Ripley's Aquarium rescues super rare orange lobster from Toronto grocery store

An extremely rare orange lobster has avoided becoming someone's dinner and found itself a new home at Ripley's Aquarium of Canada after being rescued from a Toronto grocery store.

Ripley's wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that people at the store had reached out to inform them that they'd noticed the rare orange crustacean in the store's lobster tank. 

The good Samaritans then invited experts from the aquarium to come and rescue the lobster, who they adorably named Pinchy.

Welcome to the family, Pinchy!🦞 💙 https://t.co/hSp632dHQv

— Ripley's Aquarium of Canada (@RipleysAquaCA) September 25, 2021

And it's a good thing, too, because the odds of finding one of these special creatures are one in 30 million. 

"Pinchy is settling in very well to his new home and is doing brilliantly!" wrote Ripley's Wednesday. "Pinchy's claws were wrapped during transport and to make sure he didn't hurt himself."

It brought us all so much joy to know he was getting a second chance and likely a longer life than in the wild! #pinchysbigmove

— Niki Lundquist (@niki_lundquist) September 26, 2021

According to the aquarium, orange lobsters get their unique, pumpkin-like colour from a rare genetic mutation that only occurs in one out of roughly 30 million lobsters, which makes it even more incredible that yet another orange lobster was rescued from a restaurant in Arizona earlier this week. 

Kitchen staff at Nobu Scottsdale noticed the creature's rare colouring and notified OdySea Aquarium, where the lobster will now live out the rest of its days.