White alligator spotted west of Vero Beach

[chumas]

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY - It looks like a rare albino alligator.

In early December, residents of Vista Plantation began seeing an unusually large white-colored alligator in the community’s lakes west of the Indian River Mall, said subdivision manager Charles Smith.

“It was pure white,” he said.

The 300-pound, 10-foot-long adult alligator is seen resting on the shores of one of the man-made retention lakes along the golf course fairways winding through the subdivision’s condominiums. That lake is north of State Road 60 and west of 66th Avenue.

But when park officials called in a wildlife official to verify the alligator is albino, they learned the coloring is instead a coating of white minerals from untreated water pouring out of an artesian well emptying into the lake.

Bruce Dangerfield, Vero Beach Police animal control officer, humorously offered to pull the animal out to prove his point.

“I offered to catch it and use a scrub brush,” Dangerfield said to prove it, to which subdivision officials declined.

Yet, the alligator could continue to get fresh coats of white minerals as long as it stays around the artesian well. The coating is on the animal’s thick skin and isn’t a threat to its health, officials said.

“The plants around that area were white, too,” Dangerfield said. “When the alligator crawls onto the shore to sun, the coating dries into a crusty white material.”

The subdivision has 17 interconnected fairway lakes and other alligators in the subdivision are a normal darker black.

According to Dangerfield, the large white alligator lacks a distinguishing trait of a true albino alligator: pink eyes. And it is large - about 10 feet long - when most albino alligators are killed much younger in life because they lack natural dark colors that help camouflage them in the wild.

I've seen this guy around there when I'm working in that area. People call him Spooky or Whitey and he's actually pretty friendly by alligator standards. Just don't get close to it because even if it may be cute, it would enjoy killing you, dragging you underwater and then letting your body rot under a log until it gets nice and soft to eat.

Source.
[Edit because I forgot the source. :p]