Glow-in-the-dark animal captured on camera for first time

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It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Wait, no, it’s a glow-in-the-dark animal?

A photographer from Down Under has become the first person to capture a photo of a glowing marsupial in the wild.

Aussie photographer Ben Alldridge submitted a photo as part of the 2025 Beaker Street Science Photography Prize. The photo was of a wild Eastern quoll, which is carnivorous marsupial that’s native to Tasmania and exhibits biofluorescence.

Using invisible ultraviolet light, Alldridge captured the mammal glowing in the dark, and his photo is considered the first photographic evidence of a quoll exhibiting biofluorescence in its natural habitat, people.com reported.

“Where their fur is normally fawn or black, under certain wavelengths of light, they exhibit a process referred to as biofluorescence — like nature’s version of a white shirt glowing at a disco,” Alldridge said, per the Daily Mail.

Smithsonian Magazine reported that several mammals across the globe, many of them nocturnal, are known to exhibit this phenomenon, including polar bears, moles, zebras, wombats, armadillo and more. Non-mammals such as corals, insects, spiders, fish, amphibians, reptiles and birds also exhibit the phenomenon, although the exact biological purpose of biofluorescence is still unknown.

Alldridge said he hopes his photos and studies into biofluorescence will help solve the mystery surrounding it.

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“I’d say it’s likely a messaging or identifying system similar to our fingerprints, but that is wild speculation at best,” he said, per the Daily Mail. “For now, we will just say they like to party.”

Alldridge’s photography will be considered as part of the ongoing research.

“The amount of light we waste illuminating space — both physical and now literal — is ridiculous, and in many cases is counterproductive to why the lights are installed to begin with,” Alldridge said.

Alldridge’s photo is one of 12 finalist images to be exhibited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery from Aug. 6-31, as part of the Beaker Street Festival.