EXTINCT!

ydrodamalis gigas
Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Sirenia

Family

Dugongidae

Genus

Hydrodamalis

Species

Hydrodamalis gigas

Authority

(Zimmermann, 1780)

HOME

Hunt on the Steller's sea cow. Unknown

copyright licence.

English Name Steller's Sea Cow

Danish Name Stellers Sko
Dutch Name Steller-zeekoe
French Name Rhytine de Steller
German Name Stellersche Seekuh, Riesenseekuh, Borkentier
Norwegian
Name

Stellers Sjku

Polish Name Krowa Morska

Portuguese
Name

Dugongo de Steller

Spanish Name Vaca Marina de Steller

Swedish Name Stellers Sjko
Synonyms

Manati gigas Zimmermann 1780; Manati balaenurus Boddaert 1785; Trichechus

manatus var. borealis Gmelin, 1788; Hydrodamalis stelleri Retzius 1794; Sirene
borealis Link, 1794; Manatus borealis Link, 1795; Trichechus borealis Shaw,
1800; Rytina manatus borealis Illiger, 1811; Nepus stelleri G. Fischer,
1814; Rytina borealis Illiger, 1815; Rytina cetacea Illiger, 1815; Rytina
stelleriDesmarest, 1819; Stellerus borealis Desmarest, 1822; Haligyna

borealis Billberg, 1827; Rytina borealis F. Cuvier, 1836; Rhytine

stelleri Burmeister, 1837; Rytina gigas Gray, 1850; Manatus gigas Lucas,
1891; Hydrodamalis gigas Palmer, 1895.

Taxonomy

A cladistic analysis of the Sirenia (Domning, 1994) has shown

that Hydrodamalis falls within the family Dugongidae. The
generaDusisiren and Hydrodamalis form the sub-family Hydrodamalinae.
Domning (1976; 1978; 1994) has commented on the relatively good fossil record
of the hydrodamalines and its documentation of the transition from a more
traditional sirenian ancestor to the highly specialized Hydrodamalis. (Weinstein
& Patton, 2000)

Characteristics Steller's Sea Cows were the largest and the only cold-water members of the

scientific order 'Sirenia' to which manatees and dugongs also belong. These sea
cows could reach a length of about 7,9 meters (25,9 feet). Published mass
estimates range from 5400 to 11196 kilograms. With a heavy bone structure,
they had huge midsections, a disproportionately small head, and a large, flat,
twin-lobed tail. In the rough sea it was protected from rocks and ice floes by
its 3-cm (1-inch) thick bark-like black skin (see left picture) and a 20-cm (4-9
inches) thick fat layer. Their external ear openings were only about the size of
a pea, but the internal ear bones were very large, so excellent hearing can be
assumed, although when they were feeding, would completely ignore even a boat.
The Steller's sea cow was almost mute, making only deep breathing sounds when
coming up for air and loud moaning sounds when wounded (Forsten & Youngman
1982).

Lifestyle

The Steller's Sea Cow was gregarious, and herds appear to have included
juveniles, males and females. Juveniles were kept toward the middle of the
herd, and Steller (1751) describes herd members attempting to come to the aid
of captured individuals. Steller's Sea Cows appears to have been monogamous,
and Steller's account of the animal's behaviour suggests the pair bond was
quite strong. Individuals spent the majority of their time feeding or resting,
and Steller (1751) notes that the head could be kept submerged for 4-5 minutes
at a time. Several first-hand observers comment on the apparent fearlessness
of this large sea cow. According to Steller (1751), boats could be easily rowed
into a herd and humans could wade among individuals near shore with little or no
reaction. (Weinstein & Patton, 2000)

Range &
Habitat

They inhabited the shallow cold marine waters rich in algae and sea grass near
the shore around Bering Island and Medney Island (Copper Island). These two
islands are, together with two small islets, part of the Komandorski Islands
(Commander Islands), a group of treeless islands east of the Kamchatka
Peninsula in the Russian Far East, in
the Bering Sea. (Forsten & Youngman
1982)

Image: range map of the Steller's sea

cow. The red dot shows the position of
the Komandorski Islands. Created by
Peter Maas for The Extinction
Website. This image has been released
under the Creative Commons
Attribution Non-commercial No
Derivatives 3.0 Licence.
Fossil evidence indicates that the past distribution of the Steller's Sea Cow
was much wider, including the coasts of Japan and North America. A fossil
ancestor of the Steller's Sea Cow was the Dugong Sea Cow (Hydrodamalis
cuestae). Fossil remains of this prehistoric sea cow are known from as far south
as the southern coast of California. Steller (1751) notes that individuals or
herds were often found near the mouths of stream or rivers, which suggests
they could not tolerate drinking marine water. (Weinstein & Patton, 2000)

Food

Steller's Sea Cows consumed sea algae lying near the surface, sea grasses, but
primarily soft kelp. Since lacking teeth, it ground its food by its deeply grooved
keratinous plates in the mandibles. Seasonal food availability may have been a
problem for the Bering Sea population, as Steller described individuals losing
enough weight during the winter months to cause their ribs and vertebrae to be
visible under the skin. Steller notes that individuals or herds were often found
near the mouths of freshwater streams or rivers, which suggests they could not
tolerate drinking marine water.

Reproduction

Few details are known of the mating system of the Steller's Sea Cow. Steller
describes them, as monogamous and mating activities appear to have been
concentrated in the early spring. Steller's account of the animal's behaviour
suggests the pair bond was quite strong. Offspring were observed to be born at
anytime of the year, but most births took place in early autumn. Females
produced only one calf per breeding attempt. Steller inferred the length of
gestation to be over one year.

