Albino Gorilla White Fur Due To Inbreeding Says Scientists

The cause of the albino gorilla is inbreeding. Scientists from the University of Pompeu Fabra believed Snowflake’s mother bred with her uncle, causing the only known case of gorilla albinism.

Snowflake is famous albino gorilla that lived for 40 years at the Barcelona Zoo in Spain. He was a male Western lowland gorilla, born in the wild and was captured in 1966 by villagers in Equatorial Guinea and lived most of his life at the Barcelona Zoo. As the only known white gorilla in the world, Snowflake was a zoo celebrity until his death of skin cancer in 2003.

Studies show that Snowflake got his white coloring through inbreeding. Speculations are that Snowflake was probably the offspring of a pairing between an uncle and a niece. Snowflake also fathered 21 gorillas at the Barcelona Zoo and had 10 grandchildren. None of his offspring are albino.

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