Pink baby elephant spotted swimming in the African wild

The video shows a rare sighting of a pink male baby elephant swimming with his family in a river in the African wilderness.

A while ago I was leading a safari that produced one of the rarest and most adorable sights I have ever seen out in the African wild. It was a sweltering hot afternoon and we decided to drive along a river bank, in the hope to maybe find animals near the water. It was not long before we came across a big herd of elephants in the river. The elephants made use of the opportunity to enjoy a cool down session of swimming in the water. Suddenly one of my guests yelled from the back,” what the hell is that swimming among the elephants!? “. I quickly grabbed my binoculars and couldn’t believe what I saw. It was definitely an elephant but it was pink!! Everybody including myself sat there totally dumbstruck, watching a bright pink baby elephant swimming among the rest of the elephants right in front of us.

I realized that we found a true albino baby elephant, with no protective skin pigment, melanin, with unpigmented eyes and not so white but pink skin. Only a handful of sightings have ever been reported on pink elephants in the African wild. Finding albino elephants among the Asian species is more common. For a true albino baby elephant to make it to adulthood in Africa is very rare. The harsh African sun makes survival a struggle for non-pigmented animals. Over time the sun can also cause blindness in their unpigmented eyes. Over and above all these factors, albino animals also stand out, are less camouflaged, which makes them much more vulnerable to predators. Luckily this pink baby elephant has a massive herd protecting him.

It looked like the pink baby elephant had the time of his life swimming with his family during the heat of the day. When it was time to get out, like with any other baby elephant, it was an adorable struggle to get up the slippery riverbank. The baby elephant made one attempt only to slide back into the river. With a little courage and help form his mother, the pink male baby elephant managed to get out and disappear into the bush with his family. Everybody was in awe, and we left the area feeling totally stunned by what we saw out in the African wild.