What to Know
- The park said the normal incubation period lasts 60 days and there are no plans to put the babies back with their parents.
Every summer, more and more stories make the news about alligators wandering the streets of Florida like it’s normal. Now, one theme park hopes that nearly two dozen of the rarest types of the reptile will come alive in the upcoming weeks.
NBC affiliate WPTV-TV reports that two albino alligators have become the proud parents of 19 eggs with Wild Florida Airboats and Gator Park officials hoping they will all hatch healthy as part of a plan to open a future exhibit to allow the public to see them at the location south of Orlando.
The eggs are the product of their 25-year-old mom, Snowflake, and their 14-year-old father Blizzard – both of whom have been at the park for nearly two years.
Shortly after the eggs were laid, officials from the park put them in a climate-controlled incubator to increase their chances of hatching from 60 percent under Snowflake’s watch to 95 percent.
"Even though [Snowflake is] a really good mom, natural predators like fire ants [and] raccoons will destroy alligator eggs all the time,” team member Andrew Biddle said.
Officials say threats are posed to the eggs even in the incubator as temperatures can affect the process as the babies will likely be born very small – and with their pale and bright color, they are a beacon to predators.
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The park said the normal incubation period lasts 60 days and there are no plans to put the babies back with their parents due to safety concerns.
