August 8, 2007
Freshwater Dolphin Baiji is now extinct
Requiem for a Freshwater Dolphin: Scientific AmericanThe baiji is gone. During six weeks of searching the Yangtze River, scientists and conservationists failed to spot any of the unique creatures. This means, they say, that the "goddess of the Yangtze" is extinct because, even if a scattered few are still around, there are not enough to reproduce and perpetuate the species.
"Our inability to detect any baiji in the main channel of the river despite this intensive search effort has the sad consequence that the prospect of finding and translocating any surviving dolphins to an ex situ reserve—their only conservation hope—has all but vanished," says zoologist Samuel Turvey of the Zoological Society of London. The scientists employed both four continuous spotters as well as a trailing microphone to try to pick up the baiji's waterborne whistles, which have been heard on Earth for at least 20 million years.
sad
Posted by TY at August 8, 2007 1:30 PM
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