WHAT IT IS Among the world’s most endangered species
WHY YOU WON’T DO IT Their numbers are tiny and rapidly decreasing – if there are any left at all
Native only to the Yangtze River in China, this beautiful dolphin (also known as the baiji) is one of only four freshwater dolphin species in the world, having headed off down a specialized evolutionary cul-de-sac around 20 million years ago. Once venerated as the ‘Goddess of the Yangtze’, it has more recently fallen victim mankind’s abuse of the planet’s natural resources.
Yangtze River dolphins have a distinctive white colour, with a longer, thinner beak than their saltwater cousins, and a low dorsal fin. They live in small groups of just three or four, feeding on fish. In the 1950s the mighty river was home to a reasonably healthy population of 6,000, but by 1997 the number had declined to fewer than 50. The last confirmed sighting of one was in 2004, and in 2006 a team of scientists on two research vessels spent over six weeks searching for the dolphins but found none at all.
Listed as ‘critically endangered’ by the World Conservation Union, other scientists have classified the species as ‘functionally extinct’. This means that while there is a possibility that a small number of animals are still alive, there are too few to ensure successful breeding and ward off extinction. Previous attempts to breed the dolphins in captivity proved unsuccessful, and if the species is indeed extinct, it will be the first large invertebrate to die out since the Caribbean monk seal died out in the 1950s.
The blame for this sad decline lies squarely with humanity. Among the leading reasons for the dolphin’s decline are unregulated fishing (with dolphins regularly falling prey to hooks and nets), collisions with river vessels (many equipped with fast-spinning and potentially lethal propellers), persistent environmental degradation and pollution, and disruption to the dolphins’ patterns of movement by the development of the waterways. The already-beleaguered dolphin even became a target for hunting and human consumption for a few years around 1960.
However, there was a very slight ray of hope in 2007 when video footage emerged of what appeared to be a Yangtze dolphin. So if you travel to China and spend long enough scouring the waters, you might just get lucky – and maybe even earn your own footnote in the annals of natural history. But the future for the species remains bleak, and so, tragically, scientists are mostly left to study preserved remains in a select number of institutions around the world.