There are only thirteen known Leucistic alligators in the world.
Gatorland located in Orlando, Florida is home to four of the thirteen
Leucistic and is the biggest collection in the world. This short
Documentary is the amazing story of how the four ‘white’ gators came
from the swamps of New Orleans to Gatorland, Florida. Gatorland’s
rare leucistic alligators were discovered in Louisiana deep within a
swamp in 1986. Because of their white skin, in the wild they would
have attracted the attention of predators and would have been killed
at a young age. The workers who found them took the young gators to a
zoo in New Orleans, but a few of them died. Regardless of age, they
would not survive in the wild. There are now only thirteen living
leucistic alligators left in the world. These gators are often
confused with the slightly less rare albino alligator. The difference
between leucism and albinism is that a leucistic animal has a decrease
in all pigmentation, whereas with albino, there is just a decrease in
melanin. Because of their pigment condition, the leucistic gators have
blue eyes and the albino gators have pink. The leucistic alligator is
no different than any other gator other than it’s skin color. The
four living in Gatorland are still given the same diet ant and
attention. They do, however have to be separated from the others so
they don’t attract attention from them. They are also kept in an
enclosure that lets a considerable amount of light in, direct sunlight
would be harmful to their skin. The remaining leucistic alligators are
all males therefore run the risk of becoming extinct. Although there
are no leucistic female gators, some of them carry the gene. That may
be the only chance for survival of this rare animal.