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Amazon pink dolphin facts, checked against the sources

Quick summary

Amazon pink dolphin facts: the boto is the largest river dolphin, bends its neck in every direction, lives for decades and is Endangered.

Quick facts

  • 28 teeth per half jaw2
  • Pregnancy of 12.3 to 13 months3
  • Endangered since 201846

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A fact sheet on the boto, from its flexible neck to its endangered status. Every figure comes from ICMBio, the IUCN or another cited source, so you can use it for school, travel or curiosity.

Editorial team, pinkdolphinsamazon.quest · Updated November 12, 2026 · 6 min of reading

Summary view

  • Neck7 neck vertebrae that are not fused, so the head turns in every direction.1
  • Teeth28 per half jaw, in 2 shapes.2
  • PregnancyAn estimated 12.3 to 13 months.3
  • LifespanUp to about 45 years, with a zoo male reaching 52.4
  • CourtshipMales offer sticks, branches or mud to females.5

Body facts: built to bend

The best-known fact about the Amazon river dolphin is its pink skin, but its shape is just as unusual. No river dolphin is bigger: a male's ceiling is 2.55 m and 200 kg, a female's 2.25 m and 155 kg.6,7 The neck bones, 7 in all, are free rather than fused, so the head swings in any direction, and the spaces separating the remaining vertebrae give the body its suppleness.1 A dolphin that can bend like this can turn inside a flooded forest. The teeth are another surprise. Count the teeth and you reach 28 in each half of the lower jaw, with molar-shaped pairs toward the back and conical pairs up front.2 The back carries a low ridge rather than the tall curved fin of a sea dolphin.8 The eyes are small but work well, in the water and out of it.9

Hearing and sound matter more than sight in the brown rivers. Both Amazon dolphins use biosonar, a sound-based sense, to find fish and to find their way under water.10 That is a reason they can hunt among tree roots at high water, when a flooded forest is a maze that a human could not see through, and it is also why researchers lean on scars in photographs and on long surveys to learn about them.11

Facts at a glance

The boto by the numbers

FactFigureSource
Maximum length, adult male2.55 m7ICMBio assessment
Teeth per half jaw282ICMBio assessment
Pregnancy12.3 to 13 months3ICMBio assessment
Interval between births4.6 years12ICMBio assessment
Generation time10.2 years20ICMBio assessment
Fish species eatenMore than 4321IUCN assessment
Range survey, river lengthNearly 28,000 km22IUCN assessment

Figures are the ones the assessments print; most of them are estimates, not exact values.3,21

Fun facts about the Amazon river dolphin's social life

The boto is mostly a solitary animal, although large groups gather where side channels meet the river. In surveys of the central Amazon, 99% of the groups sighted were made up of 1 to 4 animals.14 Mothers and calves are the most common pairs, and the sexes use the river differently: adult males are mostly in the main rivers, while mothers with calves use the lakes and flooded forest at high water.15

A remarkable fun fact concerns courtship. Adult males present females with objects like twigs, branches or mud, and ICMBio knows of no other aquatic mammal that behaves this way.5 The competition among males leaves its mark: intense contact between individuals produces scars, and mature males in breeding condition end up far rosier than the rest, thanks to pigment lost through abrasion and scars.11,16 Where they live inside a river is not random either. Botos are densest near the banks and where a tributary joins the main river, and along the big rivers they stay mostly within 150 m of the shore.17,18 Some are year-round residents of a given area, while others cover distances of tens to hundreds of kilometres, without any seasonal migration.19

A slow life

The pace of boto life, in years

  • Birth interval4.6 years
  • Nursing, upper estimate5.8 years
  • Generation time10.2 years

Intervals and generation time as estimated in the ICMBio assessment.12,20

Facts about pink dolphins in the Amazon River: the life cycle

The life cycle of the boto is slow. Pregnancy lasts an estimated 12.3 to 13 months, the calf is 84 cm long on average, and mothers nurse for an estimated 1.5 to 5.8 years.3,12 The interval between births averages 4.6 years, so a female raises only a handful of calves in a long life.12 Births are timed to the falling river, when fish are crowded together.28 Breeding starts at different ages: females at 7 years (170 to 180 cm) and males at 10 years (190 to 200 cm).13 Reproduction is seasonal and runs from July to October, reaching its height in September.28 Scientists use a generation time of 10.2 years in their calculations, which is the average age at which animals breed.20

Old age is possible. Tooth-layer estimates reach 45 years, and Duisburg Zoo in Germany kept a male for 52.4 A life that long makes every adult valuable to a population that breeds slowly. In the long-running Projeto Boto study, adults marked in 1994 were still active in the same area, with estimated ages above 30 years, and females of 32 years were still reproductively active.29,4 Those are exceptional facts for an animal that spends its life in muddy water.

