By Jennifer B. Armand and Rosemary James
Photographs by C. C. Lockwood and Bill Berry

Some of Louisiana's white alligators can be seen at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans.

LOUISIANA IS HOME TO SO MANY WONDERFUL CREATURES THAT LIVE OFF THE bountiful marshes and nutrient-rich swamps across the state. From the brown pelican to the wood duck, our state is teeming with wildlife that often catches the attention of visitors and natives alike who travel down into "Bayou Country." While alligators attract spectators wherever they're found, no gator sparks the curiosity of onlookers as much as Louisiana's own charmers the white alligators.

The story of the white alligators is just as unique to Louisiana's coastal environment as the creatures themselves. Decades ago, traditionally marked alligators had been hunted out, nearly to extinction, as their hides were -- and remain -- in great demand by the high-fashion leather industry both here and abroad. The alligator was placed on the endangered species list.

At nearly the same time, a rodent species known as the nutria was beginning to take over the wetlands world of south Louisiana in a most destructive manner. Artificially introduced to the state's environment with the best possible intentions (to eat the equally destructive water hyacinth, introduced even earlier by folks with their own good intentions), the nutria found a home highly conducive to overpopulation, breeding far beyond the existing demand for nutria fur.

Nutrias had all the food they could possibly eat, and the population of their most important natural enemy, the alligator, was dwindling at an enormous rate.

Enter The Louisiana Land and Exploration Company (LL&E), the largest private owner of coastal wetlands in the United States, whose 600,000 acres of coastal real estate have become home to countless species of native birds and winter quarters for numerous species of migratory birds. The wetlands owned by LL&E are the spawning and nursery grounds for aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico and an important habitat for fur-bearing animals, such as raccoon and nutria.

The hide of the white alligator resembles "white chocolate," according to many people who see them for the first time. The lack of coloration contrasts sharply with the camouflage appearance of normal alligators.

As they watched hundreds of trappers operating in these wetlands, the company's management team realized that the nutria might be the key to saving the alligator. While trappers were naturally interested only in nutria fur, the meat by-products -- at that time wasted -- could be used to feed thousands of hungry alligators.

And so the alligator breeding project began. LL&E garnered the cooperation of state wildlife officials for the program that would determine if alligators could be bred successfully in captivity in sufficiently large numbers to guarantee that they could repopulate the wild kingdom and satisfy commercial demands as well.

LL&E began to remove alligator hatchlings from the wild soon after birth and raise them in specially constructed, heated, and covered sheds, transferring them later to controlled breeding ponds. Trappers provide food for the alligators, selling the nutria meat by-products to the LL&E alligator farm, which creates an added incentive to capture the furry pests. So far, the project has been quite a success.

This brings us to the gem of our tale, the white alligator. In the fall of 1987, as LL&E teams were poised to pick up hatchlings soon after birth from several nests under observation, 18 white alligators hatched in one nest. It was an amazing find!

An alligator with normal coloration is able to camouflage itself in Louisiana's marshy environment.

Team members were quick to remove the rare baby reptiles, as alligator babies are easy targets for hungry predators. White alligator hatchlings- without the camouflaging coloration of the normal gator-would have been spotted quickly by big birds flying overhead and plucked away.

There is no known discovery of white alligators in recorded history, although Eastern mythology holds the white beasts to be symbols of extraordinary good luck. Their discovery certainly was good luck, for instead of ending up as a meal for a hungry bald eagle, the alligators lead famous lives now -- sunning themselves in nicely landscaped ponds and basking in the approval of the hundreds of tourists who see them daily at the Aquarium of the Americas and the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. LL&E has provided a few of the white alligators to the Audubon Institute so that Louisianians and their guests can get to know the curious creatures a little better.

No one knows, for certain, why these alligators were born white. In fact they are not, as most people assume, albinos, and their eyes are brilliantly blue. Many people who see the white alligators for the first time compare the look of their hide to "white chocolate."

One theory is that many white alligators may have been born throughout the centuries but were too vulnerable to enemies within their environment. Thus, those alligators with the protective coloration were the only survivors.

There is just one hitch to the remarkable white alligator discovery: all of the hatchlings were male. So for now, the white alligators have no mates of their own coloration.

The nutria, sought by trappers for its fur, has played a key role in saving the alligator from extinction. Nutria meat by-products, previously wasted, are now used to feed gators during the breeding process.

LL&E teams, which are always on the lookout for hatchlings in the wild, will now also be searching for more white alligators. And in concert with the Audubon Institute's Species Survival Center, LL&E plans to breed the white charmers with traditionally marked females in hopes that the white gene is dominant.

Whatever the results of this breeding experiment, the 18 white alligators discovered in Louisiana in 1987 will always have a special place in Louisiana's environmental history. They are a symbol of all the good things this land of ours has to offer and the fragile environment we must protect.

They have also become a symbol a mascot of sorts -- for LL&E, the company that recovered and raised the unique reptiles. Today, the staff of LL&E proudly distributes tiny white alligator lapel pins that demonstrate the company's commitment to preserving our natural resources. [NOTE: LL&E NO LONGER EXISTS AND THE LAPEL PINS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE -- 03/06/01.]

A white alligator suns itself at the Audubon Zoo in New Orleans. One of the distinguishing features of the rare reptiles is their blue eyes. Click for full-size photo (193K). This graphic is large, but well worth viewing.