Posts Tagged ‘river dolphins’
Amazon tragedy as endangered river dolphins die in hot water
The climate crisis is accelerating at such an alarming rate that some whale and dolphin populations haven’t got time to adapt. More frequent and severe droughts and heatwaves are threatening the survival of species and ecosystems that are crucial to our own existence. When 155 endangered river dolphins died suddenly in Lake Tefé in Brazil, this heartbreaking event gave us a stark warning of the severity of the situation.
Read MoreIndus river dolphin
See all species The Indus River dolphin lives in the Indus river basin of Pakistan and India. Unfortunately, there are currently less than two thousand of these endangered dolphins left in the world. However, there have been some promising signs of increasing numbers, which can be attributed to better protection measures in Pakistan. Other names:…
Read MoreMeet the legendary pink river dolphins
Botos don’t look or live like other dolphins. Flamingo-pink all over with super-skinny snouts and chubby cheeks, they certainly stand out in a crowd. And they never set a flipper in the ocean – home is the fresh, flowing waters of three mighty South American river basins: the Amazon, Orinoco and Tocantins-Araguaia. The botos’ magnificent realm…
Read MoreRiver dolphins observed playing with anaconda
Researchers in Bolivia recorded an unusual interaction between local rivers dolphins and an anaconda snake last year in the Tijamuchi river. The two species would not normally interact but on this occasion a group of dolphins, some of which appeared to be juveniles, were seen carrying the snake through the water. At times the dolphins…
Read MoreLatest endangered species list confirms all freshwater dolphins face battle to avoid extinction
A dolphin found in the Amazon river, the tucuxi, has been classed as endangered on the latest Red List issued by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation for Nature) – the body that assesses the survival prospects of plants, animals and fungi. This latest classification for the tucuxi now means that all the world’s…
Read MoreWorking with Amazon communities to protect pink river dolphins
Whale and Dolphin Conservation is a founding supporter of the Natutama Foundation. Natutama works in the Colombian Amazon developing important and often ground-breaking conservation and education projects with communities to protect dolphins, manatees and other wildlife. Natutama means ‘everything under the water’ in the Amazon Indian Ticuna language. The Natutama Foundation and the Amazon indigenous communities…
Read MoreFranciscana
See all species The franciscana is a small dolphin with a very long, slender beak – in fact they hold the record for the longest beak in proportion to body size, of any dolphin. The franciscana’s beak is 15 percent of the total body length. Franciscanas live only in the shallow, coastal waters of the southwestern Atlantic of…
Read MoreGanges river dolphin
See all species Ganges river dolphins are freshwater dolphins that inhabit the Ganges, Meghna, Brahmaputra, and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh. They are one of the oldest species of dolphin still existing today. Unfortunately, due to their endangered status, there are less than five thousand Ganges river dolphins left in the entire…
Read MoreBaiji
See all species The Chinese river dolphin, or baiji, holds the unenviable record of being the first dolphin species driven to extinction by human beings. The mighty Yangtze River in China was the baiji’s home for 20 million years. It took less than 50 years for humans to wipe them out. Baiji numbers crashed dramatically…
Read MoreLast chance to see pink river dolphins?
I was lucky enough to go on the trip of a lifetime recently, to the rainforest of Peru. I’d been planning for this trip for a long time, scraping together any spare cash over the years and finally, I got my chance. Working in the fundraising team at WDC we often talk about all the…
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