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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, June 13, 2002

Far Less than 100, White-Flag Dolphin in Yangtze River near Extinction

White-flag dolphin, an animal only live in China's Yangtze River and is more precious than giant panda, is at the edge of extinction, experts warned. They are now no more than 100 in number and would entirely disappear from the face of the earth if no special protective measures are adopted.


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White-flag dolphin, an animal only live in China's Yangtze River and is more precious than giant panda, is at the edge of extinction, experts warned. They are now no more than 100 in number and would entirely disappear from the face of the earth if no special protective measures are adopted.

Qiqi, the world only white-flag dolphin under artificial breeding, is getting old in loneliness as time passes by.

Living in the Yangtze River for 25 million years, the white-flag dolphin is the least in number among surviving world five fresh water dolphins. So it is not only listed as China's top level protected animal, but also among the 12 most endangered animals in the world.

There were some 400 such beautiful dolphins at the beginning of 1980s, said Dr Zhang Xianfeng with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Survey conducted in 1986 showed that altogether 48 white-flag dolphin groups were living in the 1628 km reaches from Zhicheng, Hubei province to Liuhekou, Jiangsu province, with their total number reduced to around 300. The figure further dropped under 200 in 1999 and below 100 in 1994. Now their number is still decreasing rapidly, almost near extinction.

White-flag dolphin would become the first among dolphins extinct due to human activities, foreign experts predicted after understanding the current conditions of white-flag dolphin. The animal is only found in China and refuses to be artificially propagated, so its extinction would leave a blank forever.

Artificial propagation is an effective way to save endangered animals from extinction, which was successfully applied on giant panda and Chinese alligator. Efforts on white-flag dolphin have yielded some results in recent 20 years, but still far from success. Dolphins are difficult to propagate artificially, experts said, and the US has not yet succeeded in dolphin artificial propagation after 70 years' research.



By PD Online Staff Member Li Heng




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