Pink dolphins (11 photos) Bashny.Net

Bright pink spots flashed among the trees, slipping between the branches gracefully round the trunks, swollen by water. This dive into the flooded jungle river Boto, they also Bowtie (local) or inii (Inia geoffrensis). Amazon, pour in the wet season, in its upper reaches flooded jungle, thus giving the Dolphins a chance at a real forest
hunt.



Boat is almost two and a half meters in length and weighs about 200 pounds. Its distinguishing feature - a long, leathery snout, like a beak or stinging, which is so convenient to dig shellfish from the bottom mud and catch fish, tossing in a tangle of branches.



Why should the Dolphins, the original inhabitants of salty sea water, moved vpresnye ponds? Healy Hamilton, a biologist at the California Academy of Sciences, explains: about 15 million years ago during the Miocene, the sea level was higher and, therefore, large parts of the current South America were under a layer of salt water. Hamilton hypothesis is that over time, the sea gradually recedes into the modern borders, and some dolphins remained in their former territories. And for millions of years in the Amazon, they have become quite amazing creatures, little similar to the universal favorite, kinogeroya Flipper.



River dolphins are found not only in the Amazon? they can also be found vindiyskom Ganges, the Indus in Pakistan and in the waters of the Rio de la Plata between Argentina and Uruguay. There are four species of river dolphins, and Boat Quay - the largest of them.



Until recently, the species of river dolphins was five. However, at the beginning of this century were completely destroyed dolphins from the Chinese Yangtze River - 2002 scientists can not detect them.



According to Hamilton, at first glance, all freshwater dolphins kazhutsyaodinakovymi? However, there are four kinds belong to three different families. Based on the analysis of DNA, river dolphins, sea earlier separated from their common ancestor, ancestors of whales, at least on three occasions - first in India and then in China and South America. The evolution of each of the families was independently and in parallel - a geographically isolated and genetically distinct species, adapting to similar conditions, eventually acquired similar characteristics.



Each spring brings Boto chance to leave the narrow confines of the river bed and remember the vast ancient homeland.



Tony Martin of the University of Kent in England studying dolphins vprirodnom Mamiraua Reserve in western Brazil for 16 years. There are two tributaries of the Amazon for half flooded thousands of square kilometers of jungle, turning them into a huge lake under tree cover.



Martin and his Brazilian colleague Vera da Silva found that deeper Vles swim female dolphins - perhaps hiding from aggressive bright pink males. Females are mostly gray color; but the males, according to Martin and da Silva, acquired its pretty pink color as a result of multiple injuries.



Pink color - not the only thing that can attract a female. Sometimes boutoberet in beak beam plant or piece of wood begins to spin and beat his prey on the water. Locals have long thought that it is just a game, while Martin did not find: objects in the mouth keep only males - and only in the presence of females.



Martin says: in nature there are only about 100 thousand Amazonian dolphins, and they are in great danger. For seven years, the population of the Reserve Mamiraua halved. Fishermen use dolphin meat as bait for catfish, and often Boat accidentally fall into the network and choking, unable to emerge.



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