Snowflake (albino gorilla)

Snowflake (Catalan: Floquet de Neu, Spanish: Copito de Nieve; c. 1964 – April 10, 2003) was an albino Western lowland gorilla. He was kept at Barcelona Zoo in Spain from 1966 until his death.

Snowflake was captured in the Rio Muni region in Equatorial Guinea on October 1, 1966 by ethnic Fang farmer Benito Mañé. Mañé had killed the rest of Snowflake's gorilla group (who were normal in color). Mañé then kept Snowflake at his home for four days before transporting him to Bata, where he was purchased by primatologist Jordi Sabater Pi.

Originally named "Nfumu Ngui" in Fang language ("white gorilla") by his captor, he was then nicknamed "Floquet de Neu" (Catalan for "little snowflake") by his keeper Jordi Sabater Pi.

Snowflake was a Western lowland gorilla with non-syndromic oculocutaneous albinism. Snowflake had unpigmented skin and hair.

Snowflake had poor vision, which is associated with albinism. A test to try to determine whether Snowflake had a central blind spot did not find one. Barcelona Zoo director Antonio Jonch wrote:

"The eye had a blueish sclera, a normal cornea, and a light blue iris which was very transparent to transillumination. Accommodation and refraction were normal. The media were transparent and the fundus of the eye normal and totally depigmented. The choroidal vessels were perfectly visible and the pupil was normal. The animal displayed marked photophobia which caused it to close its eyes repeatedly when exposed to bright light. In diffuse light similar to that in its biotope, we calculated that it blinked on an average of 20 times a minute."

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