Myth or record

Stories and what the records say

Myth

Love charms

Sold in city markets

  • Sold asBoto eyes and genitals23
  • ActuallyMostly pigs and sheep23
  • LegalNo, it breaks federal law23
See the options

Record

Aquarium pets

A thing of the past

  • ExportsFrom the 1950s24
  • TodayNo live captures reported25
  • Zoo recordA male lived 52 years4
See the options

Legend

The man in white

The legend of the boto

  • WhoA young man in white26
  • HidesA hole on his head, under a hat26
  • DawnTurns back into a boto27
See the options

River facts: the dolphin follows the water

Its range covers the rivers of several South American countries, and its life is tied to the water level.34,35 At high water it swims into flooded forests in search of prey among roots and trunks.36 At low water it gathers below channel confluences.37 Its menu spans more than 43 species of fish.21 Nobody has counted all of them. A complete head count does not exist, though a Mamirauá reserve survey put the number at 13,000 in 1999 to 2001.38,39 A programme running from 2006 to 2016 surveyed close to 28,000 km of river on 26 expeditions.22 The numbers that do exist come mostly from small areas studied for years.

Lakes work as nurseries: calm water, plenty of small fish and fewer large sharks, the IUCN suggests, make them better for calves.40 As the river drops, dolphins pull out of the lakes and shallow margins, possibly so that they are not stranded.41 A boto therefore changes address with the seasons, which is why a spot that was full of dolphins in a given month can be empty in the next.

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  1. The 12-hour jungle experience12 hours · per person, from $140

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Starting prices as on the booking platform, converted at the ECB reference rate. You see the exact price at booking.

A life in stages

From calf to elder

  1. Birth

    About 84 cm long

    Calves average 84 cm at birth.3

  2. Nursing

    Up to 5.8 years

    Nursing is estimated at 1.5 to 5.8 years.12

  3. Age 7

    Females start to breed

    Females breed from 7 years of age.13

  4. Age 10

    Males mature

    Males reach sexual maturity from 10 years.13

  5. Age 45

    A long life

    Tooth layers suggest the boto can live 45 years.4

Fun facts about names, love charms and captivity

The animal has many names. The IUCN lists Amazon River Dolphin and Pink Dolphin, and Brazilians say boto-cor-de-rosa, boto-vermelho, boto da Amazônia or simply boto.42,43 The most famous folk tale has the boto dancing ashore in a white suit and a hat, hiding the opening on top of its head.26 At dawn the young man turns back into a boto.27 The legend has its own page on this site. A darker fact is the market in love charms. In markets around Amazonian cities in Brazil, products sold as boto eyes and genitals are offered as charms, which breaks federal law, yet DNA work shows most are pig, sheep or Guiana dolphin tissue.23 In other words, many buyers are paying for something that never came from a boto.

Captivity is a settled chapter: live captures for export ran from the 1950s to at least the 1970s, mostly for the USA and Europe, and a Venezuelan aquarium showed wild-caught animals into the mid-1990s.24,44 Since then the IUCN has recorded none.25 All cetaceans in Brazil are also protected from hunting by federal law.45 A visitor should read that as a reason to keep contact with wild dolphins gentle and rare, not as permission to do anything that has no written ban.

Video

Facts about the pink river dolphin

Deep Marine Scenes on YouTube · The video stays unloaded until you press play.