History &
Population

The ancestor to Steller's Sea Cow was possibly an extinct Dugongidae sea
cow, Dusisiren jordani, previously namedMetaxytherium jordani. Dusisiren was
common in the shallow coastal waters of late Miocene California 10-12 million
years ago. Although Sirenian evolution is not fully understood, there is a very
clear and compelling fossil record leading up to Steller's sea cow (Domning
1987).
Mitochondrial DNA research suggest that the sea cow-dugong divergence was
likely as ancient as the dugong-manatee split (30 million years ago). The sea
cow-dugong divergence appears to have been much earlier, namely 22 million
years ago, than the previously estimated 48 million years ago. (Ozowa et al.
1997) Hydrodamalis cuestae had evolved by late Miocene time, around 5 million
years ago (Dykens & Gillette 2006). This fossil species is considered to be
ancestral to the Steller's sea cow (Demr 2006).
The crew of Vitus Bering's ship 'St. Peter, shipwrecked off the coast of
Kamchatka in early November 1741. One of them was Georg Wilhelm Steller, the
naturalist and physician on Bering's expedition. During the months that Steller
and the other survivors of Bering's crew spent on what would later be named
Bering Island. They discovered there the Steller's sea cow, Hydrodamalis gigas.
The presence of Steller's sea cow off Bering Island was only as an evolutionary
relict, a small population confined to a very restricted area of cold waters near
the Kamchatkan peninsula (Dykens & Gillette 2006). Steller was able to gather
considerable information on the habits of the Stelller's Sea Cow as well as an
extensive set of measurements of various parts of the sea cow's anatomy.
Bering's crew could escape in August 1742, after building a new boat from the
wreckage of the 'St. Peter'. Steller published his observations in 1751. Another
extinct species, which was discovered by Georg Wilhelm Steller at Bering
Island, was the Spectacled Cormorant (Phalacrocorax perspicillatus).
The meat of these sea cows, which most often referred to as being similar to
veal and remained fresh for much longer than any other available meat source in
that time. The fat was described as tasting like sweet almond-oil. Bering's crew
only killed their first Steller's Sea Cow 6 weeks before their escape in August
1742. The meat was crucial in restoring their strength during the final stages of
building their new boat. Based on the information from Steller's observations,
the crew of other ships arriving there unscrupulously slaughtered the sea cows
for their meat and fat. Also fur hunters flocked to the area. Only one out of
five Steller's Sea Cows hit by harpoon or rifle fire was retrieved, but the
majority escaped only to die at sea from their injuries.
Off Copper Island, where the population was initially low, there were no animals
left by 1754 . In 1768, explorer Martin Sauer entered in his journal an account
of the death of the last known Steller's Sea Cow off Bering Island. So only 27
years after Steller first saw these sea cows, the Steller's Sea Cow became

extinct. (Forsten & Youngman 1982)

Extinction
Causes

The Stellers Sea Cow was hunted primarily as a source of food. Steller (1751)
describes the meat as being easily prepared and similar to beef in taste and
texture. The blubber was useful for cooking and was also a source of lamp oil.
The milk of harvested cows was consumed directly or made into butter. The
thick, tough hide was used for shoes, belts and to make skin-covered boats. No
sustained yield practices were used, and the low reproductive rate of the
population, combined with its probable existence in a sub-optimal environment
likely hastened the species' decline. Anderson (1995) has also noted that the
intense hunting of sea otters on the Bering Sea islands may have contributed to
the final extinction of the Steller's Sea Cow. It is known that sea urchin
populations can severely deplete sea grass and algae communities when otters
are removed, and as this happened on the Bering Sea islands, the sea cows would
have faced a new competitor for food. (Weinstein & Patton, 2000)

Conservation
Attempts

Yakolev, a first-hand observer of the Steller's Sea Cow, claims that an order
was given to the headquarters of the outpost on the Komandorskiye Islands on

27 November 1755, prohibiting hunting of the sea cows (translated in Domning,

1978).

Museum
Specimens

Photo: a reconstructed skull of the Steller's sea cow in the Rosensteinmuseum

in Stuttgart, Germany.
Courtesy by Sordes.
Copyright, all rights
reserved.
Today, the sea cow seems
an almost imaginary
creature, but Steller's
descriptions and a few
intact skeletons, skulls and
pieces of skin, preserved in
museums, prove that this amazing animal lived in the Bering Sea just over 200
years ago.
Specimens can be found in the Royal Museum (Edinburgh, United
Kingdom),Natural History Museum (London, United Kingdom), The Manchester
Museum(Manchester, United Kingdom), Naturkundemuseum (Braunschweig,
Germany), Schausammlung (Darmstadt, Germany), Staatliches Museum fr
Tierkunde (Dresden, Germany), Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum (Hildesheim,
Germany), Niederschsisches Landesmuseum (Hanover,
Germany), Naturhistoriska Museum (Gtenborg, Sweden), Zoologiska
museet (Lund, Sweden), Naturhistoriska Riksmuseum (Stockholm,
Sweden), Museum of Natural History(Helsinki, Finland), Musum National
d'Histoire Naturelle (Lyon, France), Muse National d'Histoire Naturelle (Paris,
France),Naturhistorisches Museum (Vienna, Austria), Museum of
Zoology (Krakow, Poland), Hungarian Natural History Museum (Budapest,
Hungary), Oceanographic Museum (Monaco-Ville,
Monaco), Naturkundemuseum (Basle, Switzerland), Nature Museum (Kharkiv,
Ukraine), Museum of Paleontology (Kiev, Ukraine), Museum of Zoology (Kiev,
Ukraine), Zoological Museum (Lviv, Ukraine),Zoological Museum (Odessa,
Ukraine), Museum Ekaterinburg (Ekaterinburg, Russian Federation), Museum Of
Regional Studies(Irkutsk, Russian Federation), Regional Lore
Museum (Khabarovsk, Russian Federation), Zoological Museum (Moscow, Russian
Federation), Paleontological Institute (Moscow, Russian Federation), Biological
Timiryazev Museum (Moscow, Russian Federation),State Darwin
Museum (Moscow, Russian Federation), Museum of Local Lore (Nikolskoye,
Bering Island, Russian Federation),Museum of Kamchatka Local
Lore (Petropawlowsk, Kamchatka, Russian Federation), Zoological Institute of
Academy of Sciences(St. Petersburg, Russian
Federation), Oceanarium (Wladiwostok, Russian Federation), Primorsky Museum
of Local Lore(Wladiwostok, Russian Federation), Zoological Museum of the Far

Eastern State University (Wladiwostok, Russian Federation), Numata Fossil

Laboratory (Numata-cho, Hokkaido, Japan), Redpath Museum (Montreal,
Quebec, Canada), National Museum of Natural Sciences (Ottawa, Canada),
Australian Museum (Sydney, Australia), Smithsonian's National Museum of
Natural History(Washington DC, USA), Burke Museum of Natural History and
Culture (Seattle, Washington, USA), Museum of Comparative
Zoology (Cambridge, Massachusets, USA), Museum of Paleontology (Berkeley,
California, USA), Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (Berkeley, California, USA)

Relatives

The closest living relatives of the Steller's sea cow is the dugong ( Dugong
dugon) followed by the three manatee species; the West Indian manatee
(Trichechus manatus), the African manatee (Trichechus senegalensis), and the
Amazonian manatee (Trichechus inunguis). Other living relatives are the Hyrax
species; the Southern tree hyrax (Dendrohyrax arboreus), the Western tree
hyrax (Dendrohyrax dorsalis), the yellow-spotted rock hyrax (Heterohyrax
bruceii), and the Cape hyrax (Procavia capensis). More distant relatives are the
three elephant species; the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus), the African
Savannah Elephant (Loxodonta africana), and the African Forest Elephant
(Loxodonta cyclotis). (Ozowa
et al. 1997)

Image: a maximum parsimony

tree showing the relatedness
of the superorder
of Paenungulata, consisting of
the orders of Proboscidae
(elephants), Sirenia (sea cows
and manatees) and Hyracoidea
(hyraxes). Based on Ozowa et
al. Created by Peter Maas for The Extinction Website. This image has been
released under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No
Derivatives 3.0 Licence.
Sadly, some of the closest relatives of the Steller's sea cow, like the dugong
(Dugong dugon), are endangered today. These species' populations are declining
as a result of pollution, deaths caused by the propellers of outboard boat
motors, and habitat loss caused by human development.

