Pinky is believed to be a Pink River Dolphin, whose distinct pink coloring comes from a rare genetic mutation which causes the skin pigments to change color. While it certainly is a beautiful mammal, it's also a very rare one.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the river dolphin is an endangered species with the population of the animal decreasing rapidly, faster than they can reproduce. Without proper care and enough successful reproduction, these lovely animals will end up extinct very soon.

Pinky's actions have clearly had the desired results though with her small pink Calf swimming next to her. A clip was shared to Pinky's Facebook page, showing the two pink dolphins swimming in front of a massive boat in the Calcasieu Ship Channel.

This has given conservationists at least a little bit of hope that calves share their mother's genetic mutation, which would make a huge difference in efforts to increase the population of the rare species. If the calves do indeed share the genetic mutation of its mother then it will give the population a fighting chance at coming back from the brink of extinction.

What's fascinating about pinky's story is that a pink river dolphin has been spotted in a North American River as they are only native to South America! Did this one escape from a zoo, or "private collection"? Imagine the journey a river dolphin like this would have to undertake to swim to North America!

It is also amazing that this subspecies is swimming with a pod of a different subspecies, let alone mating with them! That there could be offspring from such a mating is doubly amazing. It may be that such an offspring is a mule, unable to breed.