Wildlife

China’s 'extinct' dolphin has been spotted in the Yangtze river

An amateur conservationist claims he's spotted a Chinese river dolphin swimming in the Yangtze river, 10 years after scientists declared the species functionally extinct.

The baiji, or 'goddess of the Yangtze', was a species of white river dolphin that was abundant in the Yangtze for around 20 million years before it was wiped out by hunting and pollution.

But now a group of amateur conservationists claim they spotted the dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) during an expedition last week, and say it's evidence that the species is still around.

Back in the 1950s, there were estimated to be thousands of baijis living in the Yangtze, Asia's longest river. But there are reports that during the Great Famine of the late 1950s, the millions of starving Chinese people under Mao Zedong's rule resorted to eating the species in order to survive.

By the end of the 1980s, the population had fallen to just 200, thanks to a mix of over-fishing, boat traffic, pollution, and dam-building on the river - more than 400,000 chemical enterprises are now reported as operating on the banks of the Yangtze.

By the turn of the century, one survey concluded there were only 13 baijis left.