Incredible Photographs of Animals with Rare Markings

Nature is awe-inspiring, especially when you see that some animals have unique markings. Whether it’s a cat with hilariously adorable spots or a horse with unexpected and beautiful colors, people just can’t seem to get enough of these unusual and cool patterns.

What do you hope to see? Here are many examples of wild animal markings that you can view at your leisure. Can you actually get through the entire list without saying “awww” a few times? It’s highly unlikely, but no one has to know that you can’t get enough of these beautiful animals. Take a look at what we’ve found:

Smile Melts Hearts

This little animal was on the street and taken to a local shelter. Is it a beaming black smile or a little mustache it’s sporting? Who knows! Regardless, this puppy shouldn’t have trouble finding its new home because it’s so incredibly beautiful!

Underwater Beauty

Many people think this turtle is an albino, but they’re wrong. It’s called leucistic. That means they see a partial loss of pigmentation, which often results in various colors and patterns within the fur, shell, or skin. Plus, they don’t have red eyes like those with albinism.

Heart on His Sleeve

While this guy might not wear his heart on his sleeve, it’s the closest the dog can get. This bundle of fur has some sad eyes, but love is written all over. You just want to pick him up and cuddle with him, and he was in high demand once people saw the marking!

Cookies and Cream

This little dog is a dappled Dachshund, but most people refer to it as a dapple doxie. Regardless, the coat gets caused by the dominant gene that’s often similar to the mom or dad’s coat. One parent had to be a dapple to produce this puppy!

Sun Kisses

Some people might not like freckles, but it’s impossible to look at this dog and not fall immediately in love with him. It’s a mixture of a Pitbull and Australian Cattle Dog. It definitely appears to be one of a kind with the colors peppered throughout the coat!

Two for One

Have you ever wished you could have two cats but only feed one of them? This feline is the solution! She carries her own friend around, and the unusual markings make her more adorable than ever before. Who couldn’t love this white cat with a black feline friend along for the ride?

Half the Color with Twice the Impact

Peacocks are magnificent creatures, and this rare bird is another leucistic animal. That means half of its tail feathers are primarily white, with a few splashes of other shades. However, the other half is full-on splendor!

Happy Feet

Most people prefer the penguins that dance and sing throughout children’s movies. However, they can’t hold a candle to this fur baby. Its home is in Antarctica, and the Emperor Penguin is sure to be a beautiful example of the heaviest species on the planet!

Real Ears

While all cats have cat ears, this particular one went a step further. It looks like she’s got some black cat ears glued to a headband, but it’s just the way her fur grew. Who cares, though?! She’s got beautiful green eyes and a quirkiness that all cats hope to have.

The Mustache

This fur baby has a beautiful mustache that you couldn’t have drawn on if you wanted to. Is this cat part of the Movemeber movement to raise awareness for men’s health issues? We don’t know, but he looks pretty cool!

Cross Cat

This cat takes feline facial hair to the extreme. It has grown an upturned mustache that human men might envy, but it also has some fluffy eyebrows that make it look pretty angry. Overall, it looks like the perfect expression for cats, as they often seem to complain!

Two in One Bird

This budgerigar isn’t like other birds in its family. The feathered friend is a rare chimera. These animals get created when two fertilized eggs fuse together. In a sense, it’s like taking two fraternal twins and making one child.

Pass It On

This mom looks pretty exhausted, but you probably would too if you’d given birth eight times! She’s sitting there posing with her newborns and sporting a lovely heart shape on the flank. Luckily, she passed that quirk onto her babies!

Paws for a Moment

What do you think happened to this newborn pup? Was he trodden on by his sibling in the womb, marked as a troublemaker, or something else? Who knows? Still, this sleepy puppy is unaware of his uniqueness!

Funny Sausage

You can see another rare Dachshund, which is pretty unusual, to say the least. It’s a chimera, so two fertilized eggs fused together with different coat types. One was regular, and the other was a dapple. Still, that doesn’t stop her from being happy!

Confusion

Sam looks permanently puzzled because of the odd eyebrows over his eyes. In fact, he has an Instagram channel with more than 232,000 followers and 500,000 likes on Facebook. We’re sure he gets up to many shenanigans!

My Lucky Number

Most people say seven is their lucky number. If that’s true, then this should be the luckiest cow ever. The bovine baby was named Lucky because of her non-subtle facial markings. However, the giant seven wasn’t immediately seen at birth.

Butterfly with Different Wings

Some might think that this was a taxidermied butterfly with two wings glued together, but it was born that way. They’re called bilateral gynandromorphs, so they’re literally half female and half male. While researchers suggest that it might be chimeras, that’s not the case.

Spilling Hair Dye

The Rottweiler in the photo has vitiligo, so patches of lightly-colored skin show up. However, this time, it’s white fur instead of skin. Don’t worry, though. The condition doesn’t cause pain. Many humans live with it, and there are about 200,000 diagnoses in the US every year.

