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It's not every day a lobster at a seafood restaurant is saved from the tank rather than becoming a meal, but that's exactly what happened at a Red Lobster after a rare form of the creature was found at the restaurant.
Weeks after a rare orange lobster, lovingly named Cheddar, was rescued from a Red Lobster in Florida, another brightly-colored crustacean was discovered on Monday (August 8) at a Red Lobster in Meridian, Mississippi, per USA Today. While Cheddar found a home at Ripley's Aquarium of Myrtle Beach, the new orange lobster, named Biscuit, was rescued by Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg, according to a press release from the aquarium.
The aquarium shared a video on its Instagram page documenting the process of rescuing Biscuit from its watery prison.
Orange lobsters were previously considered a "one in 30 million" chance, but the discovery of two within such a short time frame is leading the Ripley's Aquariums to team up with Red Lobster to further study the anomaly. Jared Durrett, director of husbandry at Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies, gave insight into what causes the unique crustacean coloration.
"Orange lobsters are uncommon, but perhaps not as rare as we first thought," Durrett said. "Lobsters obtain their color through the pigments they ingest in their diet. If these orange lobsters are being harvested from the same region, perhaps their localized diet contains a pigment that, when paired with the lobster's genetics, creates the orange coloration we are seeing."
According to a spokesperson for Red Lobster, Cheddar and Biscuit were caught in the same area by fisherman who say they are seeing more orange lobsters than usual.
If you're interested in seeing Biscuit for yourself, she will eventually go on exhibit later this year at Ripley's Aquarium.