Air Date: Week of August 30, 2002

Author Sy Montgomery reads an excerpt from her book, "Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest." The book is being featured on our website, Living on Earth Today.

Transcript

`CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth. I’m Steve Curwood. Coming up, the naked truth about nature photography. But first, Living on Earth commentator Sy Montgomery is also a book author and adventurer. Her latest book "Search for the Golden Moon Bear" will be on shelves in October. Meanwhile, listeners can go to our website at www.loe.org and hear Sy read from her previous work "Journey of the Pink Dolphins." The New York Times calls the book a captivating account of the pink dolphins – or botos – of the Amazon. Hear Sy recounting just one story that the native people told her about their elusive dolphins.

[MUSIC IN BACKGROUND]

MONTGOMERY: In the floating house at Marchantaria, lived a man whose teenage daughter was beset by the attentions of an amorous boto. The dolphin had a distinctive white spot on the tail, and he was always near the house. At night he would come out of the water to visit her room and enter her dreams. He appeared in the form of a man wearing white shorts – with a spot on his leg. The boto never touched her, but she was very afraid. She felt his presence, his longing for her. Day by day, she appeared more pale and anemic. One night, the boto appeared to her mother in a dream, and asked her to give the girl to him. She refused. But the boto kept coming back, night after night. Finally, the family had to move from that place. Now the girl is twenty-five. She isn’t bothered by the boto anymore, she told us. But to this day, whenever she visits the river, botos come near the shore, desiring her still.

CURWOOD: To hear Sy Montgomery read from her book, Journey of the Pink Dolphins, go to our website www.loe.org and click on the book reading link. There you’ll be able to play her readings for immediate listening or download them to listen at your convenience. That’s www.loe.org.

 

Links

Buy Journey of the Pink Dolphins