Great Auk

Caribbean Monk Seal

Japanese Sea Lion

Labrador Duck

Tasman Booby

Yangtze River Dolphin

Pallas's Cormorant

Guadalupe Storm-petrel

Small St Helena Petrel

Eelgrass limpet

New Zealand grayling

Large St Helena Petrel

Eelgrass limpet
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Eelgrass limpet
Conservation status

Extinct (IUCN 2.3)[1]

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:

Mollusca

Class:

Gastropoda

(unranke clade Patellogastr

d):

opoda

Superfa

Lottioidea

mily:
Family:

Lottiidae

Genus:

Lottia

Species:

L. alveus

Binomial name
Lottia alveus
(Conrad, 1831)

The eelgrass limpet, also known as the bowl limpet, scientific name Lottia alveus, was aspecies of
sea snail or small limpet, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Lottiidae, the Lottialimpets, a genus of true
limpets. This species lived in the western Atlantic Ocean.
The eelgrass limpet now appears to be totally extinct, but up until the late 1920s, this species was apparently
quite common, and was easy to find at low tide in eelgrass beds, in many sheltered localities on the
northeastern seaboard of North America.

Contents
[hide]

1 Distribution before extinction

2 Habitat
3 Cause of extinction

4 References
5 External links

[edit]Distribution

before extinction

This limpet was found from Labrador, Canada, as far south as New York.
It supposedly went extinct 60 years before its extinction was noticed (Fall, 2005)

[edit]Habitat
This small limpet used to live on the blades of Zostera marina, a species of seagrass.

[edit]Cause

of extinction

The extinction does not seem to have been caused directly by human interference. This small limpet
disappeared from the fauna because of a sudden catastrophic collapse of the populations of the eelgrass plant,
which was its sole habitat and food source. In the early 1930s, the seagrass beds all along that part of the
coastline were decimated by "Wasting Disease", which was caused by a slime mold.
Some colonies of the seagrass Zostera marina lived in brackish water, and these areas served as refugia for
the eelgrass since the Wasting Disease did not spread to brackish water. The eelgrass was thus able to survive
the catastrophic impact of the disease. The limpet however was unable to tolerate anything but normal salinity
seawater, and therefore it did not live through the crisis.

Monachus
tropicalis
Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

HOME

Order

Carnivora

Family

Phocidae

Genus

Monachus

Species
Authority

Monachus tropicalis
(Gray, 1850)
Captive Caribbean monk seal of unknown sex at the New

TEW Status Extinct (EX), Year

assessed: 2010
IUCN Status Extinct (EX), Year

York Aquarium in ca. 1910. Specimen originally captured

from either Arrecifes Triangulos (Campeche) or Arrecife
Alacran (Yucatan) in Mexico (Townsend 1909). New York
Zoological Society, 1910. Unknown copyright licence.

assessed: 2008

English Name Caribbean Monk

Seal, West Indian

Seal
Chinese Name
Dutch Name Caribische
Monniksrob
Finnish Name Floridanmunkkihylje
French Name Phoque Moine des
Carabes
German Name Karibische
Mnchsrobbe
Hungarian

Karibi Bartfka

Name
Italian Name Foca Monaca dei

Plate 19, showing the West Indian Seal (Monachus

tropicalis). From "The Fisheries and Fisheries Industries of
the United States", by George Brown Goode (1887). This
image is in the public domain because its copyright has
expired. This applies to the European Union, Canada, the
United States and those countries with a copyright term of
life of the author plus 70 years.

Caraibi
Japanese
Name

Korean Name
Polish Name Mniszka Antylska
Portuguese
Name

Foca Monge das

Carabas

Russian Name
-
Spanish Name Foca Fraile del
Caribe
Swedish Name Vstindisk Munksl

Synonyms

Phoca tropicalis Gray, 1850

Taxonomy

The Caribbean monk seal is monotypic (has no subspecies). According to Kenyon

and Rice (1959) might the Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi) be a
subspecies of the Caribbean monk seal. (Adam 2004)

Characteristic Males are thought to have reached a length of 2,1 to 2,4 metres and weighed up to
s

200 kilograms. Displaying sexual dimorphism, the females of this species were
generally smaller than males. This species has rolls of fat around its neck. The
backs of adult seals were brown with a grey tinge. The underside was pale yellow,
as was the muzzle. The soles and palms were naked, with the nails on the anterior
digits well developed. The fur of newborns was long and dark. Evidence suggests
that the pups were weighing between 16 and 18 kg, and measuring up to 1m in
length. (Wikipedia contributors 2006)

Lifestyle

The Caribbean monk seal was spending much of their time in the water, and
occupying rocky and sandy coastlines for shelter and breeding (Wikipedia

contributors 2006). This monk seal did not appear to fear distant humans or boats,
but entered water after being closely approached by men (0.9-1.8- m distance) or
boats (Adam 2004).

Range &

The Caribbean monk seal once inhabited the Caribbean Sea, northwest to the Gulf

Habitat

of Mexico, as well as from the Bahamas to the Yucatan Peninsula, south along the
Central American coast and east to the northern Antilles. Extralimital records and
fossil remains from the southeastern United States also exist. These pinnipeds
lived in marine environment.

Image: historic range (red) map of the

Caribbean monk seal. Created by Peter
Maas for The Extinction Website. This
image has been released under
the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.

