Bye Bye Baijie - Yangtze River Dolphin - Lipotes vexillifer

Slide 1
Early fossil records suggest that the Yangtze River Dolphin came about 25 million years ago, and made its way to the Yangtze 20 million years ago, where it is considered an endemic species.

The Yangtze River dolphin is known by many names. In Chinese, it is known as the Baijie which translates to “White dolphin”, since it has pale blue grey skin which lightens as it ages. In Chinese folklore, the Baijie also protects fishermen as the “Goddess of the River”. Once loved, it was plentiful in the Yangtze river. In the 1950s, there used to be about 6,000 dolphins. Then in the 1980s, the population reduced to 400. Then since 2006, this species was declared functionally extinct. So, why does it matter that this species is gone?

Slide 2
Well, the extinction of the Yangtze River Dolphin is biggest cetacean species extinction of our time. In addition, it highlights the struggle of keeping freshwater resources in Asia. The Yangtze is not only the third longest river in the world, but also home to over half of China’s total plant and animal species. So the death of this dolphin might be our warning bell to save other species from extinction.

Slide 4
The Yangtze River Dolphin is only one in its family Lipodae, and it’s one out of four dolphin families which reside in shallow freshwater rivers.

Slide 5
The dolphin’s got a long beak with 35 blunt teeth to snack on small fish. It’s a carnivore. Like many other dolphins, it communicates through clicks and whistles, which is why it’s got this hole in it’s head. They are social, living in pods from 3 to 7 individuals. However, they are very shy around humans -- which makes it hard for us to perform research on them.

Slide 6
They tend to breed in the months of February through April. As mammals, they have live birth and have a gestation period of 10 months. They’re quite small when born, about 32 to 35 inches but grow up to be as big as 8 feet long. They reach sexual maturity around 6 to 8 years and having a birthing interval of 2 years.

Slide 7

The Yangtze dolphin normally swims 19 to 25 mph, but can go up to 37 mph when threatened. It has poor eyesight in the murky water of the Yangtze, so it relies on echolocation (biosonar) and touch with it’s long thin beak to find small fish to eat. Unfortunately, baijie have been known to have poor navigation, running into boat motors and killing themselves.

Slide 8-9
Which brings us to this point. Half of all known dolphin killings in the 1970s and 1980s were attributed to collisions with motor boats and accidental illegal fishing activities like dynamite fishing, drag netting and electric fishing.

Contact Kathy to see the rest of the presentation notes.

1. YANGTZE
RIVER
DOLPHIN

2. Bye Bye Baiji
(Yangtze River Dolphin)
KATHY PHAM - “HISTORY OF EXTINCTION”
- GEOGRAPHY 126 - SUMMER 2017
PHOTOGRAPH: Stephen Leatherwood
25 Million Years Ago - 2006

3. s
MAP: Conservation efforts of the baiji along the Yangtze River by
Chris_huh from Wikipedia - self made from data from baiji.org
OVER 1,100 MILES LONG
20 Million Years Ago entered Yangtze

4. RIVER
DOLPHINS
Family
Platanistidae
(Indian dolphins)
ILLUSTRATION : Geisler et al. - Geisler et al.: A supermatrix analysis of genomic, morphological, and
paleontological data from crown Cetacea. BMC Evolutionary Biology 2011 11:112.
Family
Pontoporiidae
(brackish dolphins)
Family †Lipotidae
(Chinese river dolphin)
Family Iniidae
(Amazonian dolphins)1
2
3
4
Lipotes vexillifer

5. YANGTZE RIVER DOLPHINS
PHOTOGRAPH: Avalon, Alamy Stock Photo
Genus species: Lipotes vexillifer
Family: Lipotidae
Kingdom: Animali a
Phylum: Chordat a
Order: Cetacea
Class: Mammalia
PHYSICAL
FEATURES
& BEHAVIOR

6. BREEDING PATTERNS
Females become sexually mature at eight years of age, males at
six years. These dolphins have a birthing interval of 2 years.
ILLUSTRATION: Unknown source
via Pinterest
ILLUSTRATION: Unknown
source via the Dodo
Gestation:
10
months
At birth:
32-35
inches

7. ILLUSTRATION: Semple, A, Borger, P, Cleeland, C, Jackel, S and Pappas, X 2006, 'Biology VCE Units 1&2: 2nd
edition', Nelson Cengage Learning, Australia
PHOTOGRAPH: Stephen Leatherwood
PHYSICAL
FEATURES
& BEHAVIOR
Weighs 132 to 350 lbs
Swims up to 37mph
Body Length 4.9 to 8.25 ft
Biosonar/Echolocation

8. WARNING
GRAPHIC
CONTENT

10. CAUSES FOR EXTINCTION
PHOTOGRAPH: Conservation Foundation,
Hong Kong via South China Morning Post
Unsafe Fishing Practices
Industrializatio n
Dam Construction
Climate Change
1
2
3
4
Water Pollution
PHOTOGRAPH: Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong via South China Morning Post

11. CAUSES FOR EXTINCTION
PHOTOGRAPH: Conservation Foundation,
Hong Kong via South China Morning Post
1
2
3
4
Natural Habitat Loss&
Species Fragmentation
Competition for Food
Supply
Overfishing &
Death by Bycatch
PHOTOGRAPH: Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong via South China Morning Post
Stress &
Disease

12. PHOTOGRAPH: Sam Turvey, Zoological
Society of London via Natural History
Museum, London
GODDESS

13. LUNCH
PHOTOGRAPH: "10th Anniversary Photo
Collection of the People's Republic of China
1949-1959" published by 10th Anniversary
Photo Collection of the People's Republic of
China Editorial Committee.

