Baiji
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The baiji (Cheenese: 白鱀豚; pinyin: báijìtún (help·info)) (Lipotes vexillifer, Lipotes meanin "left behind", vexillifer "flag bearer") wis a freshwatter dowphin foond anly in the Yangtze River in Cheenae. Nicknamed "Goddess o the Yangtze" (simplifeed Cheenese: 长江女神; traditeeonal Cheenese: 長江女神; pinyin: Cháng Jiāng nǚshén) in Cheenae, the dowphin is cried Cheenese river dowphin, Yangtze River dowphin, whitefin dowphin an Yangtze dowphin an aw. It is nae tae be confused wi the Cheenese white dowphin or the finless porpoise.
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Baiji[1] | |
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An illustration o the baiji | |
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Size compared tae an average human | |
Conservation status | |
Scientific classification | |
Kinrick: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Cless: | Mammalia |
Subcless: | Eutheria |
Order: | Cetacea |
Suborder: | Odontoceti |
Superfaimily: | Platanistoidea |
Faimily: | Lipotidae Zhou, Qian & Li, 1978 |
Genus: | Lipotes Miller, 1918[3] |
Species: | L. vexillifer |
Binomial name | |
Lipotes vexillifer Miller, 1918[3] | |
Natural range of the baiji |
The baiji population declined drastically in decades as Cheenae industrialized an made hivy uise o the river for fishin, transportation, an hydroelectricity. Efforts wur made tae conserve the species, but a late 2006 expedeetion failed tae find ony baiji in the river. Organizers declared the baiji functionally extinct,[4] which wad mak it the first knt aquatic mammal species tae acome extinct syne the demise o the Japanese sea lion an the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s. It wad be the first recordit extinction o a well-studied cetacean species (it is unclear if some previously extinct varieties wur species or subspecies) tae be directly attributable tae human influence an aw.
In August 2007, a Cheenese man reportitly videotaped a lairge white ainimal soummin in the Yangtze.[5] Altho it wis tentatively confirmed that the ainimal on the video is probably a baiji,[6] the presence o anly ane or a few ainimals, parteecularly o advanced age, is nae enough tae save a functionally extinct species frae true extinction. The last kent livin baiji wis Qi Qi (淇淇), who died in 2002.