When Dirk Parker's job was rained out, he decided to spend his time off on a nature walk. That's when he spotted a bright pink grasshopper. He thought nothing of it, however, and continued on with his day.
It wasn't until later that night when he was sitting in his hotel room thinking about it that he realized the pink grasshopper was "extremely rare." He told FOX 4, "After that, I couldn't sleep. I was just in my head all night thinking about how I just let it go."
Parker, who lives in Tippecanoe, Ohio, but is on a temporary job in Texas as an environmental inspector for oil and gas pipelines, set out on another walk to find the little guy again. He was successful! And it only took him about 10 minutes to find it, he told FOX 4.
This happened the week of St. Patrick's Day, but Parker has held on to the pink grasshopper since. He bought a small habitat for it, filled with flowers and grass. He even named it "Pinky." "This happened on St. Patrick's Day week. Being Irish, it must have been the luck of the Irish that helped me find Pinky again on the second day," Parker said.
Parker told FOX 4 he plans to donate Pinky to a habitat, but has to find the right one. If he doesn't find the right one, he'll just keep it himself, he said.
But why is the grasshopper pink? It's called erythrism — a genetic mutation related to the overproduction of red pigments and the underproduction of dark pigments, according to IFLScience. The pink grasshopper was first documented in 1887 and has been spotted around the world in Japan, Ireland and now Texas. It's rare for these pink grasshoppers to make it to adulthood thanks to their bright pink color making it easy for prey to spot them.