A long-beaked dolphin that lives in freshwater in the Amazon basin.
Young dolphins are dark gray; adults develop pink coloring over all or part of the body.
An Amazon River Dolphin’s habitat expands and contracts as seasonal floods connect and separate waterways. In Brazil’s Mamirauá Reserve, annual water levels vary by 11–15 metres, and the study found strong seasonal differences in dolphin density among habitats.
As water receded, dolphins moved from floodplain areas toward the main river; about 80% of those in rivers were within 150 metres of the banks. During high water, females and calves were common in flooded forest farther from the river, using different areas from adult males. When the forest floods, it becomes part of the dolphins’ seasonal route through the landscape. These observations describe one reserve in Brazil, not abundance across the species’ full range.
IUCN Red List · Endangered (EN) · Global species-level assessment
The 2018 global IUCN Red List assessment lists the Amazon River Dolphin as Endangered (EN), with a decreasing population trend. It was assessed on 21 June 2018 at the species level across its global range.