ARIZONA REPUBLIC (Phoenix) 27 August 07 Rare albino rattlesnake run over in parking lot (Kate Nolan)

Scottsdale: A rare 18-inch albino rattlesnake was run over recently in the parking lot of Scottsdale's Pinnacle Peak Park, but his carcass may live on as a valuable educational tool, said park director John Loleit.

A genetic anomaly, albinos of any species appear to be white because they lack pigment.

Spotting an albino rattlesnake in the wild is as extraordinary as winning the lottery, according to one snake expert.

So when a hiker approached Loleit's field office at 7:30 a.m. Friday, saying an albino snake had been run over by a car in the parking lot, Loleit was skeptical.

He hears a lot of tall wildlife tales. A recent report had a chuckwalla chasing a Pinnacle Peak hiker down a trail, despite that the sluggish lizards are vegetarians and "not after ankle meat," said Loleit.

But the albino report was accurate.

When the hiker first saw the snake, it was still "kind of flipping around," Loleit said. "But when I got to the parking lot where it had been hit, the snake was dead. I was bummed it had been run over. Now it's in a box in the freezer, preserved until I hear from a taxidermist."

Loleit said he plans to use the specimen in wildlife presentations to illustrate genetic variety among snakes.

Loleit was impressed at the snake's length, which indicated it had survived to be two to three years old, despite its lack of camouflage.

Russ Johnson, president of the Phoenix Herpetological Society, agrees the snake's odds for survival in the wild had been pretty slim, although albinos are common in the pet trade because they are bred.

"In nature they can't blend in with their surroundings. It's like having a giant sign, 'Eat Me,' for birds of prey and road runners," Johnson said.

It's not known how often albino rattlesnakes occur in nature, but the same variables that produce the trait in other animals produce it in snakes, said Thomas Jones, amphibian and reptiles program manager for the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

"It happens either through random mutation, when it just pops up, or when two normal parent snakes have the rare genes, or alleles, for albinism. It's normal, but rare," Jones said.

An albino snake develops pigment, but it is not distributed normally, resulting in colorlessness.

Examining a photo of the Pinnacle Peak snake, Jones said it appeared to be a partial albino, meaning it had some markings and it lacked pink eyes, the definitive sign of the true albino. But partial albinos may be as rare as the true version, he said.

Like many snakes slaughtered in traffic, the recently deceased albino rattler bore few signs of injury, except for the guts that seeped out in two small bursts through its sturdy hide.

Jones says the number of Arizona snakes wiped out by traffic is growing, especially in areas of new development where traffic has increased. He credits the Pinnacle Peak mayhem to the slow speed of the snake. His department is studying ways to decrease animal deaths by traffic.

Loleit hasn't yet determined what his planned snake taxidermy project will cost, but he views it as a way to turn tragedy into a good lesson.

"I promise not to mount it in a striking position," he said.
Rare albino rattlesnake run over in parking lot

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