A small, pinkish-white creature can be seen crawling out of an egg in a video shared to X Thursday by Gatorland Orlando.
“She has completely white skin and beautiful blue eyes,” said a caption on the video announcing the birth of one of only eight known leucistic alligators in the world. According to Gatorland’s President and CEO, Mark McHugh, it is the first leucistic alligator born in captivity.
Gatorland said that “36 years ago, leucistic alligator hatchlings were found by fisherman in the swamps of Louisiana,” and that “they were distributed to some awesome zoos and facilities like Gatorland.”
Three large, male leucistic gators live at the Florida facility. McHugh said they new baby female is a relative of those older gators who arrived at Gatorland.
According to the Audubon Nature Institute in Louisiana, the rare leucistic white alligator is also known as Alligator mississippiensis. They have translucent white skin and deep blue eyes with a hint of pigmentation.
“Leucism is a rare condition not to be confused with albinism, which results in pink eyes and no pigmentation at all,” said the zoo. “The incidence of leucistic gators is probably very rare, although it is hard to say for certain since leucistic young lack protective camouflage coloring and are easy pickings for predators.”
This vulnerability influenced the title of the 1996 film “Albino Alligator” that Beyoncé referenced in her song “Formation” from 2016.
“I twirl all my haters... albino alligators,” she sang.
In Orlando, the new leucistic alligator weighed 3.39 ounces and was 19.3 inches long.
“Her parents are named Jeyan and Ashley, and she was born along with a normal-colored brother of the same size,” said CNN. Per the outlet, Gatorland hopes to be able to display her next year, but for now her health and growth are being monitored.