The line (or Boat) lives in Brazil.This Amazon River Dolphin has a very original coloring from palely blue to reddish-pink.There are also some changes in color - with blackish and redder hues.Amazon River Dolphin lives exclusively in fresh water, and for this he called the river.This is a fairly large mammal of the suborder of toothed whales, common in all parts of the Amazon, including small rivers and lakes.And when the water rose, these creatures swim from one channel of the river to another, changing the habitat.
Amazon River Dolphin.Description
As a rule, these animals do not tend to group survival.Only in periods when there is a reproduction.Special hierarchy from them, according to the testimony of researchers fauna of the Amazon, is also not observed.These mammals are active both day and night.By the way, like all dolphins inii never sleep.That is only one hemisphere rests dolphin brain, and the second - awake, allowing the dolphin does not suffocate in the depths of the water.After all, to live the Amazon river dolphin has to come to the surface and breathe every 2-3 minutes.And then the left, then the right brain rests an average of 5-6 hours a day.The body of the animal overweight, thinner to the rear.It is almost perfectly evasive.Muzzle - long and narrow.Characteristic beak, slightly curved downward, and pretty sharp teeth.
Color
He dolphins changing as they grow older.So, young people - grayish-blue with a light belly.In adults - almost white belly and back - pink or blue palely.Those individuals that live in lakes, much darker than their river cousins.
Height, weight, speed
Amazon River Dolphin - the largest of freshwater.The length of the adult male reaches two and a half meters.But on average - about two.Females are slightly smaller.The weight of an adult can reach more than 200 kilograms (average - more than a hundred).Amazon River Dolphin (name in Latin - Inia geoffrensis) compared with marine and oceanic cetaceans swim much slower: the average speed - 3-5 kilometers per hour.But it may reach a maximum - 22. And when swimming and diving is pretty good maneuver.
Power
Amazon River Dolphin (photo above) feeds mainly on small fish.Sometimes allows himself to feast on bugs and small crabs in the shallows.At the same time it is quite greedy, and a day can eat more than 12 kg of food.
Vision Amazon River Dolphin
Eyeballs this mammal does not like the eyes of other cetaceans that live in the sea or ocean environment.In inii and lens and cornea purchased yellow color, protecting from the bright sun.Whereas bottlenose dolphins, for example, the eyes are adapted to capture even the most rather weak light.It's like he shifted deep into the lens indicates predisposition, rather, to the above-water than to water eyesight.But these assumptions are not supported by the structure of the neck vertebrae and dolphin Amazon river so that the vision of a mammal is able to put some scholars to a standstill.
number, population
The line - the most extensive view of the number of freshwater dolphins.Although in recent years the book has endangered animals "vulnerable" status.The range of mammal remains fairly stable compared to, for example, with the decreasing population of lake dolphin.Determination of the number of individuals is very difficult since inii live in remote areas.But presumably the population account for tens of thousands of individuals.On the strength of this type has a great influence human activity: the construction of dams, fishing.So, for example, dams prevent the migration of pink dolphins, reducing genetic diversity.But Amazon deforestation and water pollution by pesticides and waste from the mines for extraction of ore and gold have an additional negative impact.
Reproduction
inii Males are often covered with bite marks and scars - so males are competing for the right to have a female.Mating takes place rapidly, prolonged pregnancy - eleven months.After that, the only baby born (births last up to 5 hours).The birth of a baby is accompanied by popping to the surface, which is produced by the female that he breathed in the air.Otherwise, the child may die.Birth weight - about 7 kilograms.All this takes place in early June, when the water rises in the ecosystem as high as possible.Before its fall female children remain in the flooded plains, and males can return to the river.Milk-fed calves, which is much more nutritious cow or human, and to the young, does not know how to suck (no dolphins moving lips, like many mammals) fed, there is the nature of the injection system invented milk under water.Children are kept near the mother to 3 years and are fed breast milk during the year.
Myths and legends
The line, or a Boat (as the Amazon River Dolphin is called in the local dialect), is quite popular among Brazilian Indians.They did not kill and do not use for food are treated with great respect.And not just because the meat river dolphin is quite stringy and tough, a little fat, and the skin will fit except for the manufacture of boards.About this mammal from local legends and fairy tales, handed down from generation to generation.Image inii treated as an evil sorceress who can attract the young and inexperienced Aboriginal self into the abyss, to destroy.According to legend, in this form The line appears even on the streets, and many people throughout the ages, and are addicted to follow Magin.And again and again The line embraces selected victims and with a triumphant cry disappears in the waves of the river.Therefore, among the Indians of the Amazon especially Amazonian dolphins will not kill, except by accident.But even then, you need to perform certain rituals to avoid trouble.Although the dolphin fat is quite fit to burn, for example, in primitive native fixtures, so use a light source no one will avoid troubles that can befall an Indian.
