Watch an extremely rare albino alligator hatch at this Florida zoo: ‘Awesome’
It’s a boy!
Wild Florida is breaking out the blue after welcoming another albino alligator Saturday for the third year in a row.
The baby’s parents are Snowflake and Blizzard, which, if you couldn’t tell by their names, are both albino. The park, located south of Orlando, calls both mom and dad “rock stars.”
The video of the event was posted on Instagram Reels Wednesday. In the clip, a park employee carefully peels off the shell of the speckled egg.
First out: The tiny curious red eyes and pale snout. All told, the critter was six inches long.
READ MORE: An alligator makes a visit to a Florida hospital. It was not a patient
Commenters were loving it, calling the mini gator “cute,” “beautiful,” “amazing” and “awesome.”
Others wondered why the eggs don’t hatch on their own.
“We help the babies because it’s what their mama would do,” the park responded. “The mom digs down to the eggs as the grunts call for her underground, and then she helps them hatch. It gives them a higher chance at hatching and surviving, because sometimes they get stuck inside too long.”
Snowflake and Blizzard produced nine eggs, but only one albino, meaning its skin lacks pigmentation. This condition also means that this as yet unnamed baby will be more at risk in the wild, as it cannot camouflage itself and can easily burn in the sun.
For these reasons, albino alligators (only about 200 exist in the world) require human care and a controlled setting such as a zoo to survive.
The unnamed little fella will likely be set out in the park’s gator area for public viewing in a few weeks.
READ MORE: An alligator took a stroll on the boardwalk at this Florida park. See it eat breakfast
