AN INTRODUCTION TO RIVER DOLPHIN SPECIES - Biology, Evolution and Conservation of River Dolphins Within South America and Asia - page 15

dolphin market. Dolphin oil is even used as a form of pulmonary medicine (this practice
extends into the Mamoré River in Bolivia).
It is noteworthy to remark that the myths around this genus are the same throughout the
entirety of the Amazon basin with its thousands of kilometers. One such myth was recounted
to Ruiz-Garcia in Alejandria and Exaltación (Mamoré River, Bolivia), Yarinacocha, near
Pucallpa (Ucayali River, Peruvian Amazon), in Requena (Tapiche River; Peruvian Amazon),
in Pompeya (Napo River, Ecuadorian Amazon), in San Francisco (Loreto-Yacu River,
Colombian Amazon) and in villages near Manaus and Santarem (central Brazilian Amazon).
People at each location stated their belief that pink river dolphins can transform themselves
into elegantly dressed white men that don hats to cover their spiracles. They become excellent
dancers and enamor young ladies at parties they crash. With cunning and a beautiful body,
each ―man‖ entices an infatuated young lady to the river and then transports the innocent
female to the ―dolphin city‖ under the water. The young lady is later returned to her village
and nine months later, a baby is born. The father is unknown, but the new mother knows that
the father was a bufeo. It is also interesting to remark on the intense sexual attraction that
Indigenous people of the Amazon have for bufeos. The fishermen, that were part of Ruiz-
García´s team in the areas where boto were captured, were very reluctant to touch the
dolphins because they believed that if they touched the animals, they would incur illness.
Nevertheless, they still looked for a dolphin's sexual area, especially in females, because their
vulva is very similar to that of the human female. Also, in some areas of the Amazon, Ruiz-
García listened to accounts of Indians sexually assaulting Inia females and raping them. Some
of the Inia females were tied to trees and raped by a group of Indians for several hours.
In another belief, botos can sequester and kill their enemies because they are ―yacurunas‖
or water spirits (in quechua) as is the Anaconda and they have the power to hold the spirit of
their enemies in their sub-aquatic town. This myth, like some others, exists among the mixed
Indian and Caucasian colonist communities (―colonos‖). Ruiz-García interviewed two
Caucasians, one in Bretaña (Canal del Puhinauva in the mouth of the Pacaya River, Peruvian
Amazon) and another in San Francisco (Loreto-Yaku River at the Colombian Amazon). Both
related the same story, that they personally observed a boto transform himself into a man
during a moon-lit night. But, when he was discovered he returned to the river and again
transformed himself into a boto. The first man even shot at the boto when it returned to the
water, but missed. Therefore, certain species are not only important from a biodiversity or
from a genetic diversity point of view, but also have cultural and mythical value. Bufeo is one
of these species. Figure 6 contains a photo of bufeo's mythical form.
Taxonomy: of Inia geoffrensis
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Suborder: Odontoceti ―toothed whales‖
Family: Iniidae
Genus: Inia
Species: Inia geoffrensis (de Blainville 1817)