Pinky the albino dolphin of Lake Calcasieu

Swimming in the brackish Lake Calcasieu of Louisiana, Pinky the albino dolphin surprised onlookers with its abnormally pink skin. Pinky looks like just another fake internet animal or perhaps a tall tale from summer camp, but the dolphin has been living in the area for at least eight years.

Pinky gets its surprising pink skin from its albinism. Its cells don’t make the melanin pigment that would give it a normal gray color, so just the color of the dolphin’s blood vessels show through. Since albinism is genetic, Pinky’s parents both had the recessive gene for it and passed them on to Pinky.