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.