An incredibly rare pink dolphin has been spotted in a Louisiana river. Captain Erik Rue of the Calcasieu Charter Service has seen the dolphin several times since 2007, and now thinks the dolphin is pregnant.
Rue told WGNO that he first saw “Pinky,” as his company calls it, in 2007 in the Calcasieu River. At the time, Pinky would only be seen swimming near her mother, but now the dolphin with pink-colored skin often swims alone or with other dolphins.
“We still see her swimming almost every day in the summertime. We've seen her a lot in the last few weeks. She looks happy and healthy,” Rue told WGNO.
He also thinks that Pinky is pregnant, since he saw Pinky mating with another dolphin.
Pinky is an albino dolphin with pink skin and reddish eyes. According to Newsweek, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has records of only two other similar albino dolphins existing in the Gulf of Mexico. One was seen near New Orleans in 1994 and another near Galveston, Texas in 2003.
“I've been able to see it quite often,” Rue told Newsweek about Pinky. “Just about everybody around here that fishes and spends time in the river channel sees it during the summer time.”
screenshot from WGNO video