"Extinct" River Dolphin Spotted in China

davo

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A confirmed sighting of a baiji dolphin just months after it was declared "extinct" has prompted scientists to launch an against-all-odds plan to save the last of the rare Chinese river dwellers.

A team of marine-life scholars led by Wang Ding, a scientist at China's Institute of Hydrobiology, examined digital video footage recently taken along the eastern section of the Yangtze River. The video provides evidence of the survival of the baiji, or whitefin dolphin, the team confirmed.


Now experts at the institute are studying the feasibility of transporting the survivors to a natural preserve in a Noah's Ark-like operation, said Wang, one of China's leading authorities on the nearly decimated species.

"The disappearance and extinction of such highly evolved endemic mammals as the white Yangtze River dolphin [baiji], the finless porpoise, or the Chinese sturgeon from the Yangtze River can be attributed to a multitude of circumstances, such as the deterioration and loss of their natural habitats, overfishing of the river, the heavy freight ship traffic, and others," Mueller said. "Increasing concentrations of anthropogenic chemicals may just be one additional factor," he added.
But Wang said he and others at the hydrobiology institute are now convinced that the last survivors of the dolphin might be found along small tributaries of the Yangtze in eastern China's Anhui Province, where the amateur video was shot in mid-August.

Conservation specialists at the hydrobiology institute, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are preparing to search those waterways, pending approval from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture.

"We may try to catch the baiji dolphins and move them into our semi-natural Tian-e-Zhou Reserve, which is located along an oxbow [U-shaped curve] of the Yangtze River, to put them under full protection," Wang said.

According to Karen Baragona, a specialist on the Yangtze at the World Wildlife Fund, the keys to the survival of the baiji are conserving oxbow lakes in the central Yangtze, creating a network of nature reserves along the river, and managing the river's entire ecosystem from a holistic perspective.

"This sighting presents a last hope that the baiji may not go the way of the dodo bird," Baragona said in a statement.

"Other species have been brought back from the brink of extinction, like the southern right whale and white rhinos, but only through the most intensive conservation efforts."

Wang, with the help of the baiji.org group, might even attempt to engineer the recovery of the dolphins through a captive breeding program.

The Baiji Conservation Aquarium has already scored small successes with a similar breeding scheme aimed at averting the extinction of the endangered Yangtze finless porpoise.

Two finless calves have been born at the aquarium since it was set up two years ago.

But Wang warned that the battle to save the baiji is anything but guaranteed.

"The chances of saving the baiji are really small," he said. "But we have to try our best to save the last baiji, even if we know it may be a mission impossible."
 

toehead11183

Fire Eel
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they'll catch it, put it in an aquarium and it'll tie. just like all the other rare things that try to 'save'

got a link to a photo?
 

toehead11183

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they must have really gone down in number quickly to have so many photos of an 'extinct' species
 

davo

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toehead11183;1108815; said:
they must have really gone down in number quickly to have so many photos of an 'extinct' species
eh?
They were announced extinct a month or so ago, and hadn't been seen for a number of years. Do you know how far cameras go back?
 

davo

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Also they are still considered "fuctionally extinct" even with this sighting. There is still not thought to be enough to give a breeding population, so it's a bit like a shot in the foot as far as that goes...

Kind of sad to think of just one or two... the last of the species... all alone.
 

Vicious_Fish

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It is sad Davo. That river system they're native to is so screwed up. You've got a dam, pollution, over fishing and river traffic to deal with. Good luck little dolphins, you're going to need it!
 

JD7.62

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People ***** about the U.S. because we didnt sign the Kyoto what not, but hell its India and China and to some extent Japan that is doing the real harm to the environment!
 

Arachnar

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I think it would be cool to have a freshwater dolphin,to bad most don't seem to appreciate it.
 
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