Family, today Xiaobian brushed up on a very serious topic.
How to maintain a balance between man and nature?
On July 21, the Yangtze River white sturgeon, known as the "King of Freshwater Fish in China", was officially declared extinct by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
As soon as the news came out, it immediately reached the top of the hot search, netizens were instantly in an uproar, and many people were sighing:
Some friends may not know much,
The white sturgeon is one of the very few ancient fish that survived from the Cretaceous period 150 million years ago.
Image source: Wei Qiwei
Sturgeon fossils can be traced back to the Mesozoic Triassic, which means that they lived at the same time as dinosaurs and are truly "living fossils in the water".
Adult white sturgeon can grow up to 7 meters and weigh tens of thousands of pounds. Because of its huge size, it is known as the "King of Freshwater Fish in China" and is also one of the ten largest freshwater fish in the world.
Therefore, in the mouths of the fishermen of the Yangtze River, since ancient times, there has been a saying of "a thousand pounds of wax and ten thousand pounds of elephants".
The "wax" here refers to the Chinese sturgeon, and the "elephant" is not an elephant, but a white sturgeon.
But such a powerful and beautiful creature, because of the increasing human activity, went extinct in the wild.
The last time the Yangtze River white sturgeon was discovered was in 2003.
Fishermen in Yibin, Sichuan Province, mistakenly caught a 3.5-meter-long Yangtze River white sturgeon with wounds and eggs in their stomachs.
Experts rushed to the rescue, helped it treat the wound, stitched 24 stitches, gave nutritional injections... After recovery, it was put back into the Yangtze River.
Unexpectedly, the images left behind at that time became the last memory.
What is even more sad is that not only the Yangtze River white sturgeon, but also the entire natural population of sturgeon is in sharp decline and on the verge of extinction, and has become "the most threatening taxa in the world".
According to the newly released Report of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Updated Global Red List of Threatened Species, the list of 26 existing sturgeon species in the world is at risk of extinction, showing:
The Yangtze River endemic species, the white sturgeon, is extinct;
The Bare-bellied Sturgeon Danube population, extinct;
Yangtze River sturgeon, extinct in the wild.
It should be known that the white sturgeon and the Yangtze River sturgeon are representative aquatic species in the Yangtze River Basin, the mother river of China.
Mother River, who seems to be sick...
Another flagship species of the Yangtze River, the Chinese sturgeon, has also been declining in recent years.
Image source: Zhuang Ping
In 1988, the Chinese sturgeon was listed as a national first-class wild protected animal.
It was listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2010.
Even the breeding population of the four most common fish in the Yangtze River, green, grass, silver carp and bighead carp, has dropped by as much as 90%.
The results of the IUCN Global Sturgeon Re-assessment show that two-thirds of the remaining sturgeon species are critically endangered.
So, what exactly have humans done?
The illegal trade in wild caviar and fish meat, which gave rise to illegal fishing for sturgeon;
Dams block the migration routes of sturgeon;
Sand and gravel mining destroys spawning grounds for sturgeon, as well as habitat loss;
These, as a result, one sturgeon after another are disappearing from the world's rivers ...
The diversity of river and freshwater organisms is essential for humans and nature, but unfortunately, the global freshwater biodiversity is continuing to be lost, and the river ecology is constantly degrading.
Not only sturgeon, but there are too many such endangered species, each of which is related to human activities:
Gorillas;
According to the May 2022 statistics, there are currently only about 150 to 180 adult Cross River gorillas left in the wild.
Rhino: Didn't expect that? Rhinos are the most endangered species in the world, with only 46 to 66 Javan rhinos currently left worldwide.
Sola: Sora is one of the rarest large mammals on Earth.
It was first discovered in 1992 in mountainous areas abroad and is one of the most amazing zoological discoveries of the 20th century. The number of species is difficult to determine accurately and is considered critically endangered.
North Atlantic Right Whales: The meat and fat of North Atlantic right whales, called blubber, are high-priced ingredients that make them one of the most endangered large whale fish.
There are currently only about 400 left in the world, of which only about 100 are females.
Tooth-billed pigeon: Tooth-billed pigeon is disappearing at an alarming rate. They lived only in Saimoses, and currently between 70 and 380 remain in the wild.
New Zealand Parrot: The New Zealand Parrot is also an endangered animal. They are critically endangered, with only about 140 left in the wild.
Amur Tiger: One of the most endangered big cats in the world, with fewer than 70 estimated wild populations worldwide.
……
In Beijing's Nanhaizi Park, there is a special cemetery known as the "heaviest domino" and is full of extinct animals.
The fallen tombstones are shocking to see, and the number is still growing exponentially.
So, we often say:
Loving nature and protecting the diversity of living things has never been a matter for a few people.
According to incomplete statistics, about 75 species in the world go extinct every day, that is to say, on average, 3 species disappear from the earth every 3 hours...
The number of species extinct caused by human activities is 1,000 times that of natural elimination.
This situation has been continuing.
If we don't do anything subjectively, our descendants will probably only be able to see these animals in books.
Finally, I would like to say that the earth is not only human, but also their home, and I hope that all animals can have their own piece of the world.