LivingInPeru.com has a story concerning both Amazonian Manatees and the Pink River Dolphin.
Government authorities in Loreto, Peru's largest and northernmost region, have announced that measures are being and will be taken to protect, care for and preserve the lives of pink dolphins and other mammals in captivity.
It was reported that anyone who had a pink Amazon River dolphin, Inia geoffrensis, or "bufeo colorado” as they are known in Peru, will have 60 days to report to the Regional Production Directorate and explain why the animal is being kept in captivity.
I've just been clearing out my inbox and came across this story about the Boto, a South American River Dolphin with some "interesting" courtship techniques. BBC News has the tale.
A South American river dolphin uses branches, weeds and lumps of clay to woo the opposite sex and frighten off rivals, scientists have discovered.
Researchers observed adult male botos carrying these objects while surrounded by females, and thrashing them on the water surface aggressively.
However, just like other river dolphins such as the Baiji, the prospects for the Boto are not great, despite its apparent decent population of "tens of thousands".
Projeto Boto scientists are regularly finding dead dolphins, either harpooned or entangled in ropes.
"We lost half of the animals from our study area in just five years," said Tony Martin. [Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews University]
"They may be fairly numerous now, but they're going downhill fast and we can't see any end to it."
Reports in a new study from China are that the planet's last river-dwelling finless porpoises are dying from exposure to insecticides and mercury. Kazinform has the news.
The mammals had already been declining as their natural habitat in and around the Yangtze River deteriorated.
In the new research, scientists also found high concentrations of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other pollutants in the organs of porpoises found in central China's Dongting Hu Lake, which is connected to the Yangtze.
"In recent decades the [Yangtze finless porpoise] population decreased sharply each year by approximately 7.3 percent because of human activities on the river, including fishing, pollution, transportation, and dam construction," said lead study author Wang Ding of China's Institute of Hydrobiology.
This story is a couple of months old already, but I thought it was an interesting development. It seems that the Bolivian river dolphin has now been acknowledged as a separate species to the more commonly-known Amazon River dolphin. The Telegraph has the story.
The formal announcement was made at a conservation workshop in Santa Cruz de la Sierra in Bolivia.
The Bolivian dolphin (Inia boliviensis) was immediately adopted by the Bolivian government as a symbol of the country's conservation efforts.
The Bolivian species is smaller and a lighter grey in colour than the other species and has more teeth. It lives only in the Bolivian Amazon and is isolated from the other Amazon River dolphins, separated by a series of 18 rapids between Bolivia and Brazil.
There was some horrible news out of India last month, when the bodies of about six endangered Ganges River Dolpins were found next to a railway track. The dolphins had been cut up into small pieces and put into eight sacks and then unceremoniously dumped next to the line. The BiharTimes has the story...
The sacks were noticed by the villagers near a railway track and the police were informed.
"The evidence suggests that the consignment was being taken to Kolkata or northeastern states by train. And something must have forced the smugglers to throw them out of the train," a police official said.
Dolphins are locally called sons of the Ganges river, but pollution and rampant fishing have threatened their existence.
Mongabay.com reports that Dr. Robert L. Pitman, a participant in last year's six week Baiji expedition, is skeptical that the creature filmed on the Yangtze was actually a Baiji.
The sighting near Tongling city in Anhui Province -- widely reported in Chinese and Western media -- was captured on video.
Dr. Robert L. Pitman of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Ecosystem Studies Program told science writer Andrew Revkin of the New York Times that "Chinese scientists who have reviewed the supposed videotape are far from certain that it shows a baiji at all,"
Well here's a turn up for the books. It looks like the Baiji, a dolphin famed in legend as the "Goddess of the Yangtze", is not as dead as it was supposed to be. Here's the China Daily.com with the news - 'Extinct' dolphin spotted in Yangtze River.
A resident of east China's Anhui Province spotted a "big white animal" in the river on August 19, and filmed it with a digital camera, said Dr. Wang Kexiong, of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
The animal in the footage was confirmed by the institute to be a white-flag dolphin, known in Chinese as "baiji", Wang said.
"We are very glad to see baiji still exist in the world," Wang said.
Zeng Yujiang, the man who spotted the dolphin, told Xinhua, "I never saw such a big thing in the water before, so I filmed it. It was about 1,000 meters away and jumped out of water for several times."
If we can find the video footage, we will of course post it as soon as possible - and if any kind readers see it, do let us know.
Following the recent news that Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine would be visiting the Ganges River Dolphin for their Last Chance To See TV series, it's about time we posted some information on this creature, also known as the "Susu". Image by Brian Smith.
The Wikipedia article is very good and tells us that Ganges River Dolphin and its close relative the Indus River Dolphin are essentially identical in appearance, even though they have totally distinct ranges and have not interbred for thousands of years.
