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On June 19, 2024, photos of an implausibly pink dolphin splashing just offshore in North Carolina went viral, reported NDTV. Sensible netizens were quick to clarify that these pictures, seen by more than 30 million people, actually showed a gray bottlenose dolphin who’s photo had been edited to make it appear pink.
Interestingly enough, while it turned out that the North Carolinian dolphin had been photoshopped, pink dolphins do actually exist in real life. The most well known example is Pinky, an albino bottlenose cetacean who made a “splash” when she was first sighted in 2007. Less well known, are the stunningly pink boto dolphins who frolic in the Amazon and Orinoco rivers of South America.
Pinky — a rare albino bottlenose
Bottlenose dolphins are a fairly ubiquitous species of dolphin that live offshore and in coastal waters across the globe, according to the NOAA Fisheries. These dolphins are known for their long snout (their “bottlenose”) and their gray and white coloring.
Although most bottlenose dolphins range in appearance from light to dark gray, rarely, these marine mammals are born with albinism, a genetic condition where the animal cannot produce melanin, the biomolecule that gives skin, hair, and eyes their coloring.
Greg Barsh, a scientist at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, told National Geographic, that animals with albinism often suffer from vision issues which affects their ability to survive in the wild. Consequently, it’s not common to see animals like Pinky who, in addition to having bubblegum-colored skin also has red eyes and visible blood vessels.
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Pinky is one of a handful of pink, albino bottlenose dolphins. She was seen for the first time in 2007 by Erik Rue, a charter boat captain, in the brackish Calcasieu River in Louisiana, according to National Geographic. However, even albino dolphins like Pinky don’t have as vibrant a hue as the cetaceans in the photoshopped images.
The Amazon river dolphin
The other candidate for real-life dolphin pink dolphin hails from the rainforests of South America. The Amazon river dolphin, also known as the boto, isn't rose colored at birth. Instead, they are born gray and get progressively pinker over the course of their lifetime, Wonderopolis reported.
Scientists still don’t know why the bolo’s skin changes color. One working theory is that the reddish tint helps these dolphins to camouflage. During the rainier months, the Amazon river often floods its banks, covering the rainforest floor with water as well. Amazon river dolphins have specially adapted vertebrae that can bend at 90-degree angles allowing them to swim through trees, roots, and plants of flooded forests. Since the rainforest floor has a reddish tint, the pink coloring may help them avoid predators as they navigate through the floodplains.
Another theory is that the pink color is a result of accumulated scar tissue. Although shy with humans, male Amazon river dolphins often skirmish with each other. This theory would explain why the dolphins get pinker with age.
Their coloring isn’t the only unique thing about these fascinating cetaceans. They also have a long beak and a round forehead. Amazon river dolphins are carnivores and they play a vital role in regulating the fish population in the Amazon river, CNN reported.
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Saving the river and its dolphins
Unfortunately, these fascinating rainforest creatures are at risk of becoming as rare as their albino compatriots in the seas thanks to human activity such as overfishing, pollution, and climate change. In 2018, the International Union for Conservation of Nature put these dolphins on the endangered list.
Fernando Trujilo, a marine biologist who's been involved in Amazon conservation efforts for more than two decades told CNN, "The first year I came here, in one year, I found 21 dead dolphins, so I knew I [had] to do something for those animals.”
Trujillo immediately started spearheading efforts to protect the dolphins. He worked with local fishermen to create better fishing guidelines, trained scientists, and oversaw an initiative which tagged 60 dolphins with satellite trackers. Trujillo also worked on a 2023 global declaration to protect river dolphins and he is currently partnering with National Geographic and Rolex Perpetual Planet expedition on Amazon river conservation efforts.
Trujillo has identified two factors as vital to protecting the environment and its river dolphins. The first is working with the local human population. He said that when he first arrived in the rural Colombian village of Puerto Nariño, he had “the arrogance of a university guy.
“This is a very aggressive environment, very difficult to survive,” Trujillo explained. He learned that he needed the help of the locals to find his way through the forest and to track down the dolphins.
“The indigenous started to teach me – to show me the different species, how to paddle in a canoe, how to walk in the forest,” he added.
Trujillo quickly made inroads with the Ticuna tribe, who bestowed on him the moniker Omacha, which means a dolphin that transforms into man. He said ' they told me ‘we all believe that you are a dolphin that became a human to protect the dolphins.’”
The other vital component to saving the dolphins that Trujilo identified is protecting their rainforest habitat.“I came here with a romantic approach to save the dolphins,” Trujillo said, “but suddenly I realized that the dolphins are just a small piece of this huge ecosystem and in order to protect the dolphins, I needed to protect the rivers, the lakes and other species like manatees, caimans and also the people living here.
Hopefully, as his conservation efforts bear fruit, the odds of seeing a picture of a pink dolphin, that is real, and not photoshopped will improve as well.
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