Albino alligator

On January 5, 2026, the last animal left the Aquarium to join the Crocodile Farm in Pierrelatte, in the Drôme region, where it now shares an enclosure with other albino alligators.

Albinism

The purpose of genes, the DNA segments that constitute chromosomes, is to implement the production of various proteins that will play a vital role from the fertilisation stage. A gene is said to “code” for a specific function. Sometimes the machine gets jammed for different reasons and the code is wrong, and we refer to this as a mutation. If the mutation occurs in the vital elements of development, everything will stop. Some mutations however will not prevent life from forming but will, on the other hand, alter a particular function. That is the case for the genes that code for an enzyme, tyrosinase, which intervenes in melanin, the pigment present in the skin cells, hair or iris. Albinos are characterised by a very pale skin (no melanin in the melanocytes), depigmentation of the hair and blue to grey irises with a near-red reflection.