• Question from:Luke

This is question copy-pasted from a forum. I thought you might have something interesting to say about it:

"I've been thinking why do some rivers have dolphins while other rivers lack them?

The Indus, Ganges, Amazon and Yangtze all recently had or have river dolphins, but the Mississippi, Nile, Yellow and the Congo lack them.

I know the Congo has some rather nasty rapids near it's mouth, but it otherwise seems perfect. The Nile might be too narrow but the Yellow and Mississippi seem fine."

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  • University of Bristol
  • Posts: 2,462

It's a really good question but sadly no-one on the site seems to know the answer. My guess would be a whole host of "local conditions" that might include particle/sediment composition, pH, ionic concentrations etc.

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  • QMUL, London
  • Posts: 1,022

I have been thinking about this and I am stumpted I must confess.