POST AND COURIER (Charleston, S Carolina) 09 May 06 Seized white gator expected to bask in limelight at zoo (Bo Petersen)
A rare white alligator at Riverbanks Zoo is about to become a crowd fave.
The alligator is a charmer. It's leucistic, or lacking color pigments, although unlike an albino, it has dark eyes and a brown patch on its head. It is one of only a few leucistic American alligators in the world and may be the only one in South Carolina.
The Columbia zoo and gardens, which has kept it for the Natural Resources Department since it was seized in 2003, will put it on exhibit July 1 in a former anaconda snake display, after beginning live-time webcam broadcasts of it on June 1.
The zoo is where the alligator will stay, despite the outcome of charges against the Edisto Island Serpentarium owners who may have saved its life. Meanwhile, they are about to face a judge.
Heyward and Ted Clamp, the owners and brothers, pulled the alligator as a vulnerable hatchling from a Sea Pines plantation lagoon on Hilton Head Island in 2003. Since 1999, the Clamps have run the Edisto Island exhibit that features hundreds of snakes and other reptiles. Lifelong snake collectors, they have worked with state biologists on reptile studies.
They have a preliminary hearing June 7 in Beaufort on the misdemeanor charge of possessing an alligator, which is a federally protected species, after being arrested by the S.C. Department of Natural
Resources. They could be sentenced to as much as 30 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted.
"Somebody needs to get real and see what these guys were doing is what they have been doing all their lives ? conserving reptiles," said Charles Macloskie, their attorney.
The Clamps and another man pulled the alligator and two other leucistic hatchlings from the lagoon after being alerted they were there. They did it after unsuccessfully asking the Natural Resources Department to do it, Macloskie said. Leucistic animals don't tend to survive. They often have health problems and in the wild their color exposes them to predators. The other hatchlings died in captivity.
As a hatchling, the alligator's head was only twice as long as a cricket. It's now more than 2 feet long and growing.
"It's obviously a unique story. There's been a lot of interest in it," said Satch Krantz, zoo executive director.
"He's really cool looking," said Sean Foley, a zoo herpetologist who takes care of the gator. "He's been fun to take care of. As far as alligators go, he's a little flighty at times. He'll slither away from you."
The case has been delayed by turnover in the 14th Judicial Circuit solicitor's office. The hearing normally gives prosecutors and defendants an opportunity to plea out cases.
Macloskie said the Clamps are happy the alligator has survived, will be kept at the zoo and exhibited. They won't accept any plea bargain.
"Their interest was in saving the alligator and that they did. Their position is they did not do anything wrong," Macloskie said. "Apparently, DNR thought they broke the law."
Seized white gator expected to bask in limelight at zoo