One of the most fascinating mammals of the Amazon River is the pink dolphin.
Amazon River dolphin or boutu (Inia geoffrensis). Young dolphins are light-grey but with age their color gets a shade of pink; that’s why the porpoise is widely known as « the pink dolphin».
Amazon River dolphins are found in small "family" groups or alone. They live in the main rivers of South America: the Amazon, the Orinoco, the Tocantins and their numerous tributaries, that flow through Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana. During the floods the dolphins are often seen gliding gracefully between the flooded trees. That’s when they swim from one river basin’s to another through the flooded forest (from the Amazon to the Orinoco through the Black River, for example). The dolphins are active during the day, and at night. Their diet consists of fish and crabs. When searching for food on the river floor, Amazon River dolphins often flip their belly upward, probably because otherwise their big cheeks block the sight of their pray. The locals consider these dolphins as sacred animals and love them for the fact that they scare away the dreadful shoals of cannibal fish – piranha. But there’s another reason for people’s affection: the fishermen from the state of Mato Grosso spear fish in Tapajós River with the help of Amazon River dolphins that dislodge the fish from the depth onto the sandbanks. As the dolphins exhale, they release little fountains. Occasionally they jump out or stick their head out of the water, or follow the canoe.
There are many legends about this mysterious animal. The most popular tells us a story about the dolphins turning into beautiful men during a full moon and seducing local girls. Another myth tells that a spirit of a drowned man comes into a dolphin’s body that soon transforms into a handsome stranger. Unfortunately, even a mystical pink dolphin cannot protect itself from numerous poachers that kill those animals for profit. Their genitals are considered aphrodisiac, and a struggle for the survival of this species continues..