Copito de Nieve

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Floquet de Neu, the albino gorilla.

Copito de Nieve (c. 1964 – November 24, 2003) was an albino gorilla, the most popular resident of the Parc Zoològic de Barcelona in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He was originally named Nfumu Ngi (Fang, "white gorilla"), then later on nicknamed Snowflake by National Geographic magazine, and then translated as Copito de Nieve (Spanish) and Floquet de Neu (Catalan). The asteroid 95962 Copito is named in his honour.

The official story is that an ape specialist, Jordi Sabat Pi, found the animal in 1966 in Ikunde, in Equitorial Guinea, at that time a Spanish colony. The only albino gorilla known to man, he was captured outside Nko, in the Equatorial forest of Nko, near the river Campo, in Spanish Guinea (Rio Muni now Equatorial Guinea), on October 1, 1966, by Benito Mañé, a farmer of the Fang people, who had killed the rest of its group (all charcoal black in color) in order to obtain this unusual albino specimen. Like the others, his mother was shot by Benito Mañé whilst she tore a banana stem apart in his banana plantation. Clinging to the gorilla was a small creature, whose head was buried deep in her black fur. It was a young animal at the time, clinging to its mother's neck. Benito kept him at his own home for four days and then transported him to Bata where he was purchased by Catalan primatologist Jordi Sabater Pi. Sabat, who worked at the Barcelona Zoo's Ikunde Center, in Spanish Guinea, paid a small fortune for the gorilla. In Guinea, it had been known as Nfumu-Ngui ("White Gorilla" in Fang) but in Barcelona it obtained a Castilian name "Copito de Nieve". A National Geographic funded study of gorillas in the region was underway at the time of Nfumu's discovery.

Copito de Nieve was a Western Lowland Gorilla. He lived at the Barcelona Zoo in the Parc de la Ciutadella. He was known worldwide, mentioned in tourist guides and put on postcards, becoming a mascot for the city. Some of his pictures make it look like he is grimacing; this is in fact him merely squinting due to his pigmentless eyes and bright lights. Barcelona Zoo director Antonio Jonch in wrote in 1967:

"The gorilla was a male about two years of age. Morphologically it was normal except that it was white, skin and hair being completely devoid of pigmentation. The eye had a bluish sclerotic, 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."^[1]

He became a main character in the novel, Memòries d'en Floquet de Neu (Snowflake's Memories), by the Catalan writer, Toni Sala. Sabater Pi also dedicated a book to the gorilla, under the title Floquet per sempre (Snowflake Forever). He also makes a brief appearance in Italo Calvino's novel Mr. Palomar. "Nature" on PBS devoted an episode to him.

Copito de Nieve's fame also helped to promote awareness of the endangered gorilla. "If we do nothing there will be no more gorillas in 30 years," Sabater Pi said, at the presentation of his book.

During his life at the zoo, he fathered 22 offspring (6 survived to adulthood) with three females, and lived to see his grandchildren. None of his offspring were albino. His last son, Urko, died in August 2003. At first the Barcelona Zoo wasn't aware just how unique a specimen Copito de Nieve was. They sent a message to Sabater Pi saying "Please send more white gorillas." The zoo later hoped to produce an entire family group of white gorillas through selective breeding.

He was thought to be between 38 and 40 years old; the average lifespan of a wild gorilla is 25. He had suffered since 2001 from an unusual form of skin cancer, possibly relating to his albinism, and it was announced in September 2003 that he was dying. Thousands visited the zoo to say goodbye before he was euthanized in November 2003.

A memorial fund for bursaries into primatology was started in Copito de Nieve's name.

Copito de Nieve was also featured on the cover of a Basement Jaxx album called Rooty.

The "Tre allegri ragazzi morti" album, "Il sogno del gorilla bianco" ("White gorilla's dream"), referred to Copito de Nieve. After publishing the album, the singer of the band, Davide Toffolo, wrote a comic book titled "Il re bianco" ("The white king"), also referred to the white gorilla.

The star of Peter Jackson's epic "King Kong" was influenced by Copito de Nieve's anthropomorphisms. A white gorilla appeared in one episode of both Star Trek (the "Mugato" played by Janos Prohaska titled "A Private Little War") and the Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea episode titled "Fatal Cargo". The same white gorilla suit was used in both and in movies, and the Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea episode referred to Copito de Nieve. The movie "Son Of Kong" (1933) featured a giant 12 foot tall white gorilla. There was also "The White Gorilla" (1945) and "White Pongo" (1945), also about a white gorilla. In 1980 there was a television film about a white gorilla called "The Ivory Ape".

Copito de Nieve is also known for being the most solicited real animal to be cloned by the public and media, which is possible since his DNA was kept after his death at the Barcelona Zoo. An unsuccessful attempt was made by zoo vet David Taylor to collect semen from Copito de Nieve when he was still alive, for future breeding by artificial insemination. In fact his testicles were frozen after death so that he may yet become a father again. There was a female albino chimpanzee, named "Pinkie", who lived in a chimpanzee sanctuary in Sierra Leone. http://www.tacugama.com/pinkie.html

[edit] References

^ Jonch, Antonio, "The White Gorilla (Gorilla g. gorilla) At Barcelona Zoo", International Zoo Yearbook Vol. XIII 1967 pg. 196

Riopelle, A.J., "Snowflake the world's first white gorilla" Natioanl Geographic, 131:442-8 March, 1967
"Unique in all gorilladom: Roman Luera Carbo's Snowflake", Life 62:69-70, March 31, 1967
Riopelle, A.J., "Growing up with Snowflake", National Geographic 138:490-503, Oct., 1970
Jonch, Antonio, "The White Gorilla (Gorilla g. gorilla) At Barcelona Zoo", International Zoo Yearbook Vol. XIII 1967 pg. 196
Schmeck, Harold M. Jr., "First Known White Gorilla Is Found", The New York Times F. 23 pgs. 1:5 & 41:2
Rare albino gorilla dies, The Montreal Gazette, Nov. 25, 2003 pg. A.21