Genetic Colour Mutations and Genetic oddities as Rares in the game.

[spark cedar]

Hi everyone, I thought i would make a thread on something I am greatly passionate about.
I tried looking to see if this discussion has been done before and I couldn't find it anywhere (maybe I missed it) so here I will write down some suggestions of different genetic colour mutations and other forms of existing ones in the game :)

1. Bilateral Gynandromorph. Possible in birds, a genetic misshap that can cause a split in the animal, one side holding male genetic code and chromosomes, the other side being the opposite.
   It has been seen in
   Birds
   Butterflies
   Other crustaceans and bugs.
   The common example being the "northern cardinal" having one half be the characteristic red male patterning and the opposite being the brown blackish grey patterning of the female.
   Though i am not sure it's been found in other animals or other current birds in the game, I feel like it could be a cool addition for birds that have more Dymorphism between Male and Female.

2. Chimerism
   One of my personally favourite genetic misshaps/mutations. It happens in many ways, that being "two fertilised eggs fusing together," "absorption of a deceased twins cells" and other ways.
   I feel like having chimerism would be super cool in cotw as it could give us opportunities to have "melanistic albinos" vice versa (though that would be INCREDIBALY rare in real life for those odds, melanism and albinism also being incredibly rare in their own way. It would be cool to see creativeness like that be used, as we already have it in the game like with Tiger or any animals that don't have a confirmed albino or full melanism! (One of my favourite things about the rares in this game, that even though we have no irl confirmed cases, you guys added it anyway :D)

Now, I'm not quite sure what it would be under, having female skins on male animals as a rare would be super super cool! I have seen alot of people like that idea and hopefully more here.
(I added this with chimerism cause I feel like it would occur in similar ways)

Also, as a massive genetics nerd I would LOVE to see more types of genetics colour mutations,

Like Xanthochromism, which causes hyper-pigmentation of yellow pigments, (basically erythrism but yellow)

More examples of Acromelanism,

Also the additions of different forms of for example "albinism" like amelanism.
We already have acromelanism in the game, which is a form of albinism, caused by temperatures ect.

We already have different types of groups of mutations in the game, like how we have different forms of melanism in the game, that being full melanism and partial melanism (pseudo-melanism)

Leucism and piebaldism
(Piebaldism being a form of leucism)
Also feel free to add to this with more genetic oddities you have found! (Also I will acquire image examples)

[obsidian compass]

This would be really cool to have, it gets kinda old with every animal having the same mutations (melanistic, albino, piebald) because you already know kinda how they would look like, the only exception being leucism and hybrids on birds. Leucism that makes pheasants totally blue for example

[spark cedar]

A few examples of chimerism (which is seen alot more in horses)
And xanthochromism (now the parrot is a Lutino blue iirc, which i dont think is effected by xanthocro, its more so as an example of what it could possibly look like)

[spark cedar]

I agree, while I love them i feel like, more forms of it should be added too and different known ones, planet zoo is great for learning about some lesser known ones

[robust dew]

You should check out https://discord.com/channels/393040947006406657/1336821988718809119

and the other related threads I and others made

[spark cedar]

I saw those, I like those, I just wanted to make an overall thread for genetic mutations, not sure if ill go through breeding for colours in here, i could tbf

[craggy glacier]

YES. I don’t even know what to say other than well done and very nice idea. I hope the COTW designers play around more with fur and plumage types.

[spark cedar]

100% I agree, they've done it before with example, ptarmigan. Willows are in their "molting phase" in this game and their winter and summer plumages being a rare.

Also alot of animals in game have newer documented rares, I think albino gemsbok is a more recent one irl iirc, but they also have piebald.

I'm also surprised king Springbok isn't in the game either. Which i cant remember if its a bred trait or not.

[bold sorrel]

The summer plumage for both ptarmigan is common, the red plumage for the willows is based off a subspecies found in the uk

[obsidian compass]

When i realized this, i realized we probably won’t be getting a map in the Uk overall

[long path]

Apparently the Red Grouse of the UK have been reclassified as a separate species (Lagopus scotia) in 2024 based on recent genomic and genetic evidence published in 2019 and 2022 supported the separation

[spark cedar]

I always thought red grouse was a separate species,

One thing that I've always loved since I started playing in like 2019, was rares that haven't been documented IRL, made into this game.

It's like seeing something so rare being imagined into reality its sick.

Like albino lions ect, or albino tigers, full mela tigers ect. Very cool to see.

[obsidian compass]

Definetly agree with that