When venturing out to observe animals, like Victoria Craddock does, you never know what you’ll discover. On this particular day, she was hoping to find some elephants along the Sand River in South Africa. Luckily, it didn’t take much searching to find a whole herd of them out in the river — but one in particular stood out the most.
Among the grey elephants was a single small, pink fellow. When Victoria carefully got closer, she could see that this little one was hesitant to cross the seemingly dangerous river. But Mom was right by their side, happy to encourage and help in any way she could.
The reason this little one is pink is because of a skin condition called leucism.
This genetic mutation causes loss in pigmentation and can cause other abnormalities, too. Still, this pinkish hue doesn’t cause the elephant any harm. In fact, it very well may give added protection against the sun! How cool is that?
Watch this pink baby elephant cross the river with the help of Mom in the adorable video below.
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here!