Yangtze River Dolphin sighted - thought to be extinct

[MonkeyFunk]

Science Daily — The reported sighting of a Yangtze River dolphin, or Baiji, means there is still a chance for people to take further action and protect the cetaceans in the Yangtze from extinction, according to World Wildlife Fund.

The Chinese media reported that a local businessman in Tongling City in east China's Anhui Province filmed "a big white animal" with his digital camera on August 19. The footage was later confirmed to be the Baiji by Prof. Wang Ding, a leading scientist in Baiji study at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

It is the first Baiji reportedly found in the Yangtze since the scientific expedition last year, during which no single Baiji was spotted.



more at:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070831123429.htm

[InvisibleTouch]

1. Nice to get some GOOD news for a change. Thanks! n/t

[whoneedstickets]

2. So long, and thanks for all the fish....

..I guess, he just stopped by to say farewell.

[JackBeck]

3. So very sad. n.t.

[nam78_two]

4. Thanks for posting this-I saw this earlier and was thinking of posting it here.nt

[pansypoo53219]

5. it better make a break for it

before somebody tries to eat it.

or cut of its tail so their can get a boner.

[aaronbees]

6. What a beautiful creature ....

Really hope it survives somehow.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. Is it too much to hope for a mated pair?

And that they somehow are going to beat the odds and survive?

It probably is, I know.

I find it somehow sadder to think of one of these creatures living alone. It would be like being the last living human on the earth.

[MonkeyFunk]

9. That is a sad thought

There was a fantastic BBC documentary a few years ago called The Life of Birds, narrated by David Attenborough.

They did a story on this bird in New Zealand that was the very last one of his species in the world. Every year he'd build his nest in the ground, and call out all night for a mate, but there were no females left. It was very touching.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

10. I recall seeing that

It was touching the way he expected a mate. I was somewhat comforted to think he thought he was just a poor nest builder or some such thing, rather than that he was the last of his kind.


With these dolphins being social creatures, they know loneliness. If there is one living by itself, it will realize that it's alone and that something is wrong. It could be made to feel less of the trauma if it could even find one of it's kind of the same sex. Not that that would help their population any, but it would ease the loneliness of the dolphin.

[theHandpuppet]

12. I remember that....

Even now it makes me choke up.

[jillan]

8. Thanks for posting this!

k/r

[MonkeyFunk]

11. You're very welcome

it's nice to see a hopeful story here once in awhile.

[MonkeyFunk]

13. kick for the day crowd