Most of the common dolphins are gray, grayish white or white, but pink dolphins have appeared many times in the waters near Zhanjiang, Guangdong, China, which makes people very curious.
During this year's National Day, pink dolphins appeared again in the Xuwen Baimao Sea of Zhanjiang, and tourists found a group of dolphins playing in the sea, including at least two pink dolphins, whose colors look more vivid than the peach blossoms in March, which is really amazing; but the appearance of pink dolphins in this area is nothing new, and it will be witnessed many times a year, and this year alone, the media has photographed and reported four appearances on March 12, August 23, September 14 and October 4. At most, at least 6 pink dolphins will appear at the same time.
How can there be pink dolphins? Is it painted pink? Or is it because of a lesion or a mutation in a radiation gene that causes the skin to turn pink? Not really! These dolphins are normal because they are Chinese white dolphins, and one of the strange characteristics of this dolphin is that their skin turns pink when they reach adulthood.
Chinese white dolphin belongs to the cetacean ⇒ dolphin family ⇒ white dolphin genus, widely distributed in the western Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean coast of the tropical and subtropical regions, mainly living in the shallow sea near the shore, like to move on the surface of the sea, rarely enter the water at a depth of thirty meters, sometimes active in the lower reaches of the river leading to the sea, in China, this fish mainly appears in the southeast coast and rivers, it has many names, such as sea pig, white taboo, Lu Ting, Mazu fish, pink dolphin, Zhenjiang fish, Pacific camel dolphin, etc., as well as "mermaid" and " The title of "giant panda on the water" is a first-class protected animal in China, and the data shows that there may be about 5,000 heads in the surrounding waters of China.
The adult chinese white dolphin is between 2 and 3 meters long, with a slender spindle-shaped body, a prominent and narrow beak, a triangular dorsal fin, a thickened ridge at the base, a broad dorsal fin, fin limbs and tail lobes, and a rounded tip. Although its name is "White Dolphin", its body color has actually changed throughout its life.
Newborn larvae for dark gray, body length has been up to one meter, in the process of growing up, the body surface color began to become lighter, will gradually become gray and pink mixed, just adult skin is almost pure white, but then more and more inclined to pink, specifically between white and pink color, and the degree of pink varies from time to time, if the sea is hotter or dolphins are more active, the body surface pink, the reason for showing this color, is not caused by pigmentation, but dolphin subcutaneous blood vessel congestion caused by more.
Dolphins belong to cetaceans, and they are mammals like us humans, and the body temperature is constant, and we humans are almost around 36 degrees Celsius, so we need to regulate and control body temperature. When the dolphin has more heat in the body, the blood vessel congestion under its epidermis has the function of cooling, so the body color change of the adult Chinese white dolphin is related to its body temperature regulation function, it is actually a "color-changing dolphin", not born pink, the pink dolphin is how it comes, it is actually just an adult Chinese white dolphin.
Resources:
"Vientiane News" October 6 article "Girl's Heart Bursting! Tourists encounter pink dolphins in the waters of Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, and play in the waves to turn everyone over"
"Beiqing Network" August 23 article "Rare! "Giant Pandas on the Sea" appear here in Guangdong