports a coat of jet back fur.

A tiger, by contrast, wouldn’t be nearly as well-camouflaged to hunt after dark.

In animals, melanism can be a good thing. Apart from the night hunting aspect of this skin color, experts have proven that black cats are smarter than their white counterparts.

Not only do they have better balance, but they can respond quickly and have a superior nervous system.