14 DAY TRIAL // A rare albino dolphin living in captivity at the Taiji Whale Museum in Japan's Wakayama Prefecture is now making headlines, and it's all because of its uncanny habit of turning pink when feeling excited, angry, happy, sad or otherwise emotional.
The aquatic mammal, photos of which are available in the gallery below, was captured by fishermen in the town of Taiji during their last annual dolphin hunt and then sold to the Taiji Whale Museum.
Since it was taken captive towards the end of last year, the albino dolphin has been extensively studied by wildlife researchers with the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology and with the Institute of Cetacean Research.
Because of their peculiar body color, which is due to the fact that their skin lacks a pigment known as melanin, albino dolphins have trouble surviving in the wild and are consequently extremely rare.
Thus, specialists explain that, being white instead of grey, such marine mammals have trouble blending in with their surroundings and are, therefore, an easy target for potential predators. The same is true about other albino animals.
How and why the albino dolphin turns pink
As explained by wildlife researchers, this rare albino held at the Taiji Whale Museum in southern Japan occasionally turns pink because, when it's feeling emotional, blood flow increases in the vessels nestled inside its skin and right under it.
That's right, the marine mammal essentially blushes, just like we humans do. Its caretakers say that, when there's nothing to get it all worked up or sad or angry, the dolphin is almost a perfect white, Mirror informs.
However, when it is especially excited about something or when it isn't exactly enjoying an experience or another, the color of its skin changes. The more emotional the dolphin gets, the darker the pink shade its body attains.
Mind you, other dolphins blush as well when emotional. The thing is that, because their natural body color is gray, their rosy cheeks more often than not go unnoticed, specialists explain.
In the case of this dolphin, the fact that its skin is both thin and devoid of the pigment melanin explains why its trainers have little trouble figuring our whether it is calm or emotional simply by checking out the color of its body.
