Rare Pink Bottlenose Dolphin Pinky Spotted in Louisiana River

(Photo : May James / Getty Images)
A pink bottlenose dolphin known as Pinky was seen in a Louisiana River.

Pinky, a rare pink bottlenose dolphin, was recently spotted by a fisherman in a Louisiana river.

Rare Sighting of Pink Bottlenose Dolphin

Last week, a river in Louisiana was the route a pink bottlenose dolphin took. Thurman Gustin, a fisherman for more than twenty years, recorded the animal on camera. His video of his July 12 encounter with two pink bottlenose dolphins in Cameron Parish, which is close to the Gulf of Mexico, quickly gained popularity. Gustin told CBS News that although he was used to seeing dolphins in the vicinity, this particular encounter utterly caught him off guard.

He described the experience as unforgettable, recalling other amazing wildlife encounters he had, including the time he saw a bobcat swim over a bayou in Texas.

Nevertheless, this pink dolphin sighting has surpassed his swimming bobcat experience.

He claimed that as they were moving, he saw something unusual just beneath the surface of the water. When he halted the boat, a stunning pink dolphin surfaced, and he captured it on camera.

One pink dolphin is seen momentarily emerging from the ocean before plunging back under in Gustin's video.

Rare Louisiana Fishing Experience

Gustin claims that even though he frequently goes fishing and this was his third visit to Louisiana this year, he still got exceptionally lucky because such spottings are incredibly uncommon. According to Gustin through USA Today, even the majority of folks who have lived there their entire lives haven't encountered anything similar.

It was improbable that Gustin had encountered the pink river dolphin, a species that lives in freshwater river basins in South America, instead, the more likely scenario is that he encountered bottlenose dolphins. The latter species are said to frequent the Gulf of Mexico and are generally observed in the gray hue.

According to the Blue World Institute, pink and white dolphins have very low frequency in nature and are sometimes related to albinism. Its highly unusual color attracts the attention of people, who take the animals into captivity.

Despite only existing in freshwater, Amazon river dolphins are pink as well, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). These dolphins can be seen in several parts of the Amazon and the river basins of Orinoco in Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela, they can be found, USA Today reports

Also Read: 10 Rarest Albino Animals in the World

Pinky in Louisiana

According to USA Today, the dolphin Gustin encountered might have been "Pinky," a well-known dolphin from southern Louisiana. Pinky, who was seen first in the Calcasieu River in 2007, resembles an albino dolphin as it lacks the usual pigmentation of a dolphin and has reddish eyes blood vessels that are visible to the naked eye.

Pinky has quite a following on Facebook as people excitedly share their encounters with her.

According to researcher Greg Barsh, albino dolphins have a genetic abnormality that turns their skin pink and white.

Since the middle of the 20th century, only around 20 sightings of this genetic abnormality have been documented, according to the Blue World Institute.