South Asian river dolphin
| Ganges and Indus River Dolphin | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Binomial name | ||||||||||||||||||
| Platanista gangetica
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The Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) and Indus River Dolphin are two sub-species of freshwater or river dolphins found in the Indian sub-continent. From the 1970s they have commonly been regarded as separate species. However in 1998, a seminal work on cetacean taxonomy listed them as a single species once again (see taxonomy below).
Other names for both subspecies are the Blind River Dolphin, the Side-swimming Dolphin and the Susu.
The Ganges subspecies has also been called the Gangetic Dolphin and the Ganges Susu.
The Indus subspecies is also known as the Bhulan, Delfín del Indo, Indus Dolphin, Indus Susu and Plataniste de l'Indus.
Taxonomy
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Population and distribution
The Ganges subspecies can be found in the Ganges River as well as the Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers of India, Banglahesh, Nepal and Bhutan.
The Indus subspecies resides in the Indus River in Pakistan. It formerly occurred in the tributaries of the Indus and its ditribution may have extended into India.
A comprehensive population census of the Indus Dolphin that was completed in 2001 by WWF-Pakistan concluded that there were approximately 1,100 Indus River Dolphins left.