I’m sure you’ve heard of those average ferocious alligators. You may think they’re beasts of evil with their pure carnivorous habits, but you may or never at all encounter the words and the snowy beauty of the “albino” and “leucistic” alligator.

Both the albino and leustic alligator’s skin coloration is due to a rare genetic trait called leucism (loo-sism). Looks like there was something funky in mama or papa gator!

Albino Alligator

If you see an alligator that is white somewhere in a zoo, it will be most likely the albino one rather than the extremely rare leucisitc alligator. These gators lack pigment completely. Blood vessels that are visible through the transparent tissue give them their pink eyes.

Abnormities such as crossed jaws and curved spines are also presented with their off-color feature. Wistfully, most do not survive for their adulthood.

Leucistic Alligator

Unlike the albino fellows, leucisitc alligators are healthy and strong accompany with blue eyes. A lot of them have patches of dark skin that match the natural skin of the American alligator. They are very fiery and peppy! This mean gator won’t just get along with other alligators, and so must be in their own private hideout.

Interesting Facts to be Teeth With!

The white coloration of both the albino and leucistic alligators comes from the recessive genes which are like “masked” in most alligators, but shows itself in the albino and leucisitc

This gene surfaced once this century in Gatorland park

How many teeth does gators have? Go ahead and count them J! They have 80 teeths and this shows that gators are the top dogs!

vs

Which would you rather mess with?

Credit to Gatorland Park at Orlando, Florida