Animalia > Chordata > Mammalia > Cetacea > Platanistidae > Platanista > Platanista gangetica

Platanista gangetica (Ganges River Dolphin; Susu; Ganges river-dolphin)

Synonyms:

Wikipedia Abstract

The South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) is a freshwater or river dolphin found in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan which is split into two subspecies, the Ganges river dolphin (P. g. gangetica) and Indus river dolphin (P. g. minor). The Ganges river dolphin is primarily found in the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers and their tributaries in Bangladesh, India and Nepal, while the Indus river dolphin is found in the Indus River in Pakistan and its Beas and Sutlej tributaries. From the 1970s until 1998, they were regarded as separate species; however, in 1998, their classification was changed from two separate species to subspecies of a single species (see taxonomy below). The Ganges river dolphin has been recognized by the government of India as its National Aquatic Animal.
View Wikipedia Record: Platanista gangetica

Infraspecies

Platanista gangetica gangetica
Platanista gangetica minor (Indus river dolphin) (Endangered) (Attributes)

Endangered Species

Status: Endangered
View IUCN Record: Platanista gangetica

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
13
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
72
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 26.37
EDGE Score: 5.39
View EDGE Record: Platanista gangetica

Attributes

Gestation [2]  11 months 15 days
Litter Size [2]  1
Maximum Longevity [4]  28 years
Migration [1]  Potamodromous
Snout to Vent Length [4]  9.84 feet (300 cm)
Water Biome [1]  Lakes and Ponds, Rivers and Streams, Coastal, Brackish Water
Weaning [2]  1 year
Adult Weight [2]  154.324 lbs (70.00 kg)
Diet [3]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Piscivore
Diet - Fish [3]  50 %
Diet - Invertibrates [3]  50 %
Forages - Marine [3]  100 %
Female Maturity [2]  10 years
Male Maturity [2]  10 years

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Manas National Park II 135025 Assam, India
National Chambal Sanctuary IV   Madhya Pradesh, India
Royal Chitwan National Park II 292637 Nepal  
Sunderban National Park 261613 India  

Prey / Diet

Cirrhinus reba (Reba carp)[5]
Mastacembelus armatus (Zig-zag eel)[5]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Campula oblonga[6]
Distomum andersoni <Unverified Name>[6]

Range Map

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 2de Magalhaes, J. P., and Costa, J. (2009) A database of vertebrate longevity records and their relation to other life-history traits. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 22(8):1770-1774
♦ 3Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
♦ 4Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 5Abundance and Prey Availability Assessment of Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica) in a Stretch of Upper Ganges River, India, Tawqir Bashir, Afifullah Khan, Parikshit Gautam, and Sandeep Kumar Behera, Aquatic Mammals 2010, 36(1), 19-26
♦ 6Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0