Pink and Gray River Dolphins
Of the five freshwater species of dolphins in the world, the pink Amazon River dolphin, Inia geoffrensis, or "bufeo colorado” as they are known in Peru and “botos" as they known in in
Brazil, are considered to be the most intelligent.
These friendly, sensitive, pink dolphins with a brain capacity 40% larger than that of humans, who have lived in harmony with the people of the Amazon and its tributaries for centuries, now face
extinction in some tributaries. What was considered to be one of the least threatened species of dolphins 20 years ago, has now become one of the most endangered species due to the accelerated and commercialized rape of the Amazon basin and the destruction of the South American tropical rainforest.
No one knows the actual number of pink dolphins that live in the Amazon basin, but according to the reseach and studies that Roxanne Kremer has conducted in the Upper Basin of the Peruvian Rainforest, 150 kilometers upstream of Iquitos, Peru, the number of pink dolphins from 18 years ago has risen from eight pink dolphins on the Yarapa River to 35 to 45. Ms. Kremer counted the dolphins in July 1998. ISPTR believes that her work with the Peruvian Forest Police to protection both species of river dolphins, and empowering the local peoples of their rights and use of the law, there has been less illegal commercial fishing and logging in the area, thus saving the natural habitat of the land and aquatic life.
The struggle to save these pink dolphins as an important link in an ecosystem -- currently being encroached upon by industrialized forces -- is being spear-headed by the non-profit
International Society for the Preservation of the Tropical Rainforest (ISPTR), whose first globally known project PARD, the Preservation of the Amazonian River Dolphin.
biology-of-river-gray-and-pink-dolphins.