Food

Their diet included eels, lobsters, octopus, and other reef fish. (Wikipedia
contributors 2006) Captive Caribbean monk seals were fed fish cut into small
pieces and crabs. (Adam 2004)

Reproduction

Very little is known about the reproduction behaviour and longevity of this animal.
All monk seals rest and give birth on sandy coasts, on remote islands or
undisturbed beaches of the mainland. Pups were likely born in early December
because several females killed in the Yucatan during this time of the year had
well-developed foetuses. It is believed that this animal's average lifespan was
approximately 20 years. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

History &

Evidence now suggests that the pinnipeds first appeared in the north-eastern

Population

Pacific, along the coast of present-day California, some 23 million years ago.
Initially, they radiated throughout the North Pacific, eventually entering the
Atlantic Ocean via the Central American Seaway, an ancient waterway that once
separated North and South America. (Lavigne & Johnson, 2001)
There remains a great deal of conflicting thought on the evolution of the monk

seal. Gilmartin and Forcada (2002) offer the hypothesize that the species
originated in the North Atlantic during the middle Miocene epoch, 15 million years
ago with the Hawaiian monk seal (M. schauinslandi) likely descending from the
extinct Caribbean monk seal (M. tropicalis), with the Mediterrean monk seal(M.

monachus) the basal taxon. (Overgard, 2003)

However, Berta and Sumich (1999) offer another hypothesis that concurs with
molecular studies done by Arnason et al. (1995). It identifies M. schauinslandi as
the sister taxon, or closest relative, to the other monk seals implying the converse
of the previous idea and suggesting that M. tropicalis descended from M.

schauinslandi or that M. tropicalis and M. monachus evolved concurrently.

Molecular sequencing data supports this theory, but Monachus data is limited to
the Hawaiian species and therefore leaves unanswered questions. (Overgard,
2003)
Evolutionists tend to disagree on the 'natural history' of seals, sea lions and
walruses, but based on the primitive and unspecialised skeletal and vascular
anatomy of monk seals, agree that the 'earliest' fossil records, supposedly 20
million years old, reveal seals that look very much like monk seals alive today. So
much so that monk seals are often referred to as 'living fossils' because 'they
have remained virtually unchanged for 15 million years'.
The Caribbean monk seal was the first New World mammal to be discovered by
Columbus and his company on the coast of Santo Domingo in 1494. It appears in
the account of Columbus' second voyage to America. Columbus promptly ordered
his crew to kill eight of the animals, which he called "sea-wolves", for food, paving
the way for exploitation of the species by European immigrants who came in his
wake. Since then, the once abundant seals have been hunted for their oil and
slaughtered by fishermen, who regarded the animals as competitors.
H. Sloan wrote in 1707: "The Bahama Islands are filled with seals; sometimes
fishers will catch one hundred in a night". The Caribbean monk seal was
documented as being easily approachable and not aggressive. They were easily
killed during directed hunts in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is also known that
sailors, whalers, and fishers opportunistically killed the seals they encountered. As
well, Caribbean monk seals were killed by museum collectors and displayed in zoos.
The end of the 19th century witnessed relentless slaughters and the species had
already become rare in the 1880's, before it was properly known to science. The
Triangle Keys have remained a stronghold of the species until 1915, when about
200 animals were butchered there. (Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999)

The last confirmed sighting in 1952 was of a small colony on Seranilla Bank, a group
of tiny coral islands halfway between Jamaica and Honduras (Van den Hoek
Ostende, 1999). An aerial survey in 1973, conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, found extensive fishing activity throughout the former range of this seal.
A later cruise through the Gulf of Mexico and around the Yucatan Peninsula failed
to find any Caribbean monk seals in the area. Surveys have been carried out as late
as 1993, all without success. The Caribbean monk seal was formally declared
extinct in the 1996 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals.
Based on interviews with 93 fishermen in northern Haiti and Jamaica during 1997
Boyd and Stanfield (1998) made an assessment of the likelihood that monk seals
survive in this region of the West Indies. Those fishermen that were able to
provide further descriptions gave information about size and colour that was
consistent with many of these seals being monk seals. They concluded that it is
possible that the Caribbean monk seal is not extinct. (Boyd & Stanfield, 1998)
Local fishermen and divers regularly claim to have seen the seal, making the
existence of this animal still a possibility, though some biologists believe that
these sightings may surely be of wandering hooded seals, which have been
positively been identified in islands such as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. It
appears that the hooded seals are increasingly straying far into new territories,
even those a long distance away from their home in the far north, and are visiting
the tropical beaches previously enjoyed by the sadly demised Caribbean monk seal.
(Mignucci-Giannoni & Haddow, 2001; Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

Extinction

All monk seal species appear to be sensitive to disturbance, and early habitat

Causes

exclusion by humans throughout their range may have exacerbated their decline.
Like other true seals, the Caribbean Monk Seal was sluggish on land. This, along
with its lack of fear for man, and an unaggressive and curious behaviour, likely
contributed to its demise. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006)

Conservation

The Jamaican Wild Life Law offered the first legal protection to the Caribbean

Attempts

monk seal. Nonetheless, occasional individuals subsequently straying onto Jamaican

shores were nearly always slaughtered. In 1949, he International Conference of
the Protection of Nature (United Nations Scientific Conference on the
Conservation and Utilization of Resources) included the Caribbean monk seal in a
list of 14 mammals whose survival was considered to be a matter of international

concern and which required immediate protection. (Adam 2004)

The Caribbean monk seal is since 1977 designated as Endangered in the Entire
Range by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It was first listed on March 11, 1967.
The World Conservation Union (IUCN) lists this marine mammal as extinct.
Within historic times, 18 Caribbean monk seals have been held in captivity on 8
separate occasions. None bred in captivity (Adam 2004). Nowadays none survive in
captivity.

Museum

There are several preserved remains of this species. The type specimen is in the

Specimens

collection of the British Museum. The Museum of Natural History Naturalis in

Leiden, the Netherlands, has a mounted skin and its skull. The Leiden specimen was
purchased in 1887 from the Amsterdam dealer G.A. Frank. This specimen
was collected by H.L. Ward, who visited the Triangle Keys inCampeche
Bay, Mexico, on four days in December 1886. Ward killed 49 monk seals, of which
34 skins and seven skeletons were secured. This material constituted the first
good series of scientific specimens. The American Museum of Natural
History inNew York acquired three skins, and adult male and female and a pup.
(Van den Hoek Ostende, 1999) The National Museum of Natural History in
Washington DC has also remains (Adam 2004). A collection of Caribbean Monk Seal
bones can be found at the Tropical Crane Point Hammock Museum in Key Vaca,
Florida, U.S.A. (Wikipedia contributors, 2006).

