The carcasses of 120 river dolphins - unique freshwater species found only in the rivers of South America - were discovered floating on a tributary of the Amazon River which experts suspect was caused by severe drought and heat. - REUTERS
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00:00 120 lifeless river dolphins were recently found floating on a tributary of Brazil's
00:07 Amazon River.
00:09 And researchers say there could be more deaths of this unique freshwater species to follow,
00:15 as they suspect severe drought and heat are responsible.
00:19 Experts say low river levels have caused a spike in water temperature, and in some sections,
00:24 the water is too warm for the dolphins to thrive.
00:28 Researcher Eon Fleischmann has been monitoring changes in and around Lake Tefei.
00:33 "The water temperature was very high on the day of the deaths, in certain moments exceeding
00:40 102 degrees Fahrenheit, which is an extremely high value.
00:44 The average here in our region in Lake Tefei is between 84 to 87 Fahrenheit.
00:50 For this time of the year, it's an extremely high value, and it's certainly related to
00:54 the deaths."
00:58 As scientists perform autopsies on the deceased mammals, veterinarians and aquatic mammal
01:04 experts have rushed to rescue dolphins that are still alive in Lake Tefei.
01:09 But they cannot be moved to cooler waters until researchers rule out bacterial infection
01:15 as the cause.
01:16 But time is of the essence, as these pink and grey river dolphins were already on a
01:21 a red list of threatened species.
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