Snowflakeknown in Catalan as Floquet de Neuwas The only Albino Gorilla Never known in history. Born around the 1964 in the forests of the current Guinea Equatorialwas captured in 1966 after his family group was exterminated by local farmers. This unique puppy, recognizable for his white cloak they clear eyeswas taken away by the jungle and sold to the zoologist Jordi Sabater Pi, who renamed him with the name that would make him famous in the world.
Unlike what the name “snowflake” could suggest, His life was not a fairy tale. Caught by puppy and forever removed from his natural habitat, Snowflake He lived 36 years in captivity at the Barcelona zoobecoming a tourist attraction and, inevitably, a mirror of human contradictions: the wonder for what is rare combined with the need to possess it, observe it, lock him up.
Many health problems, including a strong photosensitivity
To this are added the numerous health problems that had its own albinismcaused by a genetic mutation transmitted by two strictly related parents, provoked him vision problems and a strong photosensitivity.
He spent a lot of time in the shade often annoyed by lightsymptom of the condition that made him famous and, at the same time, vulnerable. In the last years of his life, he developed a skin cancerin all likelihood aggravated by his genetic condition. He died in 2003after pain and isolation had marked his slow agony.
He generated 21 children
During his stay at the zoo, Snowflake generated 21 children by three different females, but Nobody inherited his Albina condition. The risk of transmitting the recessive gene was low, since none of his companions was Albina. The zoo declared that she never wanted to pursue the reproduction of the genetic trait, rather adhering to conservation programs of the species.
But in all this it is forgotten that Snowflake was not a cover character, but a animal torn to its nature. Yet he lived all his life under the eyes of millions of visitors, the object of study and curiosity. Its history should be remembered not so much for the exceptional nature of its genetics, but for what reveals of fragility of animal freedom In a world that prefers to enclose what he cannot understand. A life lived behind the glass, in the spotlight, away from the jungle that should have been his home.
