Inia Amazonian river dolphin. Where does the pink dolphin live?
Pink dolphin or or or
The most interesting of all the mammals of the Amazon River is the pink dolphin (Amazonian inia or bouto). There are many legends about this amazing animal. But one of the most popular is the story of the transformation of dolphins into handsome men, seducing local girls. This dolphin is stunningly beautiful and absolutely pink, from the tip of its nose to the tip of its tail! Albinism is a genetic trait, but it is not yet clear where the animal might have inherited it.
The weight of a newborn is 7 kg, and an adult dolphin weighs from 85 to 160 kg. The baby is born about 80 cm long and grows up to 2.5 m. Dolphins feed on fish and crabs.
Inias live alone or in small flocks. They are active both day and night.
When exhaling, dolphins release small fountains. They swim at a speed of 3-4 km/h, and can accelerate to a maximum speed of 18.5 km/h. Before breathing stops or slows down. The dolphin feeds on fish, which it grabs with its front teeth, transferring to its back, stronger teeth, and the head of the fish is swallowed first. If the dolphin's prey becomes big fish, then it is first torn into pieces.
Inias can produce screams, squeals, threat signals, barking, whimpering, and echolocation clicking. But whistling is not in their vocabulary.
Another one distinctive feature The river dolphin has a long, leathery snout, similar to a beak or sting. They are very convenient for digging out crustaceans from the bottom silt and catching fish. Amazing structure cervical vertebrae that do not fuse together, gives them the ability to turn their head at an angle of 90 degrees relative to the body! Dolphins search for prey using echolocation, because muddy water vision is of little use, and disoriented fish in such conditions become easy prey.
In the wild, these dolphins are very curious and playful, but very aggressive, so it is very rare to see this amazing creature in aquariums.
Unfortunately, even the mystical pink dolphin cannot protect itself from numerous hunters who destroy animals for money. The genitals of these dolphins are considered an aphrodisiac, and the fight to preserve this species continues constantly.
Amazonian dolphin is the most major representatives river dolphins. These dolphins are also known as bouto or inia.
The body length of these dolphins reaches 2.5 meters. Juveniles are light gray in color, which becomes lighter with age.
They have full body, while the tail and muzzle are narrow. The eyes are small, the forehead is round, the beak is slightly curved - this is character traits Amazonian dolphins.
Representatives of the species live in water bodies Latin America. Depending on their habitat, 3 subspecies are distinguished: Inia geoffrensis boliviensis, Inia geoffrensis geoffrensis and Inia geoffrensis humboldtiana.
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The habitat extends to the entire Amazon River basin, these live even in small lakes and rivers. Most often, they live in one place all their lives, only moving during seasonal migration. But if the water level in the river drops, dolphins have to find new channels. When the river floods, they can settle in flooded flat areas. During the rainy season, dolphins often move from one river bed to another.
Amazonian dolphins do not live in groups; only during the breeding season do they occasionally unite in small groups. Because they don't have social life, then there is no hierarchy. These dolphins are active both day and night.
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Compared to other dolphins, ini have a different high speed- approximately 3 kilometers per hour. But if necessary, they can swim at a maximum speed of 22 kilometers per hour. They can stay under water for up to 2 minutes. Amazonian dolphins can maneuver perfectly while swimming.
The diet of Amazonian dolphins consists of small fish. A dolphin consumes about 12 kilograms of food per day. They feed not only on fish, but also on crabs and turtles.
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Dolphins get food from the banks of rivers or near waterfalls, since in these places the water is not clear and the fish do not have time to hide from the predator. In addition, Amazonian dolphins look for food in the mud. They also steal fishing nets. They sometimes hunt alongside dolphins and giant otters. Although Amazonian dolphins have good vision, during hunting they use touch, hearing and echolocation.
Amazonian dolphins living in nature are very curious and playful, they show interest in everything around them. They never leave their loved ones who are in trouble. Amazonian dolphins do not shy away from people and approach boats without fear. They can get used to humans, but they cannot be trained. In captivity they begin to show aggression, which is why they do not live in oceanariums.
Scientists probably do not know how reproduction occurs in Amazonian dolphins. There is an opinion that males fight for females. After the female gives birth to a baby, she lives with him for a long time in shallow water, because there it is easier for him to emerge to breathe. In addition, they do not live in shallow water large predators, and it’s easier to find food here.
