‘I don’t see the world, I hear it’: My week as a Ganges river dolphin

Monday

Though to be accurate I actually see very little: and that would still be true if my eyes were as powerful as an eagle’s. Here in the Koshi river there’s nothing to see. That’s if you’re narrow enough to think that seeing is something to do with eyes. I don’t see the world: I hear it. For me the world is a soundscape that has depth, perspective, size, proportion and relative speed. And it’s all in the rebound of my echoing voice.

Tuesday

My calf will be leaving me soon. We’ve been together for almost a year, and it’s about time. I know she’s alongside me from her whistles and my own voice. And it’s a damn good feeling, while it lasts.

Wednesday

A good day catching carp. I didn’t see them or hear them: I echoed them. And being fast and direct and equipped with a long well-toothed snout, I caught up with them and ate three or four before they dispersed. The calf, half following my lead and half using her own new skills, did much the same. Carp. Almost as good as it gets. Ganges shark: that would be even better, but they’re pretty scarce these days.

Thursday

Ah, by Ganga the god of the Ganges, I hate motor boats. They don’t just make a horrible noise, and believe me, it’s a hundred times more horrible under water. They blind me. When an engine runs I can’t hear myself: I’m lost, groping, incapable, my world in ruins. It’s the boats that did for our sisters and cousins of the Yangtze. The baijis were declared extinct in 2006. Who’s next?

Friday

There’s still a few thousand of us Ganges dolphins around, but in my brighter moments – bright meaning for me what gloomy means to everyone else – I wonder what sort of world my calf and my calve’s calves will live in. A stinkier and a noisier one, that’s for sure. And one that’s ever more full of plastic. It may echo a bit like a fish, but it doesn’t move like a fish. Leave the damn thing alone!

Saturday

I don’t often behave like this, but it was a special day. We’re not big on sociability, us river dolphins, but when we meet up with our own kind – dolphins we recognise and know as friends, cousins, and offspring – we rejoice. And when we rejoice, we swim in fast circles and we breach. Me, my calf and my former lover, we all leapt clear of the water, allowing the superficial world to admire our sleek selves, and for a little instant the glare of the sun dazzled even our poor eyes – and then we were back racing through the blissful murk.

Ganges river dolphin CV

Lifespan 30 years

Eating habits Fish, prawns, the occasional waterbird

Hobbies The study of echoes

Sexual preferences The echo of a sweet, sleek male

Photograph by Biosphoto/Alamy