14. 1950s Start of the end
PHOTOGRAPH: Wang Ding, Institute of
Hydrobiology, Wuhan, China

15. 1950s
About 6,000 (Turvey et al., 200 5)
: 100

16. 1980s
About 400 (Zhou et al., 1982 )
: 100

17. 1
2
 “In 2002, a captive male Yangtze
River Dolphin named 'Qiqi' died of old
age after surviving in the Wuhan
dolphinarium, a Chinese zoo for over
22 years. It is the first captive
dolphin of its kind. […]
Qiqi was two years old when he was
accidentally hunted by fishermen
back in January 12, 1980. Due to his
bad injury, he was relocated to a huge
pool nicknamed “White Palace” built
especially for him. […]
In 1986, the zoo thought it was time
for the 8-year-old Qiqi to have a
family. They found two female
companions for Qiqi.
Unfortunately, these two dolphins did
not adapt to the environment as well
as Qiqi, and the zoo was unable to find
any more of his peers. So Qiqi
remained alone and lonely for most of
his life.”
PHOTOGRAPH: Photo of Qiqi,
Unknown via WindHorseTour.com
CONSERVATION EFFORTS

18. 1
2
3
4
Ex situ Breeding and Recovery
Programs (possibly cloning)
Water pollution control, improved
management of sewer and industrial
plant waste
Ban on Illegal Fishing
Practices in Safe Zones
Educational campaigns: baiji.org
(August Plfuger, now defunct
website)
CONSERVATION EFFORTS
PHOTOGRAPH: Unknown via Whale and
Dolphin Conservation website

19. PHOTOGRAPH: Wang Ding, Institute of
Hydrobiology, Wuhan, China
2000s
??? We don’t know.
PHOTOGRAPH: Unknown via Wired article
Functionally
Extinct
Fruitless 1,100 mile expedition

20. 2000s
??? We don’t know. (SOURCE)
PHOTOGRAPH: Xiaoqiang Wang via
Mongabay

21. PHOTOGRAPH: Yangtze Finless Porpoise
Conservation Society
A New Focus
Yangtze Finless Porpoise
(Neophocaena phocaenoides)
Number Left: 1000-1800
Size: 6.2 feet

22. PHOTOGRAPH: Gao Baoyan, China Daily
Thanks for Listening!

23. BIBLIOGRAPHY
“Rare river dolphin 'now extinct'”. BBC News. August 8, 2007. Web. <http://
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6935343.stm>.
“Baiji”. IUCN-SSC Cetacean Specialist Group. December 2015. Web. <http://
www.iucn-csg.org/index.php/baiji/>.
Gregg, Jusin. “Despite rumours of a sighting, the Yangtze River dolphin is still
extinct”. EarthTouch News Network. October 17, 2016. Web. <https://
www.earthtouchnews.com/conservation/human-impact/despite-rumours-of-
a-sighting-the-yangtze-river-dolphin-is-still-extinct/>.
Long, Tony. “DEC. 12, 2006: IT'S ALL OVER FOR THE BAIJI FRESHWATER
DOLPHIN”. Wired. Web. <https://www.wired.com/2007/12/dayintech-1212/>.
Luo, Tracy. “Yangtze River Dolphin - Interesting Facts - Story of Qiqi”.
WindhorseTour. December 10, 2013. Web. <windhorsetour.com/culture-guide/
yangtze-river-dolphin-interesting-facts-story>.
Mok, Danny. “Chinese white dolphin with broken tail is found lifeless at sea in
sixth death this year”. South China Morning Post. June 1, 2015. Web.
<www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1814360/
chinese-white-dolphin-broken-tail-found-lifeless>.
Turvey, S. T., Barrett, L. A., Reeves, R.R., Wang, D. “Conservation of the
Yangtze River dolphin: Emergency implementation meeting”. San Diego,
December 17-18, 2005. Final Report.
“THE BAIJI - THE FIRST DOLPHIN TO BE DECLARED EXTINCT IN MODERN
TIMES”. Whale and Dolphin Conservation. Web. <http://us.whales.org/case-
study/baiji-first-dolphin-to-be-declared-extinct-in-modern-times>.
Zhou, K., Y. Li, M. Nishiwaki and T. Kataoka. “A brief report on observations
of the baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River
between Nanjing and Guichi.” Acta Theriologica Sinica 2:253-254. 1982.
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