Aquatic mammals are important functional elements of their ecosystem. Conservation actions would not be efficient with lack of information concerning the ecology and biology of those species as well as the perceptions that local communities have about those animals. Interactions of aquatic mammals with human populations happen mainly by fishnets accidents, straining, or the symbolic, mystical-religious values they possess, which may lead to both positive and negative human perceptions. Many studies on the perception of cetaceans (river dolphins and whales) and sirenians (manatees) were carried out using fisherman as the main interlocutor, but few have reported what children and young school age teenagers know about those animals and how they interact. The aim of this dissertation was to investigate school children’s ethnozoological knowledge on aquatic mammals in different locations of the State of Pará, in the Amazon Region of Brazil, recording the main interactions between them and free-ranging river dolphins, whales, and manatees (N=15). Thus, we used quantitative and qualitative methods in ethnozoology to analyze essays (N=374), interviews, questionnaires, and topographic plates (N=241). The subjects of this investigation were students from public fundamental schools II of Abaetetuba region and Mocajuba, in the Lower Tocantins River, Marajo Island, Santarém (Tapajós River), and Belem Metropolitan Region. Our results show that there was a prevalence of positive statements concerning to the pink-river dolphin (Inia sp.) (66%, N=89) compared to those related to dolphins Sotalia sp. (22%, N = 29), manatees (7%, N = 9) and whales (7%, N = 5%). Feelings of indifference (30%) along with fear (32%) were the most frequent in the voices of the students. Students had previous ethnozoological knowledge on morphology, diversity, legends, behavior, and threatening to aquatic mammal survival. In places where the living is largely based on fishery resources, young people tend to confirm details and part of the knowledge derived from both the family and the television midia. Because of the boto legend reported by the students in the regions surveyed we were able to identify variations related to social contexts and several behaviors, depending on the presence or absence of river dolphins in the regions. Despite great part of the subjects being part of an area considered to be urban, the belief on the boto legend is vastly disseminated, concurring for the myth to be held in the Amazonian imaginary, demonstrating that oral tradition is still strong in urban populations. Interactions between river dolphins and young/children close to rivers and fairs of Santarém and Mocajuba revealed that the most evident behaviors are those involving feeding river dolphins with fishes, and the playful behavior of a group of young school children that swim with pink-river dolphin in the rivers of the region. We found that although the aquatic mammals that occur in the Amazon may be poorly known from the biological point of view or even feared by part of the students, they could accepted by the students and may be taken into account in conservation programs by means of popular and scientific knowledge articulation. Those programs must guarantee the maintenance of local knowledge along with the species and their ecosystem maintenance. A greater perception of the public on the importance of biological diversity maintenance and environmental conservation may assist on the dissemination of information about aquatic mammals, contributing to a gradual deconstruction of negative values about them. This research provides a background to carry out efficient projects of awareness and information for future studies about aquatic mammals in the Amazon.
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