RIO DE JANEIRO (WTHR) - In the Amazon Rainforest, you would not be surprised to see piranhas, tarantulas and anacondas. But, if you spend enough time on the Rio Negro river and glide to a certain spot, you will see something you have never seen before.
Pink dolphins.
They are only found in the Amazon and Venezuela. The pink dolphins are eight feet long and weigh 400 pounds. They swim to a dock along the Rio Negro every day to be fed.
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"All they care about is fish," laughs a tourist from Israel.
"I loved how real that felt. I didn't feel like I was with a tame animal at all. When you were touching them, they weren't there to have their bellies stroked," said tourist George Dunn.
The pink dolphins are only fed a limited number of fish.
"Afterwards, they go back into the wild and they have to search for their own fish," said tour guide Haulys Karnopp.
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The pink dolphins are actually born gray.
"When they start to get older, they suffer from a lack of melanin. Their skin starts to change its color. Then they turn pink. The older they get, the pinker they are," said Karnopp.
"Americans have a perception of dolphins as 'Flipper,' adorable. They're not that cute, but they're really cool looking," said tourist Ashley Migliaro.
"They may not be Hollywood movie stars. They're not Flipper. They're not going to be Flipper. But, they're still cute in their own right," said tourist Phil Bernard.
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Beyond the color difference, these dolphins have other unique features.
"The snout is way longer. The dorsal fin is also flatter compared to the gray ones. The gray ones are similar to sea dolphins, for example," said Karnopp.
The pink dolphins are considered the top of the food chain in the river.
"They have no predator. There are Caymans and anacondas and other species of fish in the river but none of those attack the dolphins," said Karnopp. "They are fast enough to escape predators, so that makes them what we call, top predators. They have no enemies."
The pink dolphins play an important role in the ecosystem of the Amazon rainforest.
"They eat the fish which are ill or old in the school of fish when they find a school of fish," said Karnopp.
Visitors to the Amazon rainforest are told the legend of the pink dolphins.
"These animals were feared by the Amazonian population because there was a legend involving these pink dolphins which said, in nights of full moon, these guys turned into a handsome man, go into the community or villages alongside the river, seducing the girls, and sometimes kidnapping the girls. There was an underwater city. Sometimes the girls would be pregnant and people were saying it was a dolphin," said Karnopp.
The Amazon rainforest may offer a variety of interesting creatures. But, the star of the Amazon is a swimming star.
The pink dolphin!