You’ll all have seen a pink flamingo some perhaps for real others maybe of the plastic variety.
The color of the real McCoy is amazing and it’s all down to what they eat. They are filter feeders and get by on large quantities of algae and small crustacean.
The food is rich in carotene that’s bound to a protein molecule. Once the protein is digested the carotenoid is released and stored in the feathers of the bird. It’s the same reason that shrimp turn pink when you cook them the protein is denatured and the carotenoid is free to transform them from a grey dreariness to a vibrant rosiness.
Well it’s a bright and beautiful story and makes you wonder is there any connection to a very strange and amazing creature that was spotted some years ago in the Gulf of Mexico a pink dolphin.
PINKY is very famous and even has her own website but I’d never heard of her till this morning when I read of a happy event.
Seems PINKY has had a baby and the baby is PINK too. Geneticist will be very interested in future offspring to see if the PINK gene is likely dominant.
Can you imagine if like flocks of flamingos we had schools of pink dolphins. It would be a wild world!
Blessing #465 – Out if the Blue
Booming Banter 