River Dolphin Bites Woman's Foot down to Bone in Extremely Unusual Attack [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

BY JESS THOMSON ON 2/28/23 AT 8:53 AM EST

A woman was swimming in a river in Santa Rosa de Yacuma, Bolivia, when a river dolphin bit her foot, peeling off a chunk of flesh and exposing the bone.

Claire Bye, a 28-year-old from the U.K., had been swimming with a tour group, with other tourists and children also playing with the pink river dolphins in the river. She had left the water when the dolphins began to act more restlessly after a child tried to pick one of the dolphins up, and was bitten when she briefly re-entered the water to retrieve a water bottle, the Independent newspaper reported.

According to experts, pink river dolphins very rarely attack humans unless they are feeling threatened.
"River dolphins are non-aggressive creatures. It is just the opposite, they are very curious and charismatic animals," Mariana Paschoalini Frias, a river dolphin researcher at Instituto Aqualie and dolphin strategist at WWF-Brasil, told Newsweek.

She described what happened in Santa Rosa de Yacuma as a specific and one-off episode, citing "disordered nature tourism". "Swim with river dolphins" tourism had originated in Brazil with practices based on providing food and the bad example had spread throughout the Amazon region, leading to cases such as the Bolivian incident, she said.

More:
https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-river-dolphin-attack-woman-endangered-1784330?piano_t=1