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Activist Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Jr has a bone to pick with the organisers of the 35th National Games that are to be held in Karachi from December 6 — they’re misrepresenting the Indus River dolphin, his beloved bulhan.

In a reel shared on Instagram, the activist stood in front of a poster for the games and pointed to an illustration of a dolphin on a banner announcing the National Games, telling the camera that the Indus River dolphin does not look like this.

Noting that some might see this as a minor issue, he said these depictions have real-world consequences when it comes to public awareness. He said his organisation, Bulhan Bachao, has found that people often do not recognise the endangered species when they see it in the waters of the Indus River and kill it, thinking it is “a fish or some monster”.

The activist said river dolphins exist in South America too, adding that Brazil and Columbia are careful to depict their native fauna correctly. He said we have an even greater responsibility to protect the Indus River dolphin because they are native to Pakistan alone.

Okay, but what’s the difference?

While they’re both related, river and oceanic dolphins are different in their features and their behaviour. Unlike their marine cousins, river dolphins have very poor eyesight — Indus River dolphins are completely blind.

They have longer snouts which they use to probe the riverbed for prey. The also extensively use echolocation to find food and detect obstacles. River dolphins are less active than those found in the sea, preferring to surface slowly instead of leaping out of the water.

The freshwater mammals were once on the verge of extinction, with around 100 living in the Indus River system by the 1970s. Since then, conservation efforts led by the World Wildlife Fund and involving both fisherfolk and the Sindh Wildlife Department have brought the population to about 2,000 today.