A recent possible sighting of a white dolphin native to the
Yangtze River - that scientists declared extinct last year - may
offer a shred of hope for the animal's survival.
But a top researcher yesterday said he still considered the
baiji, or white-flag dolphin, to be "functionally extinct".
Wang Ding, chief scientist at the Institute of Hydrobiology of
the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan of Hubei Province, said that it is still quite
difficult to protect the animal as few of the species may be living
and their chances of mating are slim.
A resident of Tongling of Anhui Province took several minutes of footage
with a digital video camera featuring a large white animal moving
upstream in the Yangtze River on August 19.
Wang and his colleagues checked the footage and agreed that it
is likely to be a baiji, a fresh water dolphin which lives
exclusively in the Yangtze.
It is quite possible that the animal is a baiji, based on the white
and gray color and its movement pattern," Wang told
China
Daily yesterday.
"Moreover, the animal in the footage was seen 40 km downstream
from Tongling - a section of the river that used to be known as a
habitat for the dolphins," Wang said.
"This finding brings us some slight hope."
Wang said he and his colleagues are planning a trip to Tongling
in the next few days to do a detailed survey of the area.
The baiji has survived for millions of years but was declared
effectively extinct in December last year after a fruitless
six-week search of its Yangtze River habitat.
Environment degradation, ship traffic and overfishing are
blamed.
But even if one or more baiji are left, Wang said they are
unlikely to be able to find each other for breeding.
"We don't have high hopes for the future of the baiji," Wang
said.
If any baiji are found, scientists will try to capture them and
move them to a reserve for possible breeding, Wang said.
"This is no easy task. But if we don't do that, white-flag
dolphins are doomed to become extinct," Wang said.
The last captive dolphin, Qi Qi, died in 2002 at the age of
23.
Listed as one of the 12 most endangered species in the world,
the baiji population dropped to below 150 in the early 1990s from
around 400 a decade earlier.
If the baiji is extinct, it will be the first cetacean to vanish
as a result of human activity as it is on the top of food chain in
the Yangtze River and has no natural enemy, experts said.
The baiji's cousin, the Yangtze finless porpoise - a dark gray
freshwater porpoise - is also endangered as its population is less
than 1,400, Wang said.
(China Daily August 31, 2007)
