Although bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops) are usually grey, this extremely rare creature is an albino and has no colouration - apart from a tendency to turn pink when feeling flushed.

 

Photos show how the animal is normally white, and occasionally pink when swimming along regular coloured grey dolphins.

 

Albino mammals are born without melanin, which gives the colour to both eyes and skin, and albino dolphins are extremely rare.

 

In fact this specimen¹ is believed to be only the second one ever put on display in an aquarium² after it was purchased from fishermen.

 

And they may well have been doing the animal a favour, as albinos are easy prey³ out at sea as they lack the colouration to blend in like their grey coloured relatives.

 

Experts said that it was remarkable⁴ that the animal had actually lived so long before ending up 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.

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