The reds and yellows remain, sometimes being expressed more dramatically when dark pigments are not present. Nonetheless, solid white rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and alligators are known to exist. But these are not albinos. Only one leucistic eastern diamondback, discovered in Florida by a road crew, has ever been found. The white alligators of the Audubon Park Zoo in New Orleans are leucistic, being taken from a single clutch in Louisiana.
Melanism is a condition that gives an animal an appearance the opposite of albinism or leucism.
That is, the color pattern is totally black. Melanistic salamanders, rattlesnakes, cottonmouths, and other snakes have been reported. The book is full of intriguing photographs of other color aberrations among reptiles and amphibians. A bullfrog that looks blue. A calico-patterned eastern garter snake, which normally has a black body and yellow stripes.