{"id":39947,"date":"2023-12-08T12:04:22","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T17:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39947"},"modified":"2023-12-08T12:04:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T17:04:32","slug":"florida-zoo-beefs-up-security-after-birth-of-extremely-rare-alligator-worth-millions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/12\/08\/florida-zoo-beefs-up-security-after-birth-of-extremely-rare-alligator-worth-millions\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Zoo beefs up security after birth of extremely rare alligator \u2018worth millions\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The rare alligator’s skin is depleted of regular dark grey pigment and her eyes gleam a brilliant blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
The rare white alligator’s birth was publicly announced on Thursday (local time). Source: Gatorland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An\u00a0extremely rare white alligator\u00a0has been born at a Florida zoo, with her career telling Yahoo News Australia they are \u201cover the moon\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the reptile\u2019s distinct coloring,\u00a0the team at Gatorland\u00a0believes the young female could be worth millions of dollars to collectors, so they have increased security to keep her safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s in a locked house, in a locked room, in a locked aquarium. No one can get to her. I think there\u2019s only one key,\u201d the park\u2019s international ambassador Savannah Boan said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo us she\u2019s priceless, but we\u2019d never sell her ever. We just love her, we\u2019re so excited. She\u2019s just the coolest thing to see.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is the alligator white?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in August, the alligator\u2019s keepers kept her birth a secret until they were sure she was healthy. The first pictures taken at Gatorland highlight her\u00a0leucistic\u00a0genetic variation which has caused her skin to be depleted of regular dark grey pigment and her eyes to gleam a brilliant blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Savannah first heard about the alligator\u2019s birth when she was thousands of kilometers away in Australia, studying saltwater crocodiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone was crying and so happy. The idea that one has never been reproduced is the most amazing idea, it\u2019s so crazy,\u201d Savannah said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEven when I look at her now, she doesn’t even look like a real thing. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

History of white alligators<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The alligator\u2019s parents are also leucistic, although her mother has regular coloring and is just a carrier of the gene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were part of a clutch of white alligators discovered by a fisherman in Louisiana 36 years ago. Because of concern they wouldn\u2019t survive in the wild, they were distributed among several zoos and three were taken into care at the 110-acre Gatorland Park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The birth of the hatchling marks the first time a solid white alligator has been born from that group. The park\u2019s CEO Mark McHugh publicly announced their birth on Thursday (local time) saying \u201cthis is beyond \u201crare,\u201d it is absolutely extraordinary!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gatorland is currently running a competition on its social media pages asking wildlife fans to suggest a name for the hatchling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rare alligator’s skin is depleted of regular dark grey pigment and her eyes gleam a brilliant blue. An\u00a0extremely rare white alligator\u00a0has been born at a Florida zoo, with her… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[17],"tags":[6986],"class_list":["post-39947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regional-and-world-news","tag-florida-zoo-beefs-up-security-after-birth-of-extremely-rare-alligator-worth-millions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}