La Plata
dolphins live off the coasts of Brazil, Uruguay, and
Argentina in South America. La Plata dolphins are also
called franciscana and Pontoporia blainvillei. They
are very small dolphins: they only grow to be 4 or 5
(less than 2 meters) feet long! They are grayish-brown
and have very long beaks. They have many sharp teeth
in their beaks that they use to catch fish, shrimp and
squid. Every year, a new layer is added to each dolphin's
teeth. This way, when a scientist studies a dead dolphin,
he or she can count the number of layers in the teeth
and guess how old the dolphin is.
La Plata dolphins are very hard to see in the ocean,
so no one knows how many there are in the wild. Very
little is known about how these dolphins behave. Sadly,
they are often caught in fishermenÕs nets and
are killed. Pablo Bordino is working to learn more
about the behavior of La Plata dolphins so that he
can prevent them from being caught by fishermen.
