How Did Rare Pink Dolphin Get Its Color?
Pinky the bottlenose dolphin recently surfaced again in Louisiana, making a splash on social media.
Pinky has surfaced again: The Louisiana bottlenose dolphin with a bubblegum-pink hue is making waves on social media this week.
First spotted in 2007 in the Calcasieu River (map) by charter boat captain Erik Rue, Pinky is likely an albino, says Greg Barsh, a scientist who studies the genetics of color variation at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama.
Two telltale signs of albinism are Pinky's reddish eyes and blood vessels, which show through its pale skin that's devoid of pigment. (Also see "How Did Rare White Whale Spotted Off Australia Get That Way?")
Albinism occurs when cells that normally make the pigment melanin, responsible for skin, hair, and eye color, fail to produce it at normal
