PHOENIX — One of only 25 pure albino alligators in the country has returned to the Wildlife World Zoo in Litchfield Park west of Phoenix.
The 5-foot-long female alligator spent the summer in an Ohio zoo.
The gator, which comes from an alligator farm in Louisiana, is named Marie Laveau, after a famous New Orleans voodoo priestess.
The reptile is 4 1/2 years old and grows about a foot a year.
She'll be about 10 feet long and 400 pounds at maturity.
Wildlife World Zoo is home to several other alligators, but Marie Laveau will be kept away from them. "Alligators tend to fight with each other, so we wouldn't want to risk such a rare animal," said Jack Ewert, the zoo's deputy director.
Because albino alligators have no pigmentation for camouflage, they would not survive in the wild, Ewert said.
People are also reading…
"They're a quirk of nature," he said.
Two 7-year-old boys recently stared wide-eyed at the gator during a visit to the zoo.
"It's really, really white. I wish I could take it home," Keegan Jasalsky said.
Elijah Gonzales just thinks she's cool. "But if I found it in my backyard, I'd jump over the fence!"
