14 DAY TRIAL // A team of Spanish researchers writing in the scientific journal BMC Genomics claim to have solved the mystery surrounding Snowflake, an albino gorilla that died of skin cancer in 2003.
This male albino gorilla was the only one of its kind to have ever been documented by the scientific community, which is why several researchers tried to figure out how and why it got its peculiar body color.
The Spanish scientists maintain that, according to their investigations, Snowflake was born an albino because it was the result of inbreeding. More precisely, its parents were uncle and niece.
According to Business Standard, the scientists concluded that the albino gorilla's parents were related after sequencing its entire genome.
In order to do so, they had to analyze frozen blood samples collected and put in storage while the ape was still alive.
Data collected while analyzing Snowflake's blood samples were compared to information concerning the genetic makeup of humans and non-albino gorillas, the same source informs us.
In their paper on this topic, the researchers detail that the ape was born an albino because of a mutation in its SLC45A2 gene. The gorilla reportedly got the mutant form of this gene from both its parents.
Although it was born in the wild, Snowflake lived most of its life at the Barcelona Zoo. It was taken to this animal sanctuary in 1966, after it was captured by villagers in the Equatorial Guinea.
Because it was an albino, the gorilla experienced several health problems during its lifetime.
After it developed skin cancer and started feeling ill, those looking after Snowflake decided that euthanasia was the best option.
“Snowflake presented the typical properties of albinism as seen in humans: white hair, pink skin, blue eyes, reduced visual acuity and photophobia.”
“Given his lack of pigmentation and thus reduced protection from UV light, the aged albino gorilla developed squamous-cell carcinoma that led to his euthanasia in 2003,” the Spanish researchers write in their paper.