Meet the Elusive Gangetic River Dolphin

The Ganges river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a species of toothed whale classified in the family Platanistidae. It lives in the Ganges and related rivers of South Asia, namely in the countries of India, Nepal, and Bangladesh.

What are they?

The Ganges river dolphin has a rectangular, ridgelike dorsal fin and females tend to be larger than males. Ganges river dolphins usually are tan, chocolate brown, dark grey or light blue.

How do they look?

The Indus river dolphin (Platanista minor) is a species of toothed whale in the family Platanistidae. It is endemic to the Indus River Basin of Pakistan and northwestern India.

Cousin in Indus

It is known as susu as a popular name; soons, soans, or soos in Hindi; shushuk in Bengali; hiho or hihu in Assamese; bhagirath; and shus or suongsu in Nepali. Its Sanskrit name in medieval times was likely shishumar.

Different Names

It lives along the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna and Karnaphuli-Sangu river systems of Bangladesh and India, and the Sapta Koshi and Karnali Rivers in Nepal.

Distribution

The Ganges river dolphins usually swim alone or in pairs, is known to breach rarely and is shy around boats and therefore difficult to observe.

Social Life

It is likely to use echolocation effectively to navigate and forage prey it is known to exhibit object-avoidance behavior in mukry river waters as well as in captivity.

Vocalisation

The Ganges river dolphin does not have a specific mating season. When a calf is born, 8–12 months after conception, it stays with its mother for one year.

Reproduction

It has been listed as an Endangered species on the IUCN Red List since 1996. It is threatened by habitat fragmentation, entanglement in fishing gear and by-catch mortality, targeted hunting and pollution of rivers.

Endangered