The Ganges subspecies can be found in the Ganges River as well as the Brahmaputra, Meghna, Karnaphuli and Sangu river systems of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. Relatively high population densities have been observed near the Vikramshila Gangetic Dolphin Sanctuary in India and in the Sangu River in southern Bangladesh. Very few individuals (perhaps 20) are present in Nepal in the Karnali River. The total population is unknown, but certainly numbers in the hundreds and there are perhaps as many as a few thousand.
How many of these rare, wonderful creatures are left? I poured over the literature and sadly have to report that only four to six hundred of these blind river dolphins exist in the Indus and that their numbers are diminishing rapidly because of a number of factors. Over fishing, dam construction, navigation projects, pollution, habitat destruction and increasing food needs of a fast growing human population have all but made this animal extinct. [...] In the Ganges this creature is called the Susu. If you are interested you can go online and watch a video of a Susu leaping out of the water and hear its whistle-like call. It is wonderful to see. Only about six hundred of them still exist in an area of heavy human population which uses their fat, you guessed it, for catching catfish. In the Brahmaputra River, scientists estimate that three to four hundred of the Hihu remain. In Nepal, in isolated sections of rivers a few may still exist.
Thanks for the article Harold, it was a very nice read. You can read more of Harold's work and find out about his award winning books at HaroldBergsma.com.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports that Professor Wang Ding, who headed the research team on the six-week Baiji Expedition, says that some of the dolphins may still exist.
"This is only one survey and...you can't have a sample in a survey, so you cannot say the baiji all is gone by the result of only one survey," he said.
"For example, there is some side channels or some tributaries [where] we cannot go because of a restriction of navigation rules, and also we don't survey during the night-time so we may miss some animals in the Yangtze River."
Professor Ding says based on anecdotal evidence, he remains confident the dolphins are still out there.
"I'm pretty much sure there are a few of them left somewhere in the Yangtze River," he said.
"I keep receiving reports from fishermen, they say they saw a couple of baiji somewhere, sometime.
News of the Baiji Dolphin's "extinction" is rolling around the media outlets again this week, as the researchers publish their 6-week study findings in the Royal Society Biology Letters. Here's BBC News with the story.
The researchers failed to spot any Yangtze river dolphins, also known as baijis, during an extensive six-week survey of the mammals' habitat.
The team, writing in Biology Letters journal, blamed unregulated fishing as the main reason behind their demise.
If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.
The World Conservation Union's Red List of Threaten Species currently classifies the creature as "critically endangered".
The BBC site has a video report on this story, including footage of the Baiji in graceful action.
Also, here's an older report from earlier in the year...
It's that time again, and as this site celebrates its 3rd birthday, I'm very happy to announce that long-time supporter Dave Haddock has sent us FANTASTIC news about the TV series of Last Chance To See featuring Stephen Fry and Mark Carwardine.
Dave went to a talk by Mark Carwardine last week in Rochester, where Mark announced that he would begin filming the TV series later this year (and into next) alongside Stephen Fry. They are going to re-visit all the places he went to with Douglas Adams, including where the animals are extinct. As the Yangtze River Dolphin is already "functionally extinct" they also plan to go and see the Ganges River Dolphin in India to highlight its plight. Most of the people that he met in 1989/90 are still working on the same projects, so it will be marvellous to catch up and see how things have progressed, for better or for worse.
As a result of this announcement, expect to see Ganges River Dolphin news postings on this site soon...
And now to our new fundraiser for 2007/2008. Since there approximately 720 Mountain Gorillas left in the world, I thought it would make a good target to try and raise $720, $1 for every single gorilla up there in the Virunga Mountains.
I have established a brand new Firstgiving donation page called "720 Dollars for 720 Mountain Gorillas", where we'll be raising funds for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Douglas Adams was a great supporter and patron of the charity, so many thanks in advance for your anticipated generosity! Anyone can donate, from anywhere in the world, the site is secure, and you can contribute as much or as little as you can afford. $1 will do, as that's one Mountain Gorilla towards our target!
Also, if there's a website address you'd like to promote, please send me the URL and a short description, and I'll be happy to build a links list to promote your favoured site. We're a Google PR5 you know... Note:Nothing offensive please!!
National Geographic with news that Asia's critically endangered Irrawaddy river dolphin may closer to extinction than scientists previously thought.
According to Touch Seang Tana, chair of Cambodia's Commission for Mekong Dolphin Conservation, there are now about 160 dolphins in the upper Mekong River, up from only 90 when the Cambodian government banned the practice of net fishing last year.
But researchers who study the rare dolphin have expressed deep skepticism that such a dramatic turnaround could have occurred.
They said it would be biologically impossible for the dolphins to rebound so quickly, because their gestation period is 11 months and the animals generally only have one offspring every two years.