Co-extinction The only parasite identified from the extinct Caribbean Monk Seal is the nasal
mite Halarachne americana, recovered in great numbers and in all stages of its life
cycle from the respiratory passages of a single captive specimen. H. americana is
only known from the Caribbean Monk Seal, and after the extinction of the seal in
1952 this mite has become extinct too. (Adam 2004)

Relatives

Image: Hawaiian monk seal and pup. This image is the work of an U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service employee, taken during the course of an employee's official
duties. As a work of the U.S.
federal government, the image is
in thepublic domain.
Monk seals are pinnipeds, a group
of marine carnivores that
includes true seals, fur seals, sea
lions and the walrus. In historical
times only three species of monk
seal existed, occurring far apart
in tropical and subtropical waters: one species on either side of the North Atlantic
and a third in the Hawaiian Archipelago in the tropical pacific. With the expansion
of man to even the most faraway islands, the group seems doomed. The
Mediterranean and Hawaiian species are rapidly declining in numbers and will follow
the Caribbean monk seal, unless they will be better protected. The two other
Monk Seal species are the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) and the
Hawaiian monk seal (Monachus schauinslandi).

Great Auk

Caribbean Monk Seal

Japanese Sea Lion

Labrador Duck

Tasman Booby

Yangtze River Dolphin

Pallas's Cormorant

Guadalupe Storm-petrel

Small St Helena Petrel

Eelgrass limpet

New Zealand grayling

Large St Helena Petrel

Zalophus japonicus
Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Carnivora

Suborder

Pinnipedia

Family

Otariidae

Subfamily

Otariinae

Genus

Zalophus

Species

Zalophus japonicus

HOME

Japanese Sea Lion, stuffed specimen at

Tennji Zoo, Osaka, Japan. Photographed by
Nkensei in November 2006. This image has been

Authority

(Peters, 1866)

released under the GNU Free Documentation

License. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

English Name Japanese Sea Lion, Japanese Sealion

Czech Name Lachtan japonsk
Dutch Name Japanse Zeeleeuw
French Name Otarie du Japon, Otarie Japonaise
German Name Japanischer Seelwe
Italian Name Leone Marino Giapponese
Japanese

Name
Korean Name

Polish Name Uchatka Japoska

Portuguese

Leo-marinho-do-Japo

Name
Spanish Name Len Marino de Japn
Swedish Name Japanskt Sjlejon

Synonyms

Zalophus lobatus Jentink, 1892; Zalophus californianus japonicus (Peters, 1866)

Taxonomy

Before 2003, the Japanese Sea Lion was classified as Zalophus californianus

japonicus. It was raised to species level following Wozencraft in Wilson and

Reeder (2005): "Rice (1998), followed here, argued for the retention
of japonicus, californianus, andwollenbaeki as distinct species. Itoo (1985)
concluded that japonicus was distinct, and behavioural differences
separate californianusand wollenbaeki (Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1984). Itoo classified the
Japanese Sea Lion as a separate species because the skulls of modern specimens
were larger and wider in proportion than that of the California Sea Lion (Sakahira
and Niimi 2007).
The first report on a genetic analysis of the Japanese sea lion concluded: "the
distinctly divergent cluster of Japanese sea lions reflected the morphological
classification of these animals as a distinct species of the genus Zalophus;
however, proximity to the California sea lion cluster simultaneously implied
conformation with the traditional classification of these animals as a subspecies
ofZalophus californianus" (Sakahira and Niimi 2007). Molecular evidence supports
treating the Galpagos sea lion, the Californian sea lion and the Japanese sea lion
by the name of species Zalophus wollebaeki and Zalophus californianus and
Zalophus japonicus, respectively (Wolf et al 2007).

Characteristics Male Japanese Sea Lions were dark grey and weighed up to 450 to 560 kg
reaching lengths of 2.3 to 2.5 meters; these were larger than male California Sea
Lions. Females were significantly smaller at 1.64 meters long with a lighter colour
than the males. (Wikipedia contributors 2008)

Male Japanese Sea Lions were dark grey and weighed up to 450 to 560 kg reaching lengths of 2.3
to 2.5 meters; these were larger than male California Sea Lions. Females were significantly smaller
at 1.64 meters long with a lighter colour than the males

Range &

Japanese Sea Lions were known from the northwest Pacific where itprimarily

Habitat

occurred in the Sea of

Japan along the coastal
areas of the Korean
Peninsula, the coasts of
the Japanese
Archipelago, the Kuril
islands, and southern tip
of the Kamchatka
Peninsula. (Seal Specialist
Group 1996;Wikipedia
contributors 2008)
The species was known to
occupy marine waters and
coastal areas. Rarely found more than 16 km out to sea and frequently hauling
onto shore areas throughout the year, this species breeds mainly on flat, open,
sandy beaches, and sometimes in rocky areas (Seal Specialist Group 1996).

Image: map of the former distribution range of the Japanese Sea Lion (in red).
Based on a map in Wolf et al. 2007. Created by Peter Maas for The Extinction
Website. This image has been released under the Creative Commons Attribution
Non-commercial No Derivatives 3.0 Licence.

Reproduction

They usually bred on flat, open and sandy beaches but rarely in rocky areas
(Wikipedia contributors 2008).

History &

Very little is known about the history of the Japanese sea lion. The Japanese and

Population

California Sea Lions were estimated to have diverged 2.2 million years ago, in the
late Pliocene Epoch (Sakahira and Niimi 2007). Many bones of Japanese Sea Lion
have been excavated from shell middens in Jmon period (about 14,000 BCE to
400 BCE) in Japan (Niimi 1990; National Museum of Japanese History 2008) while
an 18th century's Japanese encyclopedia, Wakan Sansai Zue describes that the
meat was not tasty and they were only used to render oil for oil lamps (Terajima

1712). In 1866, the director of the Berlin natural history museum, Wilhelm
Peters, described the Japanese Sea Lion as a separate species (Van den Hoek
Ostende 1999). Harvest records from Japanese commercial fishermen in the
early 1900s show that as many as 3,200 sea lions were harvested at the turn of
the century and overhunting caused harvest numbers to fall drastically to 300
sea lions by 1915 and to few dozen sea lions by the 1930s. Commercial harvest of
Japanese sea lions ended in the 1940s when the species became virtually extinct.
In total, Japanese trawlers harvested as many as 16,500 sea lions, enough to
cause their extinction. (Wikipedia contributors 2008) The last reliable report
mentioned the presence in 1951 of 50-60 animals onLiancourt Rocks (Dokdo in
Korean, and Takeshima in Japanese), a small rocky island which came under Korean
rule after World War II (Rice 1998; Van den Hoek Ostende 1999). Individual
sightings reported in the 1960's and 1970's, including a possible juvenile captured
in 1974 off the coast of Rebun Island, northern Hokkaido, cannot be confirmed
as confusion with escaped California Sea Lion cannot be ruled out (Seal Specialist
Group 1996).

