Tucuxi

A jumping freshwater Sotalia in the Orinoco

The Sotalia ( Sotalia fluviatilis ) is a dolphin, which inhabits both coasts and the rivers of South America. Even though he is a freshwater residents in part, he is a real dolphin and not a river dolphin.

Features

A freshwater Sotalia is about 150 cm tall; meeresbewohnenden the animals are up to 220 cm long. Apart from the size of the Sotalia has very strong similarity to a bottlenose dolphin. Upper hand, he has a dark gray and the under side whitish.

For the Guiana dolphin 's ability to electroreception is occupied.

Dissemination

We consider the freshwater and meeresbewohnenden Sotalias as two different subspecies:

• Guyana dolphin ( S. guianensis f ) on the Atlantic coast between Nicaragua and Brazil
• Amazon Sotalia ( p f fluviatilis) in the Amazon and its tributaries

The Guiana dolphin inhabits shallow bays and river deltas and rises even sometimes in the lower courses of the rivers, for example, in the Orinoco. In contrast, the Amazon Sotalia is a pure freshwater dolphin, which is found in the upper Amazon to the edge of the Andes. He divides the distribution area of ​​the Amazon river dolphin. During this but the muddy tributaries preferred the Sotalia lives in the clear, wide streams. He is an active, faster and jumping joyful as the Amazon river dolphin, but less curious.

Way of life

Quite unlike the solitary Amazon river dolphin of Sotalia is a living animal in schools, which probably has a similarly complex social structures, such as other dolphins. Its diet consists almost exclusively of fish.

Others

How the Amazon river dolphin also plays a role in the Sotalia mythology of many indigenous peoples. Thus, the belief that a drowned man becomes a dolphin. The dolphin reserves in this new life, the ability to transform occasional night ashore back into a human. He always appears dressed all in white and takes his straw hat never, because with this he hides the breathing hole in the back of his head, that would betray him as a dolphin. As seductive young man and an excellent dancer, he mingles with the people and conquered the women to impregnate them. Before dawn he jumps back into the water and turns into this moment in the dolphin back.

Amazon Sotalia and Guyana dolphins are sometimes considered different species.

Another name for the Sotalia is Tucuxi, a native of the Tupi name.

The last Sotalia in Europe was Paco, who at the age of approximately 40 years, died on 30 December 2009 at the Münster Zoo.