TORONTO – An eight-year-old pink dolphin is once again making the rounds on social media.
“Pinky,” as the bottlenose dolphin is affectionately referred to, has been once again spotted off the shores of Louisiana.
According to local media, Captain Erik Rue of Calcasieu Charter Service spotted the rare little dolphin in Calcasieu River’s ship channel. Captain Rue also believes he saw Pinky mating.
Some speculate that Pinky is an albino. Albinism is caused by a gene mutation in one of several genes. This mutation may cause the lack of production of melanin, or at the very least a reduction of it, which gives us pigment in our eyes, skin and hair. Melanin also helps to protect our eyes and skin against the harmful effects of the sun.
WATCH: Pinky the dolphin
In order to be born an albino, both parents have to carry the gene mutation — but that doesn’t mean one of Pinky’s parents was actually albino itself.
“I don’t know of a precedent for albinism or other pigmentary mutations or other colour mutations that could have been involved in something like this,” said Greg Barsh a faculty investigator at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology where he studies the genetics of colour variation.
Barsh also said that one of the hallmarks of albinism is that it affects the pigment in the eyes and skin and that Pinky’s eyes look particularly reddish.
“That really is the hallmark of albinism,” he said.
In humans, often the skin looks pinkish as well.
Barsh explained that there are two types of colour mutations found in animals. In one, you have defects that affect the ability of the cells to produce melanin. Then there’s another where you have defects that affect development, and the pigment doesn’t quite get to where it has to go. So you might see the lack of pigment in one small part of the body. This is called piebald.
In humans, the occurrence of albinism or piebald is about 1 in 1,000, he said.
But in wild animals it’s quite rare to see albinism. That may be because animals aren’t protected against the harmful ultraviolet radiation of the sun and hence die earlier, or they are more visible to prey, or because their visual acuity is impaired so that they are unable to hunt or protect themselves from prey.
“It’s interesting that she survived for so long,” said Barsh.
Conversely, there are animals born with melanism, where the body produces too much melanin. One such example is in black panthers. They are actually the melanistic variant of the leopard.
So will Pinky produce a Pinky Jr.?
If Pinky does mate, her offspring have a 50/50 chance of being pink. That’s because albinism in mammals is usually a recessive condition, which means you have to have two parents that carry that recessive gene.
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