Extinction

Sea lions have been captured for the circus trade and have also been exploited

Causes

for their skin and oil. Certain internal organs were also valuable in Oriental
medicine and its whiskers were reportedly used as pipe cleaners. However, the
main reason for the extinction of the Japanese Sea Lion is thought to be
persecution by fishermen. (Seal Specialist Group 1996) Rumour has it that Korean
soldiers usedsea lions in shooting practices (Van den Hoek Ostende 1999).

Conservation

A former fisherman of the Oki Islands stated that they worked to protect the

Attempts

sea lion population to ensure perpetuity of the resource before WWII (Wikipedia
contributors 2008).

Reintroduction The Korean Environment Ministry has announced that South and North Korea,
Russia and China will collaborate on bringing back the Japanese Sea Lion in the
Sea of Japan. The ministry said "while the animals are close to extinction in
South Korea and Japan, it is possible that there are some in Chinese and Russian
waters". The four countries will conduct joint research by 2010. If they manage
to find one in these countries, then the government will bring some to the Sea of
Japan, but if not, it plans to bring some California Sea Lion (Zalophus

californianus) from the United States. (Bae 2007)

Museum

Several mounted specimens can be found in Japan (Wikipedia contributors 2008).

Specimens

The National Museum of Natural History 'Naturalis' in Leiden, the Netherlands,

has three mounted specimens, a skeleton and four skulls (Van den Hoek Ostende
1999). The British Museum is holding one skin and four skulls (Wikipedia
contributors 2008).

Relatives

The genus Zalophus includes only includes only three species, including the
extinct Japanese Sea Lion. The other two surviving species are the California Sea
Lion (Zalophus californianus) and the Galpagos Sea Lion (Zalophus wollebaeki).

California Sea Lion (Zalophus californianus) and the Galpagos Sea Lion (Zalophus

wollebaeki)
Images: the left-hand image shows a California Sea Lion in Point Lobos State

Reserve, Monterey, California, USA. Photograped by Tewy at 13 July 2006

(source: Wikimedia Commons). The right-hand image shows a Galpagos Sea Lion.
Photographed by Marc Figueras at 21 September 2004, Galpagos Islands
(source: Wikimedia Commons). Both images have been released under
the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 Licence.

Yangtze River-dolphin
The Yangtze river-dolphin of China, or baiji as it is called
locally, was first described in scientific journals only 80
years ago.
In 1979, baiji was classified as
endangered.
In August 2007, it was officially
declared extinct.
The Yangtze river-dolphin had a stocky body about one
and a half metres long. It had tiny eyes, and reasonable
eyesight. Its long, narrow slightly upturned beak was like
that of other river-dolphins. It appeared to be a dark bluegrey on its back and greyish white on its stomach. It had a
triangular dorsal fin, and its flippers were broad and rather
rounded.
Baiji were most active from early evening to early morning,
but also hunted fish during the day. A very shy animal, it
was difficult to approach, so sightings of it were very rare.
They were apparently often alone or in groups of up to six,

generally in places where streams join the main river,

especially around shallow sand banks.
Sometimes, when it was very quiet, the baiji's blow could
be heard, sounding a little like a sneeze.
In 1975, China declared the Baiji a 'National Treasure' and
began conservation and protection of the mammal. This
had little success because of heavy boat traffic, fishing,
and industrial development, including the construction of
the world's largest dam, the Three Gorges dam. A lake in
Hubei province was made into a reserve, with the aim of
moving the animals there to better protect them. However,
it was too late, and no baiji were found despite an intense
search.
The Yangtze is one of the world's busiest rivers in the
world's most populated country.
<Back to Missing: Possibly Extinct >

Yangtze River Dolphin

- Lipotes vexillifer
Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Cetacea

Suborder

Odontoceti

Family

Iniidae

Genus

Lipotes

Species

Lipotes vexillifer

Authority

Miller, 1918

TSEW Status

Possibly Extinct (PE), Year assessed:

2010

IUCN Status

Critically Endangered (CR), Year

assessed: 2008

English Name

Baiji, Yangtze River Dolphin, Changjiang

Dolphin, Chinese Lake Dolphin, White
Flag Dolphin, Whitefin Dolphin

Chinese Name

Croatian Name

Baiji, Kineski Rijeni Dupin, Kineski

Jezerski Dupin, Jangce Dupin

Dutch Name

Chinese Vlagdolfijn, Baiji

Finnish Name

Kiinanjokidelfiini

French Name

Baiji, Dauphin de Chine, Dauphin

Fluviatile de Chine, Dauphin du Chang
Jiang, Dauphin du Yang Ts

German Name

Chinesischer Fludelphin, Chinesische

Flussdelfin, Jangtse-Delfin, Baiji

Japanese Name
Lithuanian
Name

Kinijos Eerinis Delfinas

Polish Name

Delfin Chiski

Russian Name

Spanish Name

Baiji, Delfn de China

Photo: The Baiji or Yangtze River Dolphin (Lipotes

vexillifer). Photo copyright:baiji.org foundation, Steven
Leatherwood. All right reserved.

Image: A paining of the Baiji or Yangtze River Dolphin

(Lipotes vexillifer). Created by Alessio Marrucci for
university work in 2006. This file is licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
Unported license.

Swedish Name

Baiji, Asiatisk Floddelfin, Asiatisk Delfin,

Kinadelfin, Vitflaggsdelfin, Yangtzedelfin

Taxonomy
This species was listed under the family Platanistidae in the 1996-2002 IUCN Red Lists of
Threatened Species. Some authors prefer to place it rather in the family Iniidae. (Reeves, Smith,
Wang & Zhou 2005)
Comments/Trivi
a
The species has been listed as Critically Endangered since 1996, but in 2007 it was reassessed
as Critically Endangered and flagged as Possibly Extinct. Further survey work is essential to
confirm whether this species still exists or if it is indeed now extinct; for example, a reported
sighting of the species in August 2007 required confirmation. Chinese media reported that a
businessman in Tongling City in east Chinas Anhui Province filmed a big white animal with his
digital camera on 19 August. Professor Wang Ding, a leading scientist at the Institute of
Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences later confirmed that the footage could be
showing the Baiji dolphin (WWF 2007), but he couldn't rule out the alternative possibility that it was
a Yangtze Finless Porpoise, Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis (Turvey, 2008). The Sixth
Extinction Website agrees with WWF and many scientists that this species is functionally extinct,
but also that it is still too early to declare its extinction. (IUCN 2007; Smith et al. 2007; WWF 2007)
Video: A Reuters video on the August 2007 sighting of the Baiji with a part of the videotape made
by a Chinese man. Hayley Platt reports. Reuters 2007. All rights reserved. (Reuters article on
the Baiji sighting.)
Characteristics
The Baiji was a streamlined dolphin with a long narrow and slightly upturned beak-like snout and a
flexible neck. They had a rounded melon, elliptical and oriented longitudinally blowhole, low
triangular dorsal fin and broad, rounded flippers. The very small eyes, located high on their heads,
were functional, but its sight was reduced. The flippers were rounded. They had 30-36 teeth per
side of both the upper and lower jaws. This species had 30-36 teeth per side of both the upper and
lower jaws. Its dorsal colour was pale blue-grey to grey, while ventrally they were white to ashwhite.
Image: Size comparison of a baiji
(Lipotes vexillifer) to an average human.
Created by Chris Huh on 7 March 2007.
A full resolution version can be found
at Wikimedia Commons. The copyright
holder of this work has release it into the public domain. This applies worldwide.

