Orinoco river dolphin or Boto Baby (Inia geoffrensis humboldtiana), 2008-08-06

I tried looking it up and couldn't find anything, so, I hope this doesn't come out stupid, does Duisburg still have river dolphins?

@MonkeyBat Unfortunately not. Baby was the last one and he sadly passed away recently, on December 21st, which is also the reason why I posted these archive pictures.

@KevinB How sad. I'm sure he will be missed by many. Aren't there plans to replace him with manatees?

@MonkeyBat I believe having read or heard at the time the Rio Negro exhibit at Duisburg opened (in 2005) it was already planned at that time to house manatees in this tank once Baby passed.

There were several manatee births in European zoos in the last couple of years, so there will be some animals available at some point in the future.

Thanks for honoring his life. He was quite the celebrity for us ZooChatters.

I hope that one day they will be able to try again with river dolphins. Being adapted to shallow riverine conditions I still think they hold alot of potential for being a sustainable zoo species.

@DelacoursLangur Though it would be cool for them to make a comeback, the only way for this to happen would be getting them from South American collections (if they have them) or have them be wild caught (which would be extremely unethical)