KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - This white alligator has it made in the shade. A rare albino alligator on loan to the Knoxville Zoo spent one recent afternoon basking under a heat lamp beside a warm pool with one claw lazily dipped in the water. If outside, her skin would burn in the sun.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - This white alligator has it made in the shade. A rare albino alligator on loan to the Knoxville Zoo spent one recent afternoon basking under a heat lamp beside a warm pool with one claw lazily dipped in the water. If outside, her skin would burn in the sun.

This white alligator has it made in the shade. Without an alligator's normal dark camouflaging color, the new inhabitant at the Knoxville Zoo would not live long while exposed to predators or the sun.

Inside a small clear tube, a naked mole-rat decides to change direction. Contorting its wrinkled, hot dog-shaped body, the animal nearly somersaults over itself and pokes out its head on the other side. It shows off four big teeth, sniffs the air and turns around again.

Knoxville Zoo gorilla Kwashi, diagnosed with heart disease in November, has improved. The 22-year-old Western lowland gorilla, on loan from Ohio's Toledo Zoo, has infiltrative cardiomyopathy. The progressive disease causes the heart to stiffen and not contract properly.