A young girl from Oldham has found a rare pink grasshopper

Freya Birchall, from Fitton Hill, is a big fan of hunting for bugs with her nature-friendly bug catchers- similar to scissors but instead of blades they have clear plastic domes on the end to safely capture any creepy crawlies found. 

The six-year-old was with her mother Hannah doing just that when she made the exciting discovery of a pink grasshopper.

Hannah said: "She was in the front garden and she just shouted that she'd caught something.

"Usually it's just a beetle or something, but when she shouted she said 'It's pink!' and I had a look and we just couldn't believe it. 

"Every time she opened the catchers to let the grasshopper go it was jumping on her hands and just staying there- she was really amazed!"

The colourful beastie was friendly with Freya, staying on her hands for some time (Image: Hannah Birchall)

Hannah said her next door neighbour was also curious about the pink critter and he and his mother came to take a look for themselves.

The 31-year-old said Freya was excited by the discovery and added: "It's not every day you see that and at first she couldn't believe it and then the more we looked at it, we were like 'Woah'."

She explained that with their home near to woodland, they get quite a few grasshoppers in their garden but that they were 'amazed' to see a pink one. 

Pink Grasshopper are rare sightings, with their distinctive colouring meaning they don't often survive very long in the wild as predators can see them easily.

Andrew Young, an assistant professor and entomologist at the University of Guelph, told CBC the grasshoppers pink hue is due to a dominant gene, which is similar to how humans' eye colours are determined. 

Young said if they weren't as easy to spot, they would not be as rare as they are. 

Freya decided to release her small pink friend as she and Hannah thought that with how rare the critter was, they didn't want to take one more out of the wild and stop others from seeing it themselves.