All-white baby gator — ‘rarest alligator in the world’ — on display in Florida. See her
An all-white baby gator made history as “the rarest alligator in the world” when she squirmed out of her shell at a Florida wildlife park in 2023.
Mystic is now on display with her brother for the first time in Orlando, Gatorland announced May 6.
Mystic and her brother, Mayhem, have been moved into a $50,000 newly-constructed habitat that will cater to Mystic’s leucism, “the rarest genetic variation” among American alligators that causes her to be all-white with blue eyes, the park said.
While different from albino gators, leucistic gators are similarly sensitive to light and sunburns, McClatchy News previously reported.
The new habitat features two pools for the gators and ultraviolet light to stimulate their growth, the park said in a news release.
The gators still have a lot of growing to do. At their most recent weigh-in, they each checked in at less than half a pound and 15-16 inches long.
Adult American alligators average between 8 and 11 feet in length, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo.
The park announced the babies’ births in December.
The gators’ mom carried the leucistic gene and had normal green coloring, while the father was a white leucistic gator, the park said. They produced green Mayhem and white Mystic.
Mystic is the first-recorded leucistic gator to be hatched by humans after a nest of them was found in a Louisiana swamp in 1987, according to Mark McHugh, the president and CEO of Gatorland.
Only seven of those 18 gators are alive today, and three of them live at Gatorland. Mystic has now joined their ranks.
“This is beyond rare, it is absolutely extraordinary,” the park said.
Danielle Lucas, the center’s animal care director, said she was both excited and nervous about the gators transiting from their behind-the-scenes enclosure to their new habitat.
“But they’re going to love it,” she said. “They’re leaving the nest.”
Gatorland is about an 18-mile drive south from downtown Orlando.
This story was originally published May 9, 2024 at 10:07 AM with the headline "All-white baby gator — ‘rarest alligator in the world’ — on display in Florida. See her."