Hoku, Hawaiian for “star”, so named for her brilliant light coloring. She qualifies as an example of calves born with “leucism” (albino’s with dark eyes). As such calves are born every few years into the Makua pod, they are not quite as significant as a white buffalo.
What is significant is that Hoku has survived to a subadult. Most “white” calves won’t live through their first year. Albino animals are more likely to have some other genetic “specialties,” resulting in problems affecting with their vision, increased likelihood of sunburn, and more importantly for this youngster, they are very conspicuous to predators.
Spinner dolphins are the smallest dolphin in Hawaii, about 5 feet long and 150 or so pounds. Since they don’t have the body size to defend themselves, they behave like a herd of horses or gazelles. They stick close to each other, and the more they look and act exactly alike, the harder it is for a predator to pick one out of the pod. When one of the animals “stick out”, such as one much lighter colored, the predator can zoom in on them.
Although dolphins rely much more on their acoustic sense of sonar, vision is still important to them. Dolphins have special eyes that adjust to see just as well below water as they do above water. Spinner dolphins, who feed at night, turn off their sonar while in their daytime resting grounds, thus saving quite a bit of energy by relying on their visual sense instead. While resting, they watch for cues from pod members alerting of danger.
Hoku thanks you for your support on behalf of all the Spinners of Makua, and hopes you will think of her when gazing into the night skies *.
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