The bigger females ranged from 185 to 253 cm in length and weigh 64-167 kg, while males
ranged from 141 to 216 cm in length and weigh 42-125 kg. The minimum estimate of this species'
lifespan is 24 years, provided by the estimated year of age of one wild-caught baiji, based on
dentition. (Nowak 1999; Zhou 2002; Culik 2003; Poor & Grigg 2003; Massicot 2006)
Food
The Baiji preyed on fish of many sizes and various species, including both surface and bottom
feeders (Chen et al. 1997). During short dives, they used their long beak-like snouts to probe for
food in the muddy river bottom in the shallow water near sandbanks or close to the mouth of
tributaries of the river. (Poor & Grigg 2003)
Reproduction
Little is known about the reproductive activities of baiji (Poor & Grigg 2003). Sperm density in
males varied seasonally and ovulation was periodic in females. The mating season peaked in
spring and in autumn. The Baiji's gestation period estimates range from 6 to 12 months. Every two
year, the females gave birth to one 80 cm long calf (Nowak 1999), with a peak calving season
appearing to be from February to April (Zhou 2002; Culik 2003). The calves were carried by their
mothers close to the side of their bodies while swimming, diving and breathing at the surface. The
nursing period is unknown. (Poor & Grigg 2003) The females reached sexual maturity at an age of
6 years and about 4 years in males (IWC 2000).
Lifestyle
Not much is known about the Baiji's behaviour, due to its cryptic habits. They were usually found in
pairs, which aggregated to form larger social units of about 10 individuals. These river dolphins
searched for fish during the day and spent most of their time in the vicinity of large eddies. They
rested in areas of slow current at night. The baiji navigated in the turbid waters of the Yangtze
River with echolocation. They communicated with other baiji using whistles and other acoustic
signals. Click here to listen to the baiji whistle (From the baiji.org foundation website). (Nowak
1999; Poor & Grigg 2003)
Range & Habitat
The Baiji is endemic to the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) of China. During the great flood of 1955
some individuals were seen in the Fuchun River, but they disappeared after the construction of a
hydropower station in 1957 (Zhou 2002). Historically this species also occurred in the Dongting
and Poyang Lakes, both appended water bodies of the Yangtze (Zhou et al. 1977, Chen et
al. 1980).
Image: map of China. The former range of the Baiji in the Yangtze River in China is coloured red
in the right-hand upper map. Created by 'Papayoung'. The original version of this image can be
found at Wikimedia Commons. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
ShareAlike 3.0 license.

History &
Population

Fossil records indicate that the dolphins may have migrated from the Pacific Ocean to the Yangtze
River 20 million years ago. It is estimated that there were 5,000 Chinese River Dolphins when they
were described in the Han Dynasty (206 BC - AD 220) dictionary Erya, the oldest extant Chinese
dictionary (Wikipedia contributors 2006a). The estimated population size before 1900 was 30005000 (Ellis 1993; Leatherwood & Genthe 1995). In the beginning of the 1980s there were still
around 400 Baiji (Ellis 1993). On the basis of surveys conducted in 1985 and 1986, it was
estimated that the total population was around 300 individuals (Chen and Hua 1989; Reeves et al.
2003). In 1993 their population consisted of about 150 - 240 animals (Ellis 1993) and in 1995 there
were estimated to be fewer than 100 individuals (Leatherwood & Genthe 1995). An intensive
survey in November 1997 produced a total count of only 13 dolphins (Wang 2000).
QiQi, a baiji male who became the only baiji in captivity when he was rescued in 1980, died in his
tank at the Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology in 2002. (Macartney 2005; Baiji.org Foundation
2006ac)
Later there were confirmed sightings are of two baiji (one large adult, one juvenile) in the Xin-Lou
(Honghu) National Baiji Reserve in July 2004, and a large adult baiji in the Tongling Provincial Baiji
Reserve in September 2004. (Baiji.org Foundation 2006abc)
On 6 November 2006, the "Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Expedition 2006" has been launched on
Monday in the city of Wuhan in Central China. This 30-member search expedition, under the
direction of the Institute for Hydrobiology Wuhan and the Swissbased baiji.org Foundation, made
up of both Chinese and foreign researchers conducted a six-week survey of the river. The
expedition has been led by the Ministry of Agriculture and brought together world-class experts
from institutes such as the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag),
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Hubbs-Seaworld Research
Institute from San Diego and the Fisheries Research Agency in Japan. The scientists were
travelling on two research vessels almost 3500 kilometers from Yichang nearby the Three Gorges
Dam to Shanghai into the Yangtze Delta and back, using highperformance optical instruments and
underwater microphones. On 13 December 2006, in the city of Wuhan in central China, the
expedition drew to a finish without any results. They failed to spot even one of the dolphins. August
Pfluger, head of Swissbased baiji.org Foundation and co-organizer of the expedition, said that it
possible they may have missed one or two animals, but that we have to accept the fact that the
baiji is functionally extinct. The species doesn't occur un sufficient numbers to breed and ward off
extinction. (Baiji.org Foundation 2006bc; CNN.com 2006; The Hankyoreh Media Company 2006)
Most people thought the Baiji had become extinct, however Chinese media reported that a
businessman in Tongling City in east Chinas Anhui Province filmed a big white animal with his
digital camera on 19 August 2007. Professor Wang Ding, a leading scientist at the Institute of
Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences later confirmed that the footage could be
showing the Baiji dolphin (WWF 2007), but he couldn't rule out the alternative possibility that it was
a Yangtze Finless Porpoise, Neophocaena phocaenoides asiaeorientalis (Turvey, 2008). (IUCN
2007; Smith et al. 2007; WWF 2007)

