A rare moment has occurred, where two albino alligators hatched last week at a zoo in Kenansvill, Florida. Instead of green, the baby alligator is white and pink, with pale eyes and paws.
According to Chris Perkins of the South Florida Sun Sentinel, they are two of the roughly 200 albino crocodiles in the world. Seeing this, alligator trainer at Wild Florida, Andrew Biddle, commented.
"We're so excited, we're taking really good care of them, making sure they're OK, and then soon we'll be showing them off too," Andrew Biddle, alligator trainer at Wild Florida, said in a video on Facebook.
The two albino alligators come from a 27-year-old mother named Snowflake and a 16-year-old father named Blizzard, who also have the same condition. These hatchings come from the 18 eggs the pair laid in early summer.
On April 30, the eggs were transferred to an incubator where the zoo's "Croc Squad" could carefully monitor their progress over the next 2 months. Reports say that so far only two of the 18 eggs have hatched.
"We are extremely proud of our albino mothers, Snowflake and Blizzard, and our Croc Squad team for helping these hatchlings," said Sam Haught of Wild Florida in a statement.
"With our Croc Squad overseeing these eggs, we hope these alligators will help engage more visitors."
For your information, in human care, albino alligators are claimed to tend to live shorter lives with more health complications than non-albinos. American alligators may live into their 70s, but the oldest living albino is only 25 years old.
This is because albino alligators have no defense against the sun's ultraviolet rays. Meanwhile, the Wild Florida zoo has designed a habitat with high shade to minimize exposure to sun damage.
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