An “exceptionally rare” pink grasshopper has been spotted basking in the sun alongside a river in New Zealand’s South Island.
A group of department of conservation researchers were conducting their annual grasshopper survey near Lake Tekapo in the MacKenzie basin when they came across the dark pink female critter.
The species – the robust grasshopper – is native to New Zealand, and the country’s largest lowland grasshopper. It is typically grey or brown, like the river stones of the only area they inhabit, the edges of the braided rivers of MacKenzie basin.
Jen Schori, a department of conservation ranger involved in the survey, couldn’t believe it when she came across the pink grasshoppers for the first time.
“It was so exciting. Pink grasshoppers are exceptionally rare.”
Reporting by Eva Corlett, New Zealand correspondent.
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