DENVER — A rare orange lobster has a new home at the Denver Aquarium just days after being saved from certain doom on a dinner plate.
The bright orange lobster, named "Crush" after the Denver Broncos' legendary Orange Crush defense of the late 1970s and early 1980s, had just been shipped from the Canadian coast to a Red Lobster in Pueblo when an employee spotted him last week.
The restaurant's general manager, Kendra Kastendieck, said the veteran employee immediately knew he was looking at something special. But no one knew how special.
Turns out orange lobsters are extremely rare — only 1 in 30 million have that color. They're even more rare than blue lobsters, which account for 1 in 2 million.
Kastendieck said she had to find a safe place for Crush to live.
"We knew he was extremely rare from the get-go and started looking for a zoo or aquarium here in Colorado who would take him in right away," she said. "We're thankful the Denver Aquarium is willing to take him on. He's gonna live a long life now."
Kastendieck said they initially kept the "little mascot" on display at the restaurant, which confused the restaurant's patrons.
"We actually had several guests see him in the tank in our lobby and asked why do we have a cooked lobster in our lobster tank?" she said. "So we had to educate our guests a little bit as well. But it's been really fun for the Pueblo community."
Crush will be on public display with other animals from his native habitat after a 30-day quarantine period. And he could be there for a very long time — lobsters can live up to 100 years.