The only white-finned dolphin in captivity in the world died in
Wuhan on Sunday at the approximate age of 24.
Scientists said the death of the male dolphin, known as Qiqi, came
as a surprise since the old dolphin appeared normal on
Saturday.
Dr. Zhang Xianfeng, an expert with the Wuhan-based Hydrobiology
Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said hebelieved the
dolphin died of old age, but he and his colleagues would continue
to investigate the death.
Qiqi was captured by a Yangtze River fisherman on January 11, 1980,
and was shipped to the institute the following day. He was then
1.47 meters in length, 36.5 kg and approximately two years old.
Zhang said Qiqi spent 22 and a half lonely years in a 300 sq.m.
pool by Donghu Lake near the Yangtze, the country's longest
river,in Wuhan in central China's Hubei Province. The Yangtze is
the species' main habitat.
Qiqi was a white-finned dolphin, a species unique to China, andthe
most endangered dolphin species in the world.
When found, Qiqi was a badly bruised two-year-old. Experts
examining him suspected the injuries were caused by illegal
fishing, condemned as one of the main factors contributing to the
decline of white dolphins in the wild. Numbers have fallen from
some 400 in the early 1980s to far fewer than 100 now.
The Fishery Bureau of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture has
warned that the ancient mammal species which has survived 20 to
30million years of evolution may face extinction within another 25
years unless effective measures are immediately enforced.
China has tried every means to save the white dolphins. The Fishery
Bureau has carried out a program monitoring Yangtze white-finned
dolphins every November since 1997, the largest such monitoring
program of rare animals in China. The search covers a 1,900-km
stretch of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
However, only five to seven dolphins have been sighted each season,
even with the use of advanced location devices.
( July 15, 2002)