page_title: Western lowland gorilla
section_title: Albinism
hierarchical_section_title: Western lowland gorilla / Description / Albinism
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: コピート・デ・ニエベ。スペイン、バルセロナのバルセロナ動物園にいたアルビノのオスのニシローランドゴリラ。English: Snowflake - Barcelona Zoo White GorillaDorerin Naoero: Snowflake, gorilla oburubur
context_page_description: The western lowland gorilla is one of two subspecies of the western gorilla that lives in montane, primary and secondary forest and lowland swampland in central Africa in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. It is the nominate subspecies of the western gorilla, and the smallest of the four gorilla subspecies.
  The western lowland gorilla is the only subspecies kept in zoos with the exception of Amahoro, a female eastern lowland gorilla at Antwerp Zoo, and a few mountain gorillas kept captive in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
context_section_description: The only known albino gorilla – named Snowflake – was a wild-born western lowland gorilla originally from Equatorial Guinea. Snowflake, a male gorilla, was taken from the wild and brought to the Barcelona Zoo in 1966 at a very young age. He presented the typical traits and characteristics of albinism typically seen in humans, including white hair, pinkish skin, light colored eyes, reduced visual perception and photophobia, and was diagnosed with non-syndromic albinism. The genetic variant for Snowflake’s albinism was identified by the scientists as a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism located in a transmembrane region of SLC45A2. This transporter is also known to be involved in oculocutaneous albinism type 4 in humans. As it is a recessive allele, and his parents were an uncle and niece who were both carriers, this revealed the first evidence of inbreeding in western lowland gorillas.
caption: Snowflake in the Barcelona Zoo
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