A rare white lion cub was born this week at a Nebraska zoo, weighing only four pounds.
"He looks like a snowball," Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium Director Dennis Pate told the Omaha World-Herald.
There are only a few white furred lion cubs in the world. The white fur comes from a rare recessive gene that must be present in both parents, reports Reuters.
"These weren't intentionally bred to produce a white lion - it's just that this male and female each had this rare gene," Pate told Reuters. "It's a circumstance that came together to produce this little guy."
The zoo was unaware their lions carried the rare gene, reported CBS News.
It's been five years since Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium had a lion cub, which Pate remembers keeping his zoo visitors in awe.
"I didn't think we could top (the five cubs)," Pate said to Omaha World-Herald. "Then we have a white lion."
The white lion cub is already on display with his mother and sisters at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium. The cub's father, Mr. Big, is separated from the family because of how protective female lions are of their cubs.
There are white lions at a few other U.S. zoos - Toledo, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and the Capron Park Zoo in Attleboro, Massachusetts.
