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i wonder what will be next???
Quote
A CHINESE freshwater dolphin has been declared extinct after desperate efforts to rescue it came too late.
A One British zoologist today described the loss of the Yangtze River dolphin as a “shocking tragedy”.
It is the first official extinction of a large vertebrate for more than 50 years.
Experts say human activity killed off the white long-beaked dolphin, which grew to eight feet weighed up to 500 pounds.
The animal is the first cetacean, the group of mammals that includes dolphins, whales and porpoises, to vanish from Earth as a direct result of human influence.
In the 1950s the dolphin, a species unique to the Yangtze river also known as the Baiji, had a population of thousands.
Over the next five decades its numbers declined rapidly as China modernised and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transport, and electricity generation.
Pollution, over fishing and hunted the dolphins for their flesh and skin have all been blamed for their extinction.
The warnings signs came in 2006 when surveys of the Yangtze River found the dolphin population had dwindled to just 17 individuals.
Zoologists developed a scheme to save them by capturing a few individuals and moving them to a lake where they could be cared for and bred.
But the rescue plan came too late. An intensive six week survey and search for the animals, covering the whole of their habitat range, yielded not a single one to move to the lake.
The experts were forced to concede that the Yangtze River dolphin was extinct.
Dr Sam Turvey, from the Zoological Society of London, who led the international team which carried out the survey, said: “The loss of such a unique and charismatic species is a shocking tragedy.
"The Yangtze River dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago.
“This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet.”
A One British zoologist today described the loss of the Yangtze River dolphin as a “shocking tragedy”.
It is the first official extinction of a large vertebrate for more than 50 years.
Experts say human activity killed off the white long-beaked dolphin, which grew to eight feet weighed up to 500 pounds.
The animal is the first cetacean, the group of mammals that includes dolphins, whales and porpoises, to vanish from Earth as a direct result of human influence.
In the 1950s the dolphin, a species unique to the Yangtze river also known as the Baiji, had a population of thousands.
Over the next five decades its numbers declined rapidly as China modernised and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transport, and electricity generation.
Pollution, over fishing and hunted the dolphins for their flesh and skin have all been blamed for their extinction.
The warnings signs came in 2006 when surveys of the Yangtze River found the dolphin population had dwindled to just 17 individuals.
Zoologists developed a scheme to save them by capturing a few individuals and moving them to a lake where they could be cared for and bred.
But the rescue plan came too late. An intensive six week survey and search for the animals, covering the whole of their habitat range, yielded not a single one to move to the lake.
The experts were forced to concede that the Yangtze River dolphin was extinct.
Dr Sam Turvey, from the Zoological Society of London, who led the international team which carried out the survey, said: “The loss of such a unique and charismatic species is a shocking tragedy.
"The Yangtze River dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20 million years ago.
“This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet.”
