Indus River Dolphin

News story on a study where elders were interviewed about the disappearance of dolphins along the river, showing the river flow below irrigation dams are having an effect on the dolphin's range.

Other names:Bhulan, Susu, Blind River Dolphin, Indus Susu

About:Indus dolphins are mammals, not fish. They come up to the surface for air, and as humans do, they give birth to live young, which feed on their mothers' milk. The Indus River dolphin is one of four river dolphin species and subspecies in the world that spend all their lives in freshwater.

Habitat:Found in silt laden turbid water, the Indus River dolphin once inhabited nearly the entire lower Indus River system. Currently, however, it is confined to the range highlighted on themap.

Weight:The Indus River dolphin weighs 70-110 kg (155 - 245 lbs).

Length:The maximum size is 2.5m (8.2 ft), with males smaller than females.

Colour:Mid gray-brown.

Eyes:The dolphin is functionally blind and has no lens in its tiny eye.

Teeth:Adults have between 30 and 36 sharp teeth on each side of the rostrum. The teeth are very long, protruding at the end of the rostrum.

Rostrum:River dolphins possess a much longer snout (rostrum) than most oceanic dolphins, up to one fifth of their body length.

Breathe:Dolphins breathe through a blowhole located on the top of their heads.

Neck:The neck is narrow and relatively flexible, easing its movements in the complicated river environment.

Flippers:The dolphin has very broad flippers to help it stabilise at slow swimming speed.

Reproduction:The gestation period for the dolphins is approximately 10 months and it is believed that the babies are born in spring. When a baby is born it is about 70 cm long (almost the length of a domestic cat and the mother helps it to the surface to breathe. Babies stay close to their mother for the first six months of their life.

Life span:Scientists think that these dolphins can live for approximately 20 years.

Diet:The Indus River dolphin eats crustaceans such as prawns, as well as fish such as gobies, catfish and carp.

The Indus River dolphin (scientific name: Platanista minor) is freshwater cetacean closely related to the Ganges River dolphin (Platanista gangetica). These two endangered dolphins were long regarded as a single species and some regard them as two subspecies rather than distinct and separate species. Though Platanista minor and Platanista gangetica barely differ morphologically except for slight differences in tail lengths, the two species are distinguishable by their ranges. Platanista minor occurs only in the Indus River system, while Platanista gangetica inhabits only the Ganges River system.

The close connection of these species is likely explained by the fact that "until the late Pliocene, the present-day Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra (except for the upper reach, the Yarlung Zangpo Jiang Rivers constituted a single westward-flowing river called the Indobrahm (Hora 1950, 1953). As Mohan and Dey note, even up until historical times there was probably sporadic faunal exchange between the Indus and Ganges drainages by way of head-stream capture on the low Indo-Gangetic plains, between the Sutlej (Indus) and Yamuna (Ganges) Rivers.