The Pink Dolphin

This is a rare dolphin, which was seen off the Hong Kong coast. It’s called a Chinese white dolphin, but some refer to it as the Indo-Pacific humpback. Regardless, scientists have taken DNA samples to save it from extinction, so they’re hard to find.

Smells Like Love

You’re bound to find cute puppies, some with love hearts, and those with sweet noses, but that happened all at once for this guy. Even without the unusual marking, it could tug at heartstrings easily. However, with the addition of the heart on the nose, nobody can resist!

Little Piggie Stays Home

The perky pink piglet isn’t destined for a frying pan. It was born with the international symbol of love, which saved him. Now he’s loved so much at home, though he’s not as small as he once was. Check out his internet fan base!

Monkey on Your Back

This cat was born with a formed monkey on its fur back. She might seem like she’s oblivious to the primate companion, but you can see that she glances back every so often to ensure it’s still there. The owners of this feline weren’t aware of the shadow creature when she was born!

The Bulgaria Emerald Cat

Residents of Bulgaria were alarmed to see a green cat wandering the streets. It appeared happy and healthy, other than the startling emerald fur. Locals first saw it in December 2014, taking photos of the unique coat. Some thought vandals painted it, but the truth came out soon.

Kitler the Cat

The moment this photo hit the internet, everyone went crazy. This cat was a huge sensation with hair and a mustache that look just like Hitler’s. Despite its outward appearance, Kitler’s owner claims that the feline isn’t trying to take on the world.

A New Heart Eyes Emoji

You know the heart-eye emoji that people seem to love to use. That puppy has the expression permanently on his face. This is a good boy, so you can see how much he loves you; it’s all around his eyes! Charlie has his own Instagram page, so you can check him out!

Stepped in Ink

This dog seems like he stepped in a huge container of ink, but they’re natural markings. He was posted to Imgur, and many users thought he looked more like a fox than a dog. It’s not hard to see why, but he’s just a painter pup!

Pink Katydid

This katydid isn’t just covered in paint; it’s actually pink! If you’re not familiar with this animal, it’s often colored like grasshoppers (green). However, this one has erythrism, which stems from a genetic mutation overproducing pink and red pigments.

The Non-Black Stripped Zebra

Zoe is an unusually bright zebra who lives in Kona, Hawaii. Most people call her a blond zebra because of her blue eyes and tan stripes. Though you might think she’s albino, researchers are split on her diagnosis. Most focus on hypopigmentation.

Perfect Eyeshadow

You rarely see a husky with spots; they’re usually white, black, grey, or brown. However, this adorable pup is likely a mix, so it got its black spots from a different breed. However, what really catches the eye is the eyeliner-like quality!

Ancient Forest Spirits

Have you heard of a single white deer? What about an entire herd? Most people think the herd is albino, but they’re leucistic. Animals like this lack pigment all over the body. The genetic trait typically appears in white-tailed deer, and some are even half-white, half-brown!

The Rave Frog

This frog appears to be glowing, and the species wasn’t discovered until about 2007. The Atelopus hops around in Suriname, a South American country. Though it’s not the same as dart frogs, it might be poisonous!

Questionable Cow

The cow below must be asking, “Got milk?” It’s confused because of the question mark pattern on its head. In reality, there is no genetic condition to cause that. It’s just a regular coincidence that we register the marking as a question. Plus, it’s funny!

A Squawking Banana

Most people see green, blue, yellow, or red macaw parrots, but one that’s all yellow is different! It has xanthochromism, creating higher yellow pigmentation with low red pigments. Other species have this condition, but birds get it more often!

The Lab-made Labrador

Dog lovers understand that Labradors come in three colors (yellow, black, or chocolate). However, this one is half-yellow, half-black. No, it wasn’t made in a laboratory; it’s a chimera, so it had cells from different lines that came together.

The Shiny Snake

Most people have seen silver snake jewelry, but this is a real silver snake! It’s a new species of boa constrictor found in 2016 in the Bahamas. However, they coexist with feral cats and are now considered an endangered species.

Black Barn Owl

You’ve come across many leucistic animals, but what’s the opposite? Melanism is a development of dark-colored pigment, and that’s what this barn owl has. Therefore, it looks entirely different than its species (the white-and-tan buddy alongside it).

Stripes and Spots

The zebra below is another example of how melanism works. Typically, they have dark fur, and patches of the coat appear striped or spotted. It often looks weird to humans, but it actually helps them blend into their environments.

Freckled Cheetah

Most people think of polka-dotted coats for cheetahs, but this one has few spots. Guy Combes photographed it in 2012, and it appears to have freckles. Researchers believe a recessive gene caused the lack of spotting, making it seem like a lion.

The Strawberry Leopard

Multiple unusually-colored cats hit the news back in 2012. The pink-hued leopard was called a strawberry leopard by National Geographic. Its coat came from a genetic mutation called erythrism. However, it often appears in coyotes and raccoons – not large cats.