An extremely rare orange lobster rescued by a Pueblo Red Lobster employee arrived at his new home in on Wednesday.
Roughly one in 30 million lobsters is orange because of a genetic mutation that prevents encoded proteins, aquarium officials said in a news release. By comparison, around one in 2 million lobsters is blue, according to the .
The orange lobster was spotted by a Red Lobster dishwasher who was unpacking a shipment of the crustaceans on Friday, . He alerted the restaurantap leadership, who then started looking for a new home for the rare lobster.
Restaurant staff quickly fell in love with the animal and named him “Crush,” after the Denver Bronco’s legendary Orange Crush defense, said Downtown Aquarium General Curator Ryan Herman.
“We’re hoping he’s on exhibit in time for the regular season and that he brings them good luck this season,” Herman said.
Crush will be in quarantine for the next 30 days to ensure he doesn’t bring in anything that could harm his new habitat, Herman said. Once he’s checked out by a veterinarian, Crush will live in the Lurkers exhibit, part of the At The Wharf exhibit chain.
Crush arrived around 2 p.m. Wednesday and already has a host of new fans in aquarium staff who want to visit him in quarantine, Herman said.
“His presence has brought a lot of smiles to people’s faces,” he said.
