River Dolphins

The picture actually shows an Indus River Dolphin, but all the river dolphins look very similar. This is because they are adapted to life in very similar environments.

There are five types of River Dolphin.

The Boto is the Amazon River Dolphin. It lives in the Orinoco Rivet as well as the Amazon.

The Indus and Ganges River Dolphins live in those rivers. They are almost identical.

The Baiji is the Chinese River Dolphin. It lives in the Yangtze River. This river is also called the Changjiang.

All these dolphins have similar adaptations to their environment.
They all have especially long beaks. This lets them search for fish in between the roots of trees along the river bank and to reach fish in the mud at the bottom of the river. They have necks which are much more flexible than oceanic dolphins. They can move their heads from side to side so they can swim among roots and branches.

They have very good echolocation or sonar but poor eyesight. The Ganges and Indus River Dolphins are blind. Good eyesight is of no use in murky waters. They use echolocation to build a sound picture of their environment.

The final member of the River Dolphin family is the Franciscana. It lives in very shallow seas along the coasts of Argentina and Brazil. It does not live in rivers!