WHO IS THE RIVER DOLHPIN

 The Amazon River Dolphin, also known as boto or bufeo, ranks the largest of all freshwater dolphin. Median length is about 6.5 feet, varying coloration from shades of bright pink to dull, gray pink. The sun's rays can cause the dolphins to lose their brilliant coloration, but the cloudy tint of the Amazon River assists in maintaining their illustrious shade of pink. The Amazon river dolphin consumes more than 50 unique varieties of fish. One characteristic central to understanding this dolphin is its neck, which is without a fused vertebra, permitting 180-degree rotation.

   Its range stretches throughout the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela. Once an abundant freshwater cetacean with population estimates in the tens of thousands. However, now it is on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List  due to vulnerability from hydraulic dams that fragment and endanger certain populations, and from other threats such as mining's contamination of rivers and lakes.