Do you have to empty a bottle to see a pink elephant? Is it just an alcoholic hallucination or does this rare coloured animal really exist? This idea will surely make your head spin. Don't panic, here you will find out if a pink elephant really exists.
Pink elephant: the star of the South African zoo
There are pink elephants, this is not a myth or even a common statement. No, if you want to see it, it's not difficult, because all you have to do is go to the Kruger National Park, located in South Africa. There, if you are lucky, you can meet a cute little pink baby elephant walking peacefully in the savannah with its parents.
Nicki Coertze found a pink elephant
Kruger National Park Safari, in South Africa, is the country's largest wildlife reserve with 20,000 square kilometres. It is also worth noting that UNESCO designated it a biosphere reserve in 2001.
A unique event
Nicki Coertze, a father, has always had a passion for the animals of the savannah, which is why he paid for a family safari in this South African park. Nicki spends up to 30 days a year tracking the animals that live in Kruger Park. But despite these constant and regular visits, he witnessed such a sight for the first time: he came across a pink elephant. This animal is content to stay near its mother at the water's edge while she drinks. But his secret passage did not move his fans.
A case of albinism
While the elephant became a local and Internet celebrity because of this trait, there is more to his genetic abnormality than meets the eye. His lack of pigmentation made his skin and eyes very sensitive to sunlight, and he could eventually go blind.
"I thought I would only see it once in my life," says Nikki Quartz. Therefore, he didn't forget to record the moment. The images that you can see on the Internet prove the uniqueness of the small specimens. According to experts, this is a very rare case of albinism.
Indeed, during foetal development, the W gene (which means white) inhibits the migration of cells responsible for pigmentation in the body. Untinted, the animal's skin is still pink. "This phenomenon is actually very rare. The baby elephant must inherit the W gene from both parents. However, elephant herds consist only of females, often breeding with individual males that are genetically far apart.
Pink elephant: an invention of Jack London
The expression 'pink elephant' is familiar and quite natural since it was first used in 1913 by the American writer Jack London. No, he didn't use it on Croc-Blanc, but on John Barleycorn aka Last Chance Cabaret. This book is also special in that it is more autobiographical and focuses on the author's struggle with alcoholism. The phrase pink elephant was of course later used in all sorts of sauces and even as a mascot for Delirium Tremens beer.
Pink Elephant: in the animated feature film Dumbo
The magical appearance of a pink elephant
A clown accidentally drops a bottle of champagne into a bucket and all the alcohol in the bucket spills into the container. Timothy got Dumbo to think about it, but discovered that Dumbo had become very strange after drinking half the bucket, thinking it was water. Timothy checked the contents, but suddenly slipped into the bowl, leaving him completely drunk.
Dumbo and Timothy had fun creating bubbles with baby elephant trunks, but at one point a large balloon turned into a pink elephant standing on two legs as an anthropomorphic creature. They watched the pink elephant breeding in horror and, faced with hallucinations, turned their trunks into horns to explain the elephant's progress.
The pink elephant put on a great show
In the same Dumbo scenario, a pink elephant dressed as a camel appeared from the pyramid and looked at the audience with a friendly face. He passed in Egyptian fashion in front of another pink elephant dressed as a pyramid who turned his trunk into a Pungi (a flute used by snake charmers).
Touching the sound of the musical instrument played by the pyramid-shaped elephant, the camel elephant involuntarily turned into a purple cobra, looking angrily at the audience. A snake danced to the music and slowly transformed into an oriental dancer with the appearance of a pink elephant and then disappeared, leaving only a belly instead of an eye.
