In 2012, the Yangtze River Basin suffered a major drought, this drought led to the yangtze River water level continues to decrease, at that time, the porpoise is already an endangered species, so in order to avoid this drought, for the porpoise to cause more serious impact, the Staff of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, but also in the porpoise habitat, monitoring it.
But I did not expