The White Alligators of New Orleans

White Alligators! Yes, but they are not albino (no skin pigment – it appears white but is actually colourless). These are normal American Alligators with an anomaly known as leucism. It is a genetic abnormality that is related to albinism, but these Alligators have blue eyes (not pink – albinos have pink eyes because their blood vessels are seen through transparent eye tissue) and although they also are unable to produce pigment it is not all over their body and they do have the occasional dark spot on their skin.

White Alligator – Audubon Zoo, New Orleans

You can clearly see the dark spots on the Alligators snout

He had a close eye on me

An Alligator with leucism is as healthy and hungry as any normal Alligator out in the Louisiana swamps. The look on the big one that kept watching me at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans seems to indicate that very well!

The claws of the White Alligator look deadly

The amazing thing is the zoo does not just have one white Alligator. They have two!

The glass can create quite an illusion. This Alligator looks much smaller when you look at him on the surface

The second Alligator did not seem so interested in dinner

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