Albino Alligators

I remember seeing my first albino gator when I was a kid up at Reptile Gardens in South Dakota. Being a kid I though it was a monster and who knows maybe it was 6 foot or was it a 10 foot monster I don’t remember I just remember thinking it was such an amazing looking animal. When Jay told me he was buying a 5 foot albino from St. Augustine I couldn’t wait to see it. I got super jealous seeing the pics of him holding it when he went down to pick it up. When Mr. Bo Mangles arrived at Colorado Gators I couldn’t believe how stunning he was. When the farm first got Bo he was handled very rarely. Typically they would only catch him once a year on Mr. Bo Mangles day and they would weigh and measure him to chart his progress. Mr. Bo Mangles day is usually held in February and if you’ve never been to the San Luis Valley in February it can be pretty miserable so for the first couple years I missed out on getting my chance to get my picture taken with him.  Then one summer Jay after teaching a class Jay asked me if I’d like to catch Bo and scrub some of the algae off his back. I was super pumped to get the chance.  Luckily for my first time getting to handle a rare albino gator I got video of it that you can see HERE !! I was super nervous when I got the chance. Bo is a very expensive  and ultra rare gator ( less than 75 in the world) who you want to handle very carefully. I’ve caught and handled Bo several times since then and done a very cool Expo where he was a feature and every time I get super excited to get the chance to work hands on with such a neat animal.  Then one day Jay called me and told me a private collector in Texas had gotten sick and needed to get rid of his 4 albino alligators. My jaw dropped the farm was going to have 5 albino gators I couldn’t believe it. As far as I know there was only going to be 2 other people or places with more albinos than we were going to have.  I found out a few months before we actually picked them up and it was super difficult to keep it a secret because we didn’t want anyone to try and buy the gators before we could. Jay got the 4 albinos a few days before Gator Fest 8/14 and I was lucky enough to help unload the gators and put them in their new pens. The farm looks great now with all those albino gators so I highly recommend you get down to the farm and check out those pretty white dragons.