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The mother feeds the baby with milk for a year, but he does not leave her longer, remaining with her until he is 3 years old. Representatives of the species experience puberty at the age of 5 years. It is unknown how long Amazonian dolphins live in the wild, but they do not survive in aquariums for more than 33 months.
These wonderful inhabitants sea waters They amaze you with their amazing intelligence and attract you with some inexplicable magnetism. This article will talk about one of the most unique varieties of this interesting and charming animal.
Do pink dolphins exist? Yes, and this is not mysticism or an anomaly. It turns out that among the huge variety of animals on planet Earth, there are also pink dolphins. There is even a whole population of them.
Amazon
The waters of this famous river are almost white (opaque) due to the incredible a huge amount silt at its bottom. The world's largest water lilies grow in them, and on the green fabulous shores Palm trees, cinchona trees and papayas grow in the rivers.
Where does the pink dolphin live? The waters of the famous Amazon River are home to some of the most curious mammals, and not only there. Pink dolphins can also be found in natural reservoirs of Bolivia, Venezuela, Northern Peru and Brazil. They also live in small rivers and lakes of the Amazon basin.
In addition, due to the fact that the tributaries of the Amazon are connected to the river. Orinoco, these dolphins can be found there too. They live almost throughout Latin America.
It is the Amazonian dolphins, as a rule, that are not prone to changing habitats; they are characterized only by seasonal migrations: when the water level in the river drops, they simply move to deeper places. During periods of river flooding, they can be seen frolicking on flooded floodplains. And with the onset of the rainy season, they can move from one river basin to another.
Pink Amazon dolphins: description
These dolphins are also known as inia or buto.
These are the most large species river dolphins. The length of some adult individuals reaches 2.5 and even 3 meters, and their weight is about 200 kg.
Amazon river dolphins are usually born dark in color. With age they gradually lighten. Their body is full, while the head and tail are narrow. The back and nose are grayish in color.
Characteristic features of pink Amazonian dolphins: a rounded, steep forehead, small eyes, a slightly curved beak, covered with hard bristles below and above. Corneas protecting a dolphin from bright lights sun rays, painted in yellow. The presence of their neck allows them to easily turn their heads, and dorsal replaces their hump.
Due to the fact that these dolphins have thick cheeks, they have to swim belly up while searching for food at the bottom of the river.
Legends
Pink dolphins for local residents sacred. There are several legends about them. One of them says that at night the bouto turns into a handsome young man who kidnaps women to procreate.
Another legend says that Inia is actually an evil witch who appears to young men in the form of a beautiful long-haired girl. In this way, she lures young boys to the river bank, where she embraces them in her tight embrace and throws herself into the waves, drowning the victim. At the same time, she lets out a loud cry of victory.
Habits and behavior
To a large extent, these dolphins live their entire lives in one place, only sometimes (during seasonal migration), as noted above, they move.
By nature, pink dolphins (inii) are curious and playful. They are quite good at taming, but are not at all amenable to training, as they are quite aggressive. For this reason, pink dolphins are practically not kept in aquariums.
It should be noted that inias are not afraid of piranhas, which are full of the waters of the Amazon, they even disperse them. In waters where Amazonian dolphins are present, vacationers feel safe, and fishermen use them to determine the presence of schools of fish.
Botho lead a solitary lifestyle, and this does not prevent them from noisily communicating with each other. They make about 12 different sounds - squeals at very high tones, screams, whimpers, barks, clicks, etc. At any time of the day they behave quite active image life.
Although they do not swim very fast (less than 3 km per hour), they maneuver well. Dolphins can stay underwater for up to 2 minutes. When diving, they look for crabs and fish.
Their lifespan has not yet been determined.
Differences from sea dolphins
1. The Bouto live alone, gathering in large groups only during the breeding season.
2. In captivity, pink dolphins live no more than 3 years; they die before they even reach sexual maturity.
3. Inias cannot be trained, although, just like sea dolphins, are easily tamed.
4. Once in aquariums, botos become aggressive.
5. They have features in appearance, especially in color: color varies from bright reddish shades to dark tones. To a greater extent, dolphins are found with the upper part of the body gray or bluish in color, and the lower part pink.