Inia feed on more than 43 species of fishes
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species21

Use these facts

A checklist for a smart dolphin visit

Before4

  • Choose a day with a dolphin stop that explains its rules30
  • Ask whether the platform feeds the animals31
  • Plan for rain and a canoe without a roof
  • Check how long the trip lasts: some are 4.5 hours, some 12

At the river4

  • Look along the banks and at channel mouths17
  • Keep your hands out of the water around a mother and calf15
  • Do not bring food for the animals32
  • Take rubbish back with you33

Status facts: Endangered and declining

The conservation facts are the sobering ones. The IUCN rates the boto Endangered in an assessment dated 21 June 2018, a step up from the earlier ratings.46,47 ICMBio also assessed it as Endangered, in a category dated 18 May 2018.48 The main reason is a fishery that has used dolphins as bait since the year 2000.49 The best numbers come from the Mamirauá reserve. In an index area there, the population fell by 70.4% across 22 years, and transect counts fell by 6.7% a year on average, which implies a halving each decade.50,51 An independent analysis of the same 22-year survey series puts the halving time at 10 years for botos.52 The IUCN notes that if this rate held across the whole range, the species would qualify as Critically Endangered.53

Facts do not end there. A 5-year ban on fishing and selling piracatinga began on 1 January 2015, but the IUCN has seen signs that the bait fishery goes on.54,55 A full explanation of the threats and of what is being done sits on the endangered page of this guide, which is the place to go next if you want to help. It also explains why a visit that follows the rules is better for the species than a visit that ignores them.

FAQ

Straight answers to common questions.

What is an interesting fact about pink dolphins?
The males court with objects.

The boto is the only aquatic mammal known to court by showing sticks, branches or mud.5

How long do Amazon river dolphins live?
About 45 years.

The estimate from tooth layers is 45 years, and Duisburg Zoo kept a male for 52.4

How big is a pink dolphin?
At most about 2.5 m and 200 kg.

A male's ceiling is 2.55 m and 200 kg; a female's is 2.25 m and 155 kg.7

How many teeth does a boto have?
28 per half jaw.

Each half of the lower jaw holds molar-shaped and conical teeth.2

How long is a pink dolphin pregnant?
About 12 to 13 months.

About 12.3 to 13 months, and a single calf is born.3

Are pink dolphins endangered?
Yes.

Yes: the IUCN Red List rates it Endangered, in an assessment of 2018.46

Are botos used as pets or in aquariums today?
No live captures are reported.

The IUCN reports no live captures or exports in recent years.25

Sources

  1. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  2. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  3. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  4. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  5. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  6. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  7. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  8. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  9. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  10. ICMBio, article by an ICMBio researcher in Ciência Hoje (2011) · Botos e turistas em risco (Portuguese PDF) ↩
  11. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  12. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  13. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  14. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  15. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  16. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  17. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  18. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  19. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  20. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  21. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  22. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  23. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  24. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  25. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  26. ICMBio, article by an ICMBio researcher in Ciência Hoje (2011) · Botos e turistas em risco (Portuguese PDF) ↩
  27. ICMBio, article by an ICMBio researcher in Ciência Hoje (2011) · Botos e turistas em risco (Portuguese PDF) ↩
  28. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  29. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  30. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  31. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  32. ICMBio, article by an ICMBio researcher in Ciência Hoje (2011) · Botos e turistas em risco (Portuguese PDF) ↩
  33. ICMBio, article by an ICMBio researcher in Ciência Hoje (2011) · Botos e turistas em risco (Portuguese PDF) ↩
  34. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  35. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  36. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  37. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  38. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  39. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  40. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  41. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  42. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  43. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  44. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  45. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  46. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  47. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  48. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  49. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  50. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  51. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  52. PLOS ONE (U.S. National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central) · Both cetaceans in the Brazilian Amazon show sustained, profound population declines over two decades (2018) ↩
  53. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩
  54. ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation, Brazil), SALVE system · Inia geoffrensis (boto-vermelho): species assessment (Portuguese PDF, 2018) ↩
  55. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species · Inia geoffrensis, Amazon River Dolphin (assessment 2018) ↩

Further reading

More about the boto

GuidePink dolphin tours from Manaus and their pricesGuideWhere and when to see pink dolphins in the AmazonGuideSwimming with pink dolphins in the AmazonGuideThe one-day Amazon jungle trip from Manaus

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