Current knowledge of in South American and Asia river dolphins

Abstract

Evolutionary events in the medium Miocene (16 years million) diverged to the dolphin’s river in South America and Asia of its oceanic ancestors giving place to four genera of river dolphins: Platanistoidea: i) Inia (Amazonas, Orinoco, and Araguia-Tocantis), ii) Platanista (Ganges and Brahmaputra), and it the ecologically extinct iii) Lipotes (Yangté), and Delphinoidea: iv) Sotalia (Amazonas, Orinoco, and Araguia-Tocantis). Objetive: Establish and combine scientific search about these species that allow orient effectively the management actions and conservation of their population and habitats. Methodology: For this one was made a systematic search of publications related to river dolphins in aspect as i) evolution-phylogeny, ii) conservation, iii) behavior, iv) reproduction, v) management plans-sighting guides, vi) movement ecology, vii) habitat, viii) population studies. Results: It was observed increase in the number of publications since 2009, being Brasil (24.4%, n=57) and Colombia (13.4%, n=32) the country’s that mostly contribute the study of river dolphins. The category that most is studied is the conservation (39%, n=85), which has contributed to the management plans (6.4%, n=14). Finally, the species with more studies is I. geoffrensis with 40.6% (n=110) and the minor represented is P. g. minor with 4.4% (n=12). Conclusions: is necessary to set up the state of knowledge genetic of the diverse taxon’s South Americans that allow explaining your taxonomy, on the other hand in Asia, the subspecies P. g. minor does not present a management plan for the conservation of the specie further of a little knowledge about its ecology.