Reproduction chinese river dolphins

Reproduction

There is little really known about the reproduction efforts of these dolphins in the wild. It is believed that they mate any time from the first half of the year. It takes from 10 to 11 months after mating for the calf to arrive. They may be up to 3 feet long when they are born. The average age for mating to begin ranges from 4 to 6 years.

The mothers will keep the calves very close to them and forge a powerful bond. There isn’t any information about how long the young will drink milk from her body before being weaned. It is believed to be from 12 to 18 months though as that is the standard time frame for all of the other species of dolphins.

Conservation Status and Threats

The number of Baiji Dolphins in China significantly declined due to heavily industrialization efforts. The river where these dolphins live began being used for commercial fishing, hydroelectricity to be produced, and for transportation needs. In spite of the conservation efforts that were put into motion, they haven’t been a success.

Commercial fishing efforts resulted in large numbers of them being captured and killed. They were either too severely injured in the nets to survive or the drown as they couldn’t surface for air. Other accidents were the result of these dolphins coming into contact with the propellers of boats in the water. This dolphin is also one that was hunted heavily for the meat it offered as well as the flesh to be used as bait for a variety of fishing operations.

Legal efforts by China were implemented in 1975 to protect the Baiji Dolphins. However, problems with heavy pollution in this body of water made it extremely hard for the plans to re-introduce dolphins to the location. In 1992 part of the Yangtze River was preserved for them but it was too late for them to rebound due to the low numbers they had already been depleted to.

As of 2006 no more of them have been seen. They are now classified as being functionally extinct. This is the first aquatic mammal to be added to that list since the 1950s when the Caribbean Monk Seal and the Japanese Sea Lion were identified with the same fate.In the later part of 2007, a man in China reported that he had seen what he thought was a Baiji Dolphin. He even created a video recording of it swimming in the Yangtze River. The results of evaluating it are believed to be evidence that there are some of them remaining.

However, there isn’t enough evidence of a population to believe that any conservation at this efforts would be sufficient enough to prevent the population from eventual extinction. There are those living in captivity that do well. There are some plans in the works to identify those that do remain in the wild and to relocate them to preserves. They can live up to 25 years.

(source:google/http://www.dolphins-world.com/)