"They almost look like statues," the Illinois tourist said of two albino alligators at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm and Zoological Park.

The alligators are among fewer than 30 known, living, albino American alligators. By contrast, there are about 5 million American alligators in the world.

True albinos, the alligators lack skin pigment because a genetic anomaly inhibits the production of melanin, the dark brown or black pigment that would color their hides.

The genetic quirk makes the alligators both rare and sensitive to their surroundings, because without melanin, they are susceptible to sunburn and predators, said Jim Darlington, the senior reptile keeper at the Alligator Farm.

"Most albino animals in the wild don't live long anyway because they stand out and get eaten," he said.

About 6 to 7 feet long, the two are new additions at the St. Augustine attraction on Florida A1A. The reptiles, 6 and 8 years old, will be displayed permanently in a bayoulike setting that features zydeco background music beneath a shady pavilion designed for sun protection.

The alligators are among four male albinos the attraction bought from south Louisiana alligator farmer Gerald Savoie, who regularly incubates alligator eggs for his business raising the reptiles for hides and meat, Darlington said.

In 1992, eggs Savoie had taken from a wild nest hatched albino alligators.

The St. Augustine attraction has displayed albino alligators twice in the past, in 1992 and 1997. Those alligators, also from Louisiana, were on temporary loan.

Darlington said that in the past, visitors to the park that also houses garden variety alligators and crocodiles were more apt to notice when the albino alligators were gone.

"They'd say, 'Didn't you have white alligators?' " he said.

For Farris, who came to the park because her husband, Roger, wanted to, color didn't make much difference.

"I'm not much for reptiles," she said. "I like something with fur."