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Real Photo of a Fluorescent Marsupial?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/fluorescent-marsupial/(many more links at source)
Real Photo of a Fluorescent Marsupial?
The creature is an eastern quoll, an Australian marsupial that is about the size of a domestic cat.
Madison Dapcevich
Published Oct. 4, 2024
Claim: A photograph shared to Reddit in September 2024 genuinely showed a fluorescing marsupial.
Rating: True
A post shared to Reddit on Sept. 17, 2024, claimed to show a marsupial known as an eastern quoll as it fluoresced, or glowed, "under certain types of UV light." The post's author noted that the image was "captured in a wild encounter as part of an ongoing research project in Tasmania's southwest."
The photograph above was posted to Reddit by Benjamin Alldridge, whose website identifies him as an "occasional Pulitzer winner" and "award-winning space and nature photographer." Alldridge was also the 2024 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.
It's possible that the photo was edited to emphasize the animal's fluorescent qualities, but it is otherwise authentic, and in general, it is true that quolls — and many other mammals — have been shown to fluoresce under light.
Paul Revie, a projects officer at the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, told Snopes that research shows many animals, those from Australia included, have "fluorescing pellage patterns." Revie referred Snopes to a 2023 study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, which showed that northern quolls (scientific name Dasyurus hallucatus) and several smaller dasyurids display a mixture of fluorescing colors under ultraviolet (UV) light.
[...]
The creature is an eastern quoll, an Australian marsupial that is about the size of a domestic cat.
Madison Dapcevich
Published Oct. 4, 2024
Claim: A photograph shared to Reddit in September 2024 genuinely showed a fluorescing marsupial.
Rating: True
A post shared to Reddit on Sept. 17, 2024, claimed to show a marsupial known as an eastern quoll as it fluoresced, or glowed, "under certain types of UV light." The post's author noted that the image was "captured in a wild encounter as part of an ongoing research project in Tasmania's southwest."
The photograph above was posted to Reddit by Benjamin Alldridge, whose website identifies him as an "occasional Pulitzer winner" and "award-winning space and nature photographer." Alldridge was also the 2024 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.
It's possible that the photo was edited to emphasize the animal's fluorescent qualities, but it is otherwise authentic, and in general, it is true that quolls — and many other mammals — have been shown to fluoresce under light.
Paul Revie, a projects officer at the Wildlife Preservation Society of Queensland, told Snopes that research shows many animals, those from Australia included, have "fluorescing pellage patterns." Revie referred Snopes to a 2023 study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Queensland, which showed that northern quolls (scientific name Dasyurus hallucatus) and several smaller dasyurids display a mixture of fluorescing colors under ultraviolet (UV) light.
[...]
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Photo: Andrey Savin
