Extreme heat in Amazonia kills more than 100 pink dolphins in three days

A heat wave that hit Brazil and was particularly severe in the Amazon caused the tragic death of dolphins, the legendary freshwater dolphins that originate in the forest’s rivers. Just since last Thursday, 110 pink dolphins, the world’s most famous and endangered species, have been found dead in the region’s only lake, Lake Tefe, in the municipality of the same name in the northern Amazon state. .

Researchers from the Tefé-based Mamirahua Institute, the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Institute and environmental volunteers from other countries are working together to try to save as many of these mammals as possible. Volunteers walk around the lake and try to remove dolphins stuck in shallow, very hot water and take them to parts of the lake or nearby rivers where the water volume is larger and the temperature is not as high.

Lake Tefe, formed by the confluence of the usually powerful Tefe and Solimões rivers, has never seen such a high mortality rate of these animals, symbols of the Amazon. The pink dolphin can reach 2.5 meters in length and weigh up to 185 kilograms, making it easy prey in the extreme heat that has caused unprecedented drought in Amazon rivers and lakes and left them trapped. to death in small pockets of boiling water that form when drought reduces river flows and causes sandbars to form.

Measurements carried out in recent days by environmentalists have shown that the water temperature in Lake Tefe averages 40 degrees, which is much higher than the norm that fish and mammals can withstand. The death of Amazonian dolphins in Lake Tefe was easily confirmed as there are environmental sites on its shores, but there are fears that the same phenomenon is happening throughout the Amazon, which could have even more serious consequences as meteorologists predict a severe drought caused by the climate phenomenon El Niño will worsen further and will last until at least January next year.