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Amazon river dolphins may send messages with aerial streams of urine

Male dolphins have been observed shooting jets of urine into the air and other dolphins seem to follow the stream, perhaps to pick up social cues

By James Urquhart

31 January 2025

A male Amazon river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) urinating into the air

Claryana Araújo-Wang / Botos do Cerrado Research Project / CetAsia Research Group

Male Amazon river dolphins have been documented rolling upside down and firing a stream of urine into the air. As if that isn’t bizarre enough, other males will usually seek out the urine as it arcs back down to the water, possibly to receive social cues in a similar way to how land mammals use scent marking.

Claryana Araújo-Wang at CetAsia Research Group in Ontario, Canada, and her colleagues documented the unusual behaviour while…

Article amended on 3 February 2025

We corrected the scientific name of the bottlenose dolphin.

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