Yangtze Finless Porpoises Close To Extinction: Survey

Spotting the ever-smiling creature of China, the finless porpoises, seems to be becoming a legend. China's Yangtze finless porpoises, one of the country's national treasures, are getting rarer than the wild giant pandas. Their numbers dropped to 1,000, less than half of what they were in 2006, according to a report by the Ministry of Agriculture released Thrusday.

Along with the Ministry of Agriculture, the latest survey was organized by the CAS and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Because of the huge reduction in their population in their only habitat which is the Yangtze River, conservationists fear that the species would be extinct by 2025.

Wang Ding, head of the expedition to count the porpoises and a professor at the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, states that the species is heading rapidly toward extinction, reports LiveScience.

Locally known as jiangtun, the finless porpoises are also found in two lakes apart from China's longest river. They can be seen in the Dongting and Poyang lakes. They are known as the ever-smiling creatures. They are the most intelligent creatures on Earth and are very friendly to human beings.

Reports according to LiveScience state that the new study found that the finless porpoises are falling apart into isolated groups, thereby damaging their ability to reproduce. A large number of this species flock to wharf and port areas in search of their food, thereby risking their lives.

"Busy ship traffic has disrupted their migration and changing hydrologic conditions due to the construction of water projects also shrank their habitats," Ding was quoted as saying in Xinhua Net.

The organization demands a ban on fishing activities in all the existing river dolphin reserves, and also demands for new reserves to be created.