Nutrition
Most often, pink dolphins are busy searching for food in the mouths and along the banks of rivers, and near waterfalls. Due to the fact that the water there is not transparent, the buto has to rely on its echolocation abilities and hearing. On average, dolphins eat approximately 12 kilograms of food per day. They eat, in addition to small fish (their main food), turtles and crabs. 12 kilograms is about 2 percent of total mass dolphin, and therefore they differ in the fullness of their body.
It also happens that Amazonian dolphins team up with other species or huge otters in order to jointly drive a school of fish into a trap.
Pink dolphins living in the wild are very curious and playful. In addition, these amazing animals play a lot important role in maintaining the river ecosystem. Eating, among other fish, also piranhas, they represent a powerful deterrent to the reproduction of this terrible fish.
The Amazon dolphin, also called the inia or bouto, is the largest river dolphin. Inia geoffrensis, as scientists call it, reaches 2.5 meters in length and weighs 2 quintals. Light gray juveniles become lighter with age. The Amazonian dolphin has a full body, with a thin tail and a narrow muzzle. A round forehead, a slightly curved beak and small eyes are the characteristics of this species of dolphin.
The Amazonian dolphin is found in the rivers and lakes of Latin America. According to its distribution area, scientists divide the species into three subspecies: Inia geoffrensis geoffrensis, Inia geoffrensis boliviensis and Inia geoffrensis humboldtiana.
Amazonian dolphins live throughout the Amazon River basin, even in small rivers and lakes. They usually do not change their place of residence, except for seasonal migration. When the water level in the river drops, ini look for a deeper channel. If the river floods, the dolphins can move to the flooded plains. During the rainy season, Amazonian dolphins have the opportunity to swim from the bed of one river to the basin of another.
These dolphins do not form groups. It is quite rare to see a school of several dolphins; this happens only during breeding. Since they do not form groups, they do not have a hierarchy. Inias lead an active lifestyle both day and night. Compared to other dolphins, these swim at a slower speed, up to 3 km/h on average. Maximum speed Amazonian dolphin - 22 km/h. They can dive and stay underwater for up to 2 minutes. When swimming, inias maneuver perfectly.
Amazonian dolphins feeding small fish, can eat up to 12 kg of food per day. They eat different types fish, and the structural features of the jaw allow them to feast on turtles and crabs.
Amazonian dolphins hunt near the shore, near river mouths or near waterfalls. In these places the water is quite cloudy, and the fish does not have time to escape from the hunter. In addition, dolphins obtain food from the bottom, digging it out of the silt, and steal fish from fishing nets. Sometimes the Amazon dolphin goes hunting together with a giant otter or a tukashi dolphin. Although dolphins have good eyesight, they rely on hearing to hunt, as well as touch using the method of echolocation.
Living in the wild, Amazonian dolphins love to play and are curious about their surroundings. They do not abandon their relatives who are in trouble, for example, wounded. They are not afraid to approach boats. These dolphins can be tamed, but cannot be trained. In captivity they become aggressive, which is why they are not kept in oceanariums.
Scientists have not fully explored the nature of ini reproduction. There are only assumptions that males engage in battle for the female. After the birth of the calf, the female stays with him for a long time in shallow water, where it is easier for him to float to the surface to breathe. In addition, it is easier to get food here and there is no dangerous predators. The cub feeds on its mother's milk for up to one year, but remains with her longer, up to approximately three years. Puberty The Amazonian dolphin reaches age five. The total lifespan of Indians is unknown; in captivity they do not survive more than 33 months.
The Amazon dolphin plays an important role in the ecosystem. It is a hunter of a number of fish species, and also serves as food for black caimans, blunt-nosed sharks, and.
Humans do not hunt Amazonian dolphins. However, some fishermen kill these animals due to damage to their fishing nets. The laws of Latin American countries prohibit or restrict the capture of the Amazon dolphin. Despite the deterioration environment, the number of Amazonian dolphins is not decreasing.
Inia (or buto) lives in Brazil. This Amazonian dolphin has a very original coloring: from pale blue to reddish pink. There are also some changes in color - with blackish and redder shades. The Amazonian dolphin lives exclusively in fresh water, that’s why it’s called river. This is enough large mammal from the suborder of toothed whales, distributed in all areas of the Amazon, including small rivers and lakes. And when the water rose, these creatures swim from one to another, changing their habitat.
