Dolphin Previously Thought Extinct Spotted
Last month, 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. The footage was later confirmed to be a Baiji dolphin–the first Baiji sighted in the Yangtze since a scientific expedition last year, during which no Baiji were spotted. This reported sighting of a Baiji, or Yangtze River dolphin, means there is a chance for people to take further action and protect the cetaceans in the Yangtze from extinction. “This sighting presents a last hope that the Baiji may not go the way of the dodo bird,” said Karen Baragona, WWF’s Yangtze River Basin program leader. “Other species have been brought back from the brink of extinction, like the southern right whale and white rhinos, but only through the most intensive conservation efforts.” WWF has been actively involved in the protection of cetaceans and their habitat in the Yangtze River.