As of today, the savannah has one more magic: an extremely rare albino mongoose. One of those miracles that Africa manages to give us to amaze us once again. The cute little animal wanders around at the entrance to Salt Lick Lodge, in the Taita Hills Wildlife Sanctuary, a natural park between Tsavo East and Tsavo West. The scenery is extraordinarily pleasant, with soft, rolling hills that gently slide into a large velvet plain, stretching up to Mount Kilimanjaro so perfectly silhouetted against the sky on a clear day. 
In the parks of Kenya, reddish-grey or striped mongooses are especially common, well camouflaged in the savannah habitat with grassy meadows or rocky areas, ideal places to hide from danger. 
With their elongated body, flattened snout with small ears, round, cunning eyes and long, tapered tail, they use their eyesight to keep away from predators. Constantly searching for food, mongooses spend the day gorging on everything from insects, worms and snakes of which they are skilled predators. Thanks to their agility and quick reflexes, they manage to avoid reptile bites and also seem to be immune to some poisons.
They run in groups, swaying swiftly, and at the slightest whiff of danger they take refuge in dens or termite mounds to escape the dangers: for these small animals, life is tough nonetheless.
But even tougher is the life of an albino mongoose with a snow-white coat, characterised by the edge of its eyes as pink as the tip of its nose. In the middle of the savannah, it is highly visible to the eyes of a predator and therefore far from having an easy life. They cannot blend in with darker specimens, are at a disadvantage in hunting, are unlikely to find a breeding partner and may even be excluded from the community, precisely because they are different due to their genetic mutation that makes them lack melanin. As in humans, albinism is a phenomenon that also affects both domestic and wild animals.
Years ago, in Tsavo East, I myself photographed an albino dik dik, a photo that was published exclusively for the readers of malindikenya.net. A unique emotion, etched still in the mind, an encounter that has remained in the eyes never to fade.
The same emotion when we saw a snow-white creature, similar to an ermine, pass in front of our car to take refuge in a flowery flower bed at the entrance to the lodge: a few seconds to take a photo and there it was, disappearing from our sight with lightning speed. Perhaps the habitat in which she lives is not a random choice. We can see from the photo that the mongoose is an adult and lives in an area with fences, flower beds, car parks and trees with generous foliage that probably, thanks also to its intelligence and cunning, have allowed it not to be preyed upon and to live protected by the environment that it frequents with vigilant care. We sincerely want to believe that this rarity, which nature has given us like a precious diamond, can live its life as long as possible. Hypnotised by such delicate beauty, we realise that the hour has come when the sunset rushes towards the darkness of the evening, lighting up the savannah with such different colours and contrasts that we can never compare them to each other. It is time to return to the lodge: tomorrow on the savannah will be another unforgettable day.