Rare pink hippopotamus spotted in Kenya

• A rare pink hippo was recently spotted at the Masai Mara Natural Reserve in Kenya
• A French couple who spotted and photographed it said seeing the pink hippo was a life changing experience
• The pink hue of the semi-aquatic mammal is caused by leucism

A French couple said they had a life changing experience after they spotted a rare pink hippopotamus at the Masai Mara Natural Reserve in Kenya recently.

The couple photographed the rose-colored hippo as it bathed alongside the traditional gray-colored ones.Laurent Renaud and wife Dominique told Daily Mail they heard about the pink hippo in the river but were not sure whether it was real or just a myth, so they checked out the area every day and were lucky enough to see the special animal.

“We knew the pink hippo was in a group of hippos in a bend of the river — people talked about it, but we were never sure whether it was real or a myth or not. So to see it in real life was an absolutely life changing experience. We checked the area every day and we were lucky enough to spot and to photograph it. I could barely get my camera out to take the photo, I was shaking so much,” Laurent explained.

Although the beauty of the pink hippo stands out in the crowd of gray hippopotamuses, it is not a good thing for the semi-aquatic African mammal. Its pink hue makes it easier to be spotted by predators because of the absence of gray skin that helps hippos blend in better with their surroundings.

Its pink skin, with speckles of gray, is the result of leucism; a condition in which there is partial loss of pigmentation in an animal resulting in white, pale, or patchy coloration of the skin, hair, feathers, scales or cuticle, but not the eyes.

Leucism is often mistaken for albinism, but it is a different condition. Albino animals have pale eyes, often pink or red in color, while the pigment cells in leucistic animals’ eyes are not affected by the condition.