Amazonian dolphin. Description
As a rule, these animals are not prone to group existence. Only during periods when reproduction occurs. According to the evidence of researchers of the animal world of the Amazon, they also do not have a special hierarchy. These mammals are active both day and night. By the way, like all dolphins, inias never sleep. That is, only one hemisphere of the dolphin’s brain rests, and the second is awake, allowing the dolphin not to suffocate in the depths of the water. After all, to live, Amazonian river dolphin must come to the surface and inhale every 2-3 minutes. And then left, then right hemisphere The brain rests on average 5-6 hours a day. The body of the animal is plump, thinning towards the tail. It is almost perfectly streamlined. The muzzle is narrow and long. It has a slightly downward beak and rather sharp teeth.
Color
It changes in dolphins as they grow older. So, young people are grayish-blue with a light belly. In adults, the belly is almost white, and the back is pink or pale blue. Those individuals that live in lakes are much darker than their river counterparts.
Height, weight, speed
The Amazon dolphin is the largest freshwater dolphin. The length of adult males reaches two and a half meters. But on average - about two. Females are slightly smaller. Weight adult can reach more than 200 kilograms (on average - more than a hundred). The Amazon dolphin (name in Latin - Inia geoffrensis) swims much slower compared to sea and ocean cetaceans: average speed- 3-5 kilometers per hour. But it can develop a maximum of 22. And when swimming, it can dive and maneuver quite well.
Nutrition
The Amazonian dolphin (photo above) feeds mainly small fish. Sometimes he allows himself to feast on small turtles and crabs in shallow water. At the same time, he is quite gluttonous, and can eat over 12 kilograms of food per day.
Amazonian dolphin vision
The eyeballs of this mammal are not like the eyes of other cetaceans living in marine or oceanic environments. In India, both the lens and the cornea have acquired a yellow color, which protects against bright sun. Whereas the bottlenose dolphin's eyes, for example, are adapted to capture even the weakest light. This, like the lens itself shifted deeper, indicates a predisposition to surface rather than aquatic vision. But these assumptions are not confirmed by the structure of the neck and vertebrae of the Amazon dolphin, so vision river mammal may baffle some scientists.
Number, population
Inia is the most abundant species of freshwater dolphin. Although in Lately in the book of endangered animals has a "vulnerable" status. The mammal's range remains fairly stable, compared, for example, with the declining numbers of the lake dolphin. Determining the number of individuals is very difficult, since inias live in hard-to-reach areas. But populations are believed to number tens of thousands of individuals. The abundance of this species is affected by big influence human activities: building dams, fishing. For example, dams impede the migration of pink dolphins, reducing genetic diversity. And deforestation of the Amazon and pesticides and waste from ore and gold mines have an additional negative impact.
Reproduction
Male inias are often covered with bite marks and scars - so males compete for the right to possess the female. Mating occurs vigorously, pregnancy is long - eleven months. After which a single baby is born (birth lasts up to 5 hours). Birth is accompanied by pushing the baby to the surface, which is performed by the female, so that he can inhale air. Otherwise, the child may die. The weight of a newborn is about 7 kilograms. All this happens in early June, when the water in the ecosystem rises as high as possible. Until it falls, females with children remain in the flooded plains, and males can return to the rivers. The cubs are fed with milk, which is much more nutritious than cow's or human milk, and in order for the cub, which cannot suck (dolphins do not have movable lips, like many mammals), to feed, there is a system invented by nature for injecting milk under water. Children stay close to their mothers until they are 3 years old and feed mother's milk during a year.
Myths and legends
Inia, or bouto (as the Amazonian dolphin is called in the local dialect), is quite popular among the Brazilian Indians. They do not kill it or use it for food, treating it with deep respect. And not only because the meat of the river dolphin is quite stringy and tough, there is not enough fat, and the skin is suitable only for making shields. Locals have legends about this mammal and magical stories, passed down from generation to generation. The image of inia is interpreted as evil sorceress, which can lure young and inexperienced natives into its abyss in order to destroy it. According to legends, in this form, inia even appears on the streets, and many people over the centuries become captivated and follow the magician. And time after time, Inia hugs the chosen victims and disappears into the waves of the river with a cry of victory. Therefore, among the Amazon Indians, they will not specifically kill an Amazonian dolphin, unless by pure chance. But even then it is necessary to perform certain rituals in order to avoid troubles. And although dolphin fat is quite suitable for burning, for example, in primitive native lamps, no one will use such a light source, in order to avoid troubles that could befall the Indian.