Pink river dolphins have longer snouts than ocean dolphins, which helps them poke around logs and tree roots to find fish hiding inside. Their necks can turn further than most dolphins, so they can manoeuvre through tangled underwater forests. They are remarkably flexible and can bend their bodies in ways ocean dolphins cannot.
The pink colour comes partly from lots of blood vessels close to the surface of their skin — you can even see them blush a deeper pink when they are excited. Males tend to be pinker than females. The older a dolphin gets, the pinker it usually becomes.
In Bolivian and Amazonian folklore, the boto is a magical creature. People say it can transform into a handsome person at night, come ashore to dance at parties, and then return to the river before dawn. This legend has helped protect the dolphins for centuries, because people do not want to harm a magical animal.
These dolphins are very intelligent and curious. Unlike shy ocean dolphins, botos sometimes swim up to canoes and seem interested in people. They use echolocation — clicking sounds that bounce off things — to find fish in the murky brown river water where they cannot see very far at all.