Amazon river dolphin
Inia geoffrensis
- Size
- Up to 2.5m long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- The Amazon and Orinoco rivers
A dolphin of fresh water, pink or grey-pink, with a long thin beak and a low ridge for a back fin.
The pink river dolphin that follows you
This page is the Amazon river. Move your pointer across the water and your animal will swim after you. Choose a different animal at the bottom, and tap the notes to open them.
The Amazon river right now checking the sky…
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01 · PinkPinker with age
They are born grey and turn pinker as they grow older. Males are the pinkest.
02 · NeckA bendy neck
Unlike sea dolphins, it can turn its head from side to side, to steer among flooded tree trunks.
03 · SoundSeeing with sound
The water is too muddy to see in. It finds fish by sending out clicks and listening for the echoes.
04 · BeakBristles on its beak
Stiff hairs on its beak help it to feel for prey in the mud.
05 · NameThe boto
In Brazil it is called the boto. Stories tell of it turning into a handsome man at night.
06 · TreesSwimming in the forest
When the river floods, it swims in among the trees to hunt.
Meet them all
Who's who in the river
Green anaconda
Eunectes murinus
- Size
- Up to 6m or more: the heaviest snake
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Swamps and slow rivers of tropical South America
A huge, thick, olive-green snake with black blotches, which spends most of its life in water.
Capybara
Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris
- Size
- About 1.2m long: the biggest rodent
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Riverbanks, lakes and marshes across South America
A barrel-shaped, brown animal like a giant guinea pig, with a blunt square head and no tail.
Red-bellied piranha
Pygocentrus nattereri
- Size
- About 20 to 30cm long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers and lakes of the Amazon basin
A deep-bodied, silvery fish with a red belly, a blunt face and a mouthful of triangular teeth.
Black caiman
Melanosuchus niger
- Size
- Up to 5m long
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Slow rivers, lakes and flooded forest of the Amazon
A big, dark, almost black relative of the alligator, with pale bands on its jaws.
Giant otter
Pteronura brasiliensis
- Size
- Up to 1.8m long: the biggest otter
- Look for it
- All year round
- Where
- Rivers and lakes of the Amazon and the Pantanal
A very large, dark-brown otter with a cream patch on its throat and a flat, paddle-shaped tail.
Through the year
When to look for them
River animals are there all year. They are easiest to see in the low-water months, from about July to December, when they are crowded into less water. The animal following you is shown in red.
Pink river dolphin
Anaconda
Capybara
Piranha
Black caiman
Giant otter
Good to know
Six things about the Amazon river
A fifth of the world's river water
One-fifth of all the fresh water that flows into the oceans comes from the Amazon.
The flooded forest
In the wet season the river rises by as much as 12 metres, and fish feed on fruit that falls from the trees.
More fish than anywhere
More than 2,500 kinds of fish live in the Amazon, more than in the whole Atlantic Ocean.
No bridges
For almost its whole length, not one bridge crosses the main river.
Black and white water
Some branches run pale and muddy, others dark as tea. Where they meet, they flow side by side for miles.
Like a sea
In the wet season the river can be 30 miles wide. From the middle you cannot see either bank.
Photo gallery
Real photos of the animals on this page. Tap one to see it bigger.
Amazon river dolphin
Green anaconda
Capybara
Red-bellied piranha
Black caiman
Giant otter
Photos are from Wikimedia Commons and are used under free licences. They have been resized, and cropped where they appear in link previews. Open a photo to see who took it.
The greatest river
The Amazon carries more water than the next seven biggest rivers put together. Each year it floods the forest for miles on either side, and the fish swim out among the tree trunks.
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