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Boutu or Amazon porpoise - INIA GEOFFRENSIS
Possibly Endangered
Class: Animals with Milk Glands (Mammalia)
The Name "Porpoise": "Porpoise" is Latin for the two words "pork" and "fish" ("pork" and "pisces.") This animal is then the "pigfish" of the seas.
Location: The upper Amazon basin in South America, as far as 1500 miles inland from the mouth of the river. Also found in the upper Orinoco in Venezuela.
Habitat: Aquatic. Freshwater rivers and lakes.
Description: This porpoise is gray on the back and paler on the underside. It often has a pinkish hue. There are a few hairs on the nose, and the eyes are very small. The teeth are small and generally conical in shape, but the posterior teeth tend to have a lower second cusp or ledge at the inner edge, like molars. The porpoise can exceed 10 ft in length and weigh up to 250 lbs.
Behavior: The Amazon porpoise usually swims in pairs or in small groups, sometimes in association with another freshwater species of porpoise, the Sotalia. When swimming, the long snout is kept under the water so that only the back breaks the water surface. It rarely jumps out of the water, and will only do so when at play. If feeds on fishes which it rouses from the muddy riverbed and catches when they are closer to the surface. It also feeds on piranha. It breathes every 30 to 40 seconds, with a maximum interval of about two minutes.
Reproduction: A Single calf is born with a length of about 32 inches long.
Note: The porpoise and dolphin are often confused to the point that they are, for all intents and purposes, one and the same. This porpoise lives in fresh water, whereas dolphins live in the salty water of the oceans.
Go to the Cetacea Page to learn more about the other whale-like animals.
Go to the Index to compare this Porpoise to the various Dolphins found in America Zoo.
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