Tokyo: A rare albino dolphin in Japan turns from white to pink when it becomes angry.
The rare mammal which is currently residing at an aquarium in Japan, has been attracting crowds to the respective water park.
Although bottle-nose dolphins (Tursiops) are usually Grey in color, the extremely rare creature has no coloration apart from its tendency to turn pink when feeling flushed.
The animal which is normally white, occasionally becomes pink when swimming along with regular colored Grey dolphins.
Albino dolphins are extremely rare and generally born without melanin, which gives color to both eyes and skin.
In fact, this specimen is believed to be only the second one after it has been put on display in an aquarium after it was purchased from fishermen.
As the Albino dolphins lack coloration to blend in like their Grey colored relatives, they can easily prey out at sea.
According to experts, it was remarkable to know that the animal had actually lived so long before at the Taiji Whale Museum, in Higashimuro District, in southern Japan’s Wakayama Prefecture.
Controversially, the creature was captured during the annual dolphin hunt in the town of Taiji.
The town and the hunt was made notorious by the 2009 Oscar-winning documentary “The Cove,” which shows fishermen herding dolphins into a cove either to capture them for aquariums or to kill them for meat.
In 2011, it was reported that about 1,218 dolphins and small whales were captured without having the specification on how many of those captured were killed.
But the aforesaid rare albino was one that did survive among the captured.
Since then, it has become the subject of a detailed study conducted by the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology and the Institute of Cetacean Research who recently published a paper on the fascinating creature.
Video on the Albino dolphin which turns pink when it is angry
