A rare pink hippo was spotted swimming with its friends at Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya recently, reported Daily Mail.

The pink color is caused by leucism, a partial loss of pigmentation. Wild animals with leucism often do not survive past adulthood, because they are more visible to predators and more at risk of sunburn.

But this pink one happens to be a hippo. Luckily for it, hippos are big enough to defend against their predators and can use their sweat as sun screen.

A French couple Laurent and Dominque Renaud captured this one in lens. Mr Renaud said: “We knew the pink hippo was in a group of hippos in a bend of the river - people talked about it, but we were never sure whether it was real or a myth or not.”

“So to see it in real life was an absolutely life changing experience.”

“We checked the area every day and we were lucky enough to spot and to photograph it. I could barely get my camera out to take the photo, I was shaking so much!” Renaud said.