Weeks following the birth of a spotless giraffe in a Tennessee zoo, another spotless calf was spotted and photographed in the wild at the Mount Etjo Safari Lodge in Namibia. This sighting was the first of its kind in the wild. Sara Ferguson from the Giraffe Conservation Foundation regards the two sightings as a coincidence, mentioning there’s no increased frequency of such occurrences.

The spotless condition is believed to be a result of unidentified genetic mutations. A 2018 study in PeerJ notes that some spot characteristics in giraffes are hereditary, with larger spots linked to higher survival rates in younger giraffes. Derek Lee from Penn State University humorously refers to these giraffes as “one-spot-all-over giraffes.” The health implications of this condition remain uncertain, but there’s no indication that the color variation is disadvantageous.

(Source National Geographic and photo credits goes to Eckart Demasius and Giraffe Conservation Fund)