239 Side Effects of Albinism

About this episode

This episode discusses the lesser-known effects of albinism in animals, particularly focusing on cane toads and their fitness consequences.

Common knowledge suggests that albino animals are rare in the wild because they stick out like a sore thumb and get eaten by predators, but studies supporting this are relatively scarce. Now, researchers from Australia have discovered that the drawbacks of albinism are not limited to their obvious appearance. Even better, they used our old friends cane toads to prove it. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Funk AT, Martin J, Clark M, Païta A, Jolly CJ, Shine R. 2025. Knocking out genes to reveal drivers of natural selection on phenotypic traits: a study of the fitness consequences of albinism. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 292:20251458. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2025.1458. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Clark MB, Funk AT, Paporakis A, Brown GP, Beach SJ, Tay A, Deering S, Cooper C, Tizard M, Jolly CJ, Ward-Fear G, Waddle AW, Shine R, Maselko M. 2025. Efficient CRISPR-Cas9-Mediated Genome Editing of the Cane Toad ( Rhinella marina ). The CRISPR Journal 8:321–332. DOI…

Topics covered

• albinism
• predation
• cane toads
• natural selection

Keywords

• albino animals
• fitness consequences
• phenotypic traits

Mentioned in this episode

Products: cane toads

Places: Australia

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