Chinese River Dolphin

Lipotes vexillifer

Declared Extinct! - Dec 14, 2006.

FIELD MARKS:

dolphinlike
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to 2 - 2.5m
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small, blunt dorsal fin
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long, distinct beak
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bright pink skin throughout
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Fresh water habitat

Note

The Chinese river dolphin is considered one of the rarest and most endangered species in the world.

Description

It measures a maximum of 2 - 2.5m long and weighs between 100 and 160 kilograms. Their coloration varies from blueish grey to pink with grayish patches on the body, with a white belly. Their beak is long, narrow, and upward curving. There are 32-36 teeth per side of both the upper and lower jaws. The rostrum is bowed slightly upward and the eyes are situated high on the head. They have a sharply differentiated, bulging forehead. Lack hairs on the snout and has a blowhole that is longitudinal and elliptic. The flippers are broad. Small, low, blunt tipped dorsal fin, slightly falcate.

Habitat

Found only in Asia. They live only in the mouth of the Chang Jiang (Yangtze) River to a point about 1900 km up the river. River waters are often muddy, as a result they have developed very tiny eyes.

Range

Once numbering in the thousands, there may now be less than 50 baiji in the world, all living in the Yangtze River.

Food

They eat just about anything they can catch in the rivers; fishes, small crustaceans, invertebrates. Diet consists of mainly, if not entirely, fish. They use their long beaks to probe muddy bottoms for food. Their dives are short, lasting only 10-20 seconds. They have poor eyesight but use a highly developed echolocation faculty to find food. These creatures seek food in the shallow water near sandbanks or close to the mouth of tributaries of the river.

Comments

Also known as baiji.

Considered the "living fossil," baiji is believed to have lived in the world for more than 25 million years.

Owing to rapid development of the Yangtze, the water pollution and overfishing, the rare animal's living environment and food sources are threatened. The species is in real danger of becoming extinct.

Reache sexual maturity at 3-4 years of age and lives to be aproximately 25 years old.

Also known as Whitefin dolphins.

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