Iniya (or bouto) lives in Brazil. This Amazonian dolphin has a very original coloration: from pale blue to reddish pink. There are also some changes in color - with blackish and more red hues. The Amazonian dolphin lives exclusively in fresh water, for which it is called a river dolphin. This is a fairly large mammal from the suborder of toothed whales, common in all areas of the Amazon, including small rivers and lakes. And when the water rises, these creatures swim from one riverbed to another, changing their habitat.
Amazon dolphin. Description
As a rule, these animals are not prone to group existence. Only during the periods when there is reproduction. They also do not have a special hierarchy, according to researchers of the Amazonian fauna. These mammals are active both during the day and at night. By the way, like all dolphins, ininever sleep. That is, only one hemisphere of the dolphin's brain is resting, and the second is awake, allowing the dolphin not to suffocate in the depths of the water. After all, in order to live, the Amazonian river dolphin must come up to the surface and inhale every 2-3 minutes. And either the left or the right hemisphere of 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. Characterized by a slightly curved 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 Amazonian dolphin is the largest freshwater dolphin. The length of adult males reaches two and a half meters. But on average - about two. The females are slightly smaller. The weight of an adult individual can reach more than 200 kilograms (on average, more than a hundred). The Amazonian dolphin (the name in Latin is Inia geoffrensis) swims much more slowly compared to marine and oceanic cetaceans: the average speed is 3-5 kilometers per hour. But it can develop a maximum of 22. And when swimming, dive and maneuver pretty well.
Food
The Amazonian dolphin (photo above) feeds mainly on small fish. Sometimesallows himself to feast on small turtles and crabs in shallow water. At the same time, he is quite voracious, and can eat over 12 kilograms of food per day.
Amazon dolphin vision
The eyeballs of this mammal are unlike the eyes of other cetaceans living in marine or oceanic environments. In inia, both the lens and the cornea have acquired a yellow color that protects from the bright sun. Whereas in the bottlenose dolphin, for example, the eyes are adapted to capture even the weakest light. This, like the lens itself shifted inward, indicates a predisposition, rather, to surface vision than to water vision. But these assumptions are not supported by the structure of the neck and vertebrae of the Amazon dolphin, so the vision of a river mammal can baffle some scientists.
Number, population
Inia is the most numerous species of freshwater dolphins. Although recently in the book of endangered animals has a "vulnerable" status. The range of the mammal remains quite stable, compared, for example, with the declining population of the lake dolphin. Determining the number of individuals is very difficult, since the ini live in hard-to-reach areas. But presumably populations number tens of thousands of individuals. The number of this species is greatly influenced by human activities: the construction of dams, fishing. So, for example, dams prevent the migration of pink dolphins, reducing genetic diversity. And the deforestation of the Amazon and the pollution of waters with pesticides andwaste from ore and gold mines have an additional negative impact.
Reproduction
Male inii are often covered in bite marks and welts as the males compete for the right to possess the female. Mating occurs rapidly, the pregnancy is long - eleven months. After that, a single cub is born (birth lasts up to 5 hours). Birth is accompanied by pushing the baby to the surface, which is done by the female so that he breathes 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, while males can return to the rivers. The cubs are fed with milk, which is much more nutritious than cow or human milk, and in order for a cub that cannot suck (dolphins do not have movable lips, like many mammals) to eat, there is a system invented by nature for injecting milk under water. Babies stay with their mothers until the age of 3 and are breastfed for a year.
Myths and legends
Inia, or bouto (as the Amazonian dolphin is called in the local dialect), is quite popular with the Brazilian Indians. They do not kill it and do not use it for food, treating it with deep respect. And not only because the meat of the river dolphin is rather sinewy and tough, there is not enough fat, and the skin will fit only for the manufacture of shields. The locals have legends and fairy tales about this mammal,passed down from generation to generation. The image of inia is interpreted as an evil sorceress who can lure young and inexperienced natives into her abyss in order to destroy her. According to legends, in this form, inia even appears on the streets, and many people have been addicted to and follow the magician for centuries. And time after time, frost embraces the chosen victims and disappears into the waves of the river with a triumphant cry. Therefore, among the Indians of the Amazon, they will not specifically kill the Amazonian dolphin, unless by pure chance. But even then it is necessary to perform certain rituals in order to avoid trouble. And although dolphin fat is quite suitable to burn, for example, in primitive native lamps, no one will use such a source of light, in order to avoid the troubles that may fall on the Indian.
