White gators – the rarest creatures in the world – found in swamp land by fisherman
At just a foot long, these white gators are two of the rarest creatures in the world.
They were found in swamp land by a Louisiana fisherman and have now been given a new home in a New Orleans Zoo.
Weighing in at just over 14 pounds, the creatures are not albino, but are born with a genetic condition known as leucism, which means they have a reduction in all types of skin pigment.Rendering them white in appearance bar a few freckles, these gators now join the other 10 white gators at Audubon Zoo, which is home to the total number known to exist in the world.’The gators have been named Canal-igator and Chomp-itoulas and are named after Canal and Tchoupitoulas streets in New Orleans,’ Sarah Brunette, Audubon Zoo’s director of communication, said.’They were found in the Mandalay National Wildlife Refuge near Houma in Louisiana and were handed to us by the state Wildlife and Fisheries department.’This is the same area where our original 18 white gators were recovered in 1987.’