Nature

A Rare Pink Albino Dolphin

Spotted in the north of the Gulf of Mexico

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

5th of July 2007, 18:21 GMT

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Albino individuals usually do not survive in nature, that's why they are such a rare view. Recently an albino ibex goat has been spotted in the Italian Alps.

Now Erik Rue, a charter-boat captain from

Lake Charles, Louisiana, has come with photographs of a rare pink dolphin, captured on images a couple of weeks ago in Calcasieu Lake, an estuary located just at north of Gulf of Mexico in southwestern Louisiana, south of Lake Charles.

Rue was on the estuary on June 24 with fishing customers when five bottle-nosed dolphins appeared, four normal-looking gray ones and a bright pink one, that seemed to be an adolescent.

"It appears to be an uncanny freak of nature, an albino dolphin, with reddish eyes and glossy pink skin. It is small in comparison to the others it is traveling with and appears to be a youngster traveling with mama."

"Our expectations are high that we will see this amazing mammal again as it was in an area frequented by the gentle mammals and one confirmed report has it being spotted at least a month earlier in a nearby location. If it does turn up again, it will be a welcome surprise to our guests." said Rue.

There is a species of pink dolphin, called pink Amazonian dolphin or boto (Inia geoffroyensis) that inhabits the basin of the Amazon River (South America), but boto are not quite pink, but rather whitish, while the iris of their eyes is not pink, but pigmented.

The bottle nose dolphin is the most common species of dolphins worldwide and the spotted individual was a real albino, totally devoid of pigment.

In October 2006, Japanese researchers captured an odd bottle nosed dolphin possessing four flippers. That was a case of genetic atavism (like humans that grow tails), pointing to the origin of the dolphins and whales in four-limbed terrestrial mammals.

TAGS:

dolphin | albino | pink

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