Two endangered pink dolphins rescued from shallow Columbia river

The Colombian Navy and different organisations rescue two pink dolphins, a mother and her calf, who were trapped in the shallow waters of a tributary of the Meta River near the Venezuelan border.

A navy video released shows several officers carrying the dolphins in a makeshift hammock, others checking the mammals' condition and spraying them with water.

The two dolphins, currently considered "endangered" mammals, are pulled out of the water and quickly examined on the riverbank, then released into deeper waters, "where they can continue their transit through the Meta and Orinoco rivers," says the Navy Commander, Adolfo Hernandez.

Community members alerted authorities to the distressed dolphins in eastern Colombia's Meta River, an Orinoco tributary near the Venezuela border, last week.

Security forces, environmental authorities and NGOs were involved in the rescue.

The freshwater mammals -- whose scientific name is Inia geoffrensis -- live mainly in the Amazon and Orinoco river systems. Their habitat includes parts of Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia.

The pink river dolphin, which can weigh up to 220 kilograms, has been classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature since 2018.

Fishing is the main killer of the dolphins in Colombia, according to the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute.