Pink Dolphin – Boto Or Albino? – 27 pics
Pink dolphins? No, you're not drunk. They really exist. But, they should be differentiated because the cause of their pink color is not the same in all dolphins.
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Bout or Boto (lat. Inia geoffrensis) belongs to a group of primitive dolphins and differs significantly from other species. Most interestingly, silver-gray offspring become pink with age. Beautiful pink! Scientists still do not know the exact cause of their beautiful pink color.
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These jumps are a rarity! You will almost never see bout that pops out of the water like its oceanic cousins, because they are less active. Their eyes are almost stunted, so because of their poor vision they must rely on well-developed natural sonar and echo-locating capability.
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As in the spinal cord they have one unconnected vertebra, Boto dolphins have the ability to turn their head for 180 degrees, which enables them to spin faster and to penetrate easier through the underwater trees, especially during the rainy season when the rivers flood large areas of forests and wetlands. At their round head they have a long snout with bristly hairs, which resembles a bird's beak, and it is of great importance when the prey must be drawned out of it hiding place, hollow tree or flooded scrub vegetation.
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Their teeth are not used for chewing food, they usually tear it apart. They usually hunt independently, but when they notice a shoal of fish, they quickly group in order to improve and facilitate the catch. They hunt the fish by hitting it hard and stunning it until it stops struggling, or they throw it above the water level to eat it, or let's say swallow it, more correctly.
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They feed on small fish such as piranhas, but and armored catfish, squid, shrimp, crab, crayfish, small turtles and other small animals can be found on their menu. In order to digest fish bones and armor of turtles, they have developed three stomachs.
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Females are usually larger than males, they may be long up to 2-3m, and heavy up to 100-160 kg. Males are usually about 2 meters long and weigh about 94 kilograms. Babies at birth are about 80 inches long and weighing 15 kilograms.
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Their homeland are the rivers of South America, the Amazon and Orinoco, and therefore they're often called the Amazonian river dolphins. We used to enjoy watching the dolphins cruising the seas and oceans, but boto dolphins are the exact opposite – they are great loners, who are rarely met with members of their species, which is why they avoid major river flows, and would rather remain in a slightly marshy backwaters.
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The only enemies of boto dolphins are humans and fishing nets. Today, unfortunately, they're endangered species. Pollution, excessive and uncontrolled fishing, destruction of boto dolphins habitat, did not only reduce the number of dolphins, but it also destroyed and reduced the areas where they could live.
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Unlike these natural and normal pink dolphin, albino dolphins are wonderful, but unnaturally pink. Their color comes from the inability of their organism to create melanin, the pigment that gives color to the skin. Because of the sensitivity of skin to sunlight albino dolphins spend more time under water. Obviously, the nature itself took care for those unique species to survive and be a part of its flock. Apart from this lack, albino dolphins are completely healthy.
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Love for the color pink and the dolphins, especially the pink ones, awaken the imagination and creativity, so you can try the making a cake in the shape of this unique dolphin and give it to your Barbie doll…