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.