Albino Alligators

The House of Good Fortune rarely finds comfort in places where wild spirits are confined. Zoos, with their curious blend of wonder and sorrow, are often passed by without pause. Yet on a recent sojourn to the old city of St. Augustine, we were gently summoned to the Alligator Farm Zoological Park, where a small congregation of rare albino alligators resides — pale as moonlight, still as prayer.

According to local lore (and confirmed by the park’s own telling), “Legend has it that those who gaze upon these beautiful reptiles will receive good fortune.” And so, dear seekers of the strange and the sacred, we offer their images to you here — not as spectacle, but as quiet blessing.

Yes, it is tempting to mourn the poetry lost in captivity. One cannot help but wonder what a creature so singular, so luminous, might dream behind glass and gate. But the world outside is not always kind to those marked by difference. Albinism, a gift that glows like starlight, also casts a dangerous shadow — drawing the gaze of poachers and others who would steal magic for their own ends.

Alba, the world’s only known orangutan with albinism, had to be isolated in seclusion on a protected island, watched over by caretakers who understand her rarity. Snowflake, the beloved albino gorilla of Barcelona, lived much of his life under human care before his passing in 2003. And so we ask: is protection always imprisonment, or can safety, too, be an act of reverence?

Let us hold that question gently, like a white feather in the palm — and offer our gaze not in judgment, but in gratitude. For even behind barriers, wonder remains.

Young alligators with albinism

White Alligator at Alligator Farm

Alba, an orangutan with albinism

Snowflake, a gorilla with albinism