Around Lady Elliot Island , a 45 - hectare island in Australia ’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park , swims a sight like no other in the world : a manta ray with a smart pinkish belly . The animal wasfirst seen in 2015and received the name Inspector Clouseau , after the louse up police detective in thePink Panthermovies .
New simulacrum of Inspector Clouseau , the only make out manta ray with this fussy coloration , were recently take by underwater wildlife photographerKristian Laine .
The rose-colored - hued irradiation fall to the tending of the University of Queensland ’s Project Manta , who wondered about the reason behind the curious color . The researchers performed a little tissue paper biopsy in 2016 , veto infection or malady as the reason . In aFacebook post , the team put forward that the pink hue is likely due to “ an strange and unequaled expression of the skins [ sic ] melanin ! ”
It ’s possible the re has a transmitted mutant called erythrism related to the overproduction of crimson pigments and the underproduction of dark pigment , triggered by a recessionary cistron – much like that for albinism , melanosis , and leucism . Erythrism has been see to it in a diversity of brute , from leopard to snakes , and though it is fabulously uncommon , it is most oftenobserved in grasshoppers .
It may be a seldom observed phenomenon because animals with this unusual coloring are leisurely prey and do n’t make it to adulthood , but this manlike shaft of light seems to be doing just fine . maybe because manta shaft are born big , and get big very quickly . Adult devilfish rays weight more than a gross ton .
Manta rays are allot around the world in tropic and semitropic H2O , but not all coinage are equally pass on . Project Mantaaims to better understand manta ray populations in Australia and the surround area . study the crusade of these animals requires tracking and recognizing them . Luckily , every individual manta shaft has a unequalled maculation pattern on their underside , a sort of belly fingerprint , and scientist practice these to identify individual .
Project Manta asks citizen scientists to submit photos of ray from around Australia , so if you have any , considersending them to these researchersto help us understand these beautiful puppet of the thick even well .
[ H / T : Australian Geographic ]
