Rare Yellow Turtle That Looks Like Melted Cheese Seen For Only the Second Time

• It is a version of the albino Indian flapshell turtle (Lissemys punctatais), which is usually white or pale yellow in color.
• This rescued turtle’s yellow color may be due to a lack of tyrosine, a pigment that can be found in a lot of of reptiles.
• The first sighting was in Odisha, India last July.

When someone mentions turtle, we immediately associate it to the color green as most turtles have that greenish shade in their skin and shell. So when it was reported that there exists a bright yellow turtle that amazingly looks like melted cheese in color and texture of its shell, it’s only natural to be curious as heck.

This yellow turtle is a version of the albino Indian flapshell turtle (Lissemys punctatais), which is usually white or pale yellow in color.

It was rescued from a pond in a village in West Bengal, India.

It also has pink eyes, which is a definite indicator of albanism.

Debashish Sharma, an officer from the Indian Forest Service, tweeted about the rescue.

The Indian flapshell turtle is usually found in countries in South Asia, such as India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. These turtles like to eat snails, frogs, and aquatic plants. They typically measure only 9 to 14 inches long.

This rescued turtle’s yellow color may be due to a lack of tyrosine, a pigment that can be found in a lot of of reptiles. This could be a result of a genetic mutation, according to wildlife biologist Sneha Dharwadkar.

This was only the second time that this kind of turtle has been spotted. The first sighting was in Odisha, India last July. A green version of this albino turtle was seen by wildlife volunteers in 2016.

“We find turtles and crabs regularly and we rescue them and release them into the water. But this is the first time in Odisha and second time in India that an albino turtle has been found,” said Siddhartha Pati, executive director at the Association for Biodiversity Conservation.

Because of its vivid color and its resemblance to melted cheese, the discovery of this yellow turtle generated great interest in social media. People have also associated its appearance to Moon Pies and egg yolks.

It has since been released into the wild in Balasore, the volunteers confirmed.