A lot of us love animals, but that’s especially true when they stand out among the others. As rare as they may be, any animal can be albino and when one specimen does step out into public view, you can bet that someone will be around to excitedly take pictures of it.
But in some super rare cases, a creature can be so rare and aesthetically pleasing that it’s hard not to think it’s the product of Photoshop rather than the product of nature. However, a little digging soon uncovers that nature can be just as creative as the rest of us.
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All of that goes a long way to explain why Pinky the dolphin continues to be so fascinating over a decade after she was discovered.
Back in 2007, a pink bottlenose dolphin was spotted in Louisiana’s Calcasieu River ship channel.
As WGNO reported , this sighting was reported by Captain Erik Rue of the Calcasieu Charter Service, who said he has seen the dolphin affectionately known as Pinky hundreds of times in the years since.
At the time, Pinky was spotted with a more conventional bottlenose dolphin who is believed to be her mother.
As The Miami Herald reported , it’s still up in the air as to why Pinky looks the way she does.
Although some experts figure this might be a result of albinism, others think a different kind of genetic variation is at play here. This mystery will remain unsolved without genetic testing, however.
On the more recent occasions that Rue has seen Pinky, he noticed that she hasn’t exactly been swimmnig alone.
As he told WGNO, “I’ve noticed, she’s very sexually active.”
And if reports from someone else who’s been boating through the channel are accurate, all that mating has borne some exciting fruit.
When Bridget Boudreaux took her own boat through the Calcasieu ship channel, she had no prior knowledge of Pinky.
As she said , “I about fell out the boat. I was like, ‘Wow that’s not a regular dolphin, that’s a pink dolphin.’”
But when she did spot Pinky, Boudreaux noticed that another pink dolphin was with her.
Although it hasn’t been confirmed that she saw Pinky’s calf, there’s a distinct possibility that Pinky has had a baby that looks like her given how frequently Rue saw her mating.
After all, it seems less likely that this exact same Louisiana channel happens to have a completely unrelated pink dolphin unlike anything most people have ever seen.
h/t: WGNO , The Miami Herald