Extinction
Causes

The Baiji declined due to the following threats to the species: a period of hunting by humans
during the Great Leap Forward, entanglement in fishing gear, the illegal practice of electric fishing,

collisions with boats and ships, habitat loss, and pollution. (Reeves et al. 2005; Wikipedia
contributors 2006a)
The Great Leap Forward () of the People's Republic of China was an economic and social
plan to use China's vast population to rapidly transform mainland China from a primarily agrarian
economy dominated by peasant farmers into a modern, industrialized communist society. The
Great Leap Forward was initiated and led by Mao Zedong, and carried out by the Communist
Party of China from 1958 to early 1962 (Wikipedia contributors 2006b). The Baiji's traditionally
venerated status as "goddess of the river" was denounced and dolphins were hunted for their flesh
and skin. A factory producing handbags and gloves from Baiji skin opened but the operation was
short-lived because the animals quickly became scarce (Zhou and Zhang 1991; Reeves et
al. 2005).
Entanglement in fishing gear was estimated in the 1970s80s to have been responsible for at
least half of observed mortality (Lin et al. 1985, Zhou and Li 1989, Chen 1989, Chen et al. 1997). It
was prohibited to use both rolling hooks and fyke nets in the Yangtze River, but enforcement of
these prohibitions proved to be very difficult. (Zhou et al. 1998; Zhou and Wang 1994; Reeves et
al. 2005)
Electric fishing is "strictly banned" in the Yangtze (Zhou et al. 1998), but is widely practiced,
particularly in the centre of the baiji's distribution (IWC 2001). By the early 2000s, electric fishing
was considered "the most important and immediate direct threat to the Baiji's survival. (Zhang et
al. 2003). The electric shocks kill Baiji outright (Chen and Hua 1989) and unselectively kill other
aquatic organisms, including the baiji's prey. (Reeves et al. 2005).
As China developed economically, ship traffic multiplied and the size of the boats grew.
Underwater noise pollution made the nearly blind animal prone to collisions with propellers.
Propeller strikes have killed and injured baiji (Zhou and Zhang 1991, Chen et al. 1997; Wikipedia
contributors 2006a)
Water development has transformed the baiji's habitat by dredged riverbeds, concrete
reinforcements and by interrupting their movements upstream of dams, eliminating their access to
tributaries and appended lakes, and reducing fish productivity. The building of the Three Gorges
Dam, completed in the early 2000s, further reduced the dolphin's habitat and facilitated an
increase in ship traffic. Many parts of the Yangtze River have become much shallower because of
siltation from deforestation and agricultural development. (Liu et al. 2000; Reeves et al. 2005;
Wikipedia contributors 2006a).
Industrialization and the spread of modern agricultural practices have led to an increase of
pollutant loads in the Yangtze River. (Reeves et al.2005)
Conservation
Attemps

The baiji had been protected by custom in the past, since the Chinese considered it to be an
incarnation of a drowned princess (Burton & Pearson 1987). In China this species was also
nicknamed "Giant Panda of the Yangtze River" and "Goddess of the Yangtze" (), which
may reflect the general affection for this dolphin species (Tan 1996).

The Chinese Government began to protect the baiji in 1975 under National Law, and designated it
a "National Treasure". Since then, catching or killing a baiji could result in heavy fines or even a
long jail sentence. (Baiji.org Foundation 2006) Currently the Baiji is designated in the First
Category of National Key Protected Wildlife Species and has full legal protection throughout its
range (Reeves et al 2005).
Since the late 1980s, the primary strategy to prevent the baiji's extinction has been to capture as
many dolphins as possible and to introduce them into "semi-natural reserves". However, the
expectation that sufficient numbers of Baiji could be caught and placed in the reserves to establish
a viable ex situ population has proven unrealistic. (Reeves et al 2005)
Since 1992, the Chinese Government has set aside five protected areas along the length of the
Yangtze River and declared
them as National and Provincial
baiji reserves (see right hand
map).
Image: map with conservation
efforts of the Baiji along the
Yangtze. 1 = Tian-e-Zhou
Oxbow Semi-natural Baiji
Reserve; 2 = Shishou City
National Baiji Reserve; 3 = XinLou (Honghu) National Baiji Reserve; 4 = Tongling Provincial Baiji Reserve; 5 = Zhenjiang
Provincial Baiji Reserve. Created by Peter Maas for The Sixth Extinction Website. This image has
been licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives
3.0 licence.
In four protected areas the baiji is actively protected and fishing is completely banned: the Shishou
City National Baiji Reserve, the Xin-Lou (Honghu) National Baiji Reserve, the Tongling Provincial
Baiji Reserve, and the Zhenjiang Provincial Baiji Reserve. A fifth protected area is an isolated
oxbow lake located off of the north bank of the river near Shishou City: the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow
Semi-natural Baiji Reserve. Additionally there are five Baiji Protection Stations in Jianli,
Chenglingji, Hukou, Wuhu and Zhengjiang. A "protection station" consists of two observers and a
small motorized fishing boat, who make daily patrols, make observations and investigate reports of
illegal fishing. (Baiji.org Foundation 2006a)
The baiji is listed in Appendix 1 of CITES since 1979 (UNEP-WCMC 2006), and was listed as
endangered on the IUCN Red Lists of Threatened Species of 1986, 1988, 1990 and 1994. Since
1996 this animal is listed as critically endangered. (Reeves et al. 2005)
Cloning
In theory it would be possible to clone the baiji, because unlike to the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine,
fresh DNA has been retrieved and stored in recent years. The Institute of Genetic Resources,
Nanjing Normal University (NJNU) has muscle and skeletal samples preserved. These samples
were gathered from stranded or incidentally killed individuals from the middle and lower reaches of

the Yangtze River. (Yang et al.2005)

The problem is that a cetacean has never been cloned before. It is also not sure if a surrogate
mother can be found in a related species. The other river dolphins are also endangered, and
maybe it will not even be possible to use another river dolphin species. Besides, even when it
would be technological possible to clone the baiji, than there is probably no suitable habitat left
where these clones could live.
Museum
Specimens

The stuffed and enamelled body of the only captive baiji, QiQi, is kept in a specimen room at the
Hydrobiology Institute in the central Chinese city of Wuhan (Macartney 2005). Do you know
another museum specimen? Contact this website.

Relatives
The baiji was one of four species of freshwater or river dolphins. The Amazon River Dolphin (Inia
geoffrensis) and the La Plata River Dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei) from South America. The now
possible only surviving Asian species is the South Asian River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica),
consisting of two subspecies namely: the Ganges River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica gangetica)
and the Indus River Dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor).

http://www.petermaas.nl/extinct/lists/fish.htm YES!