Among the wonders you will find if you visit the Peruvian Amazon during your Peru vacation is a creature that seems like it belongs inside a magical legend alongside fire-breathing dragons and winged fairies.

It’s a creature known locally as Bufeo Colorado, and it’s the largest freshwater cetacean on Earth: the Pink River Dolphin!

The Amazon river dolphin, also known as the pink river dolphin or boto, lives only in freshwater. It is found throughout much of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins in Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, and Venezuela.

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It is a relatively abundant freshwater cetacean with an estimated population in the tens of thousands. However, it is classified as vulnerable in certain areas due to dams that fragment and threaten certain populations, and from other threats such as contamination of rivers and lakes.