Photo: CATERS NEWS

Pinky is a little bottlenose dolphin calf, but it's very special.. it's totally, absolutely, shockingly pink! It was discovered in an inland lake in Louisiana, Lake Calcasieu, and has become such an attraction that conservationists have warned tourists to leave it alone. Pinky's color come from the fact that it is an albino, as it is well-demonstrated by its reddish eyes.


Photo: CATERS NEWS

Charter boat captain Erik Rue, 42, who photographed the animal and was the first who spotted it, has been studying it for some months now. Capt Rue originally saw the dolphin, swimming with a pod of four other dolphins, with one appearing to be its mother which never left its side.


Photo: CATERS NEWS

According to marine biologist Dagmar Fertl, this is only the fourteenth spotting anywhere in the world (the first coming in 1962). Biologists speculate that, in addition to the rarity of their birth, the scarcity of albino bottlenose dolphins might be due to their having poor eyesight, increased sensitivity to sunlight, and a coloration that provides poor camouflaging, factors which could significantly decrease their chances of reaching maturity.

There are some spiecies of dolphin that could be pink, as the freshwater variety in the Amazon, the Amazon River Dolphin. The boto, as they are called, are the largest river dolphins on the planet. And while they are very pink, they also have gray splotches on their backs and fins. In Hong Kong lives another type of pink dolphin. The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin is found all over Asia, but its most well-known population lives in the Pearl River Delta. The Pearl River dolphins vary in color from snowy white to cotton candy pink, with some yellows and grays thrown in, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. However we are speaking of different species. Pinky is a true rarity because it's a common Bottlenose Dolphin, that are always grey.

Take a look to Captain Rue's webpage to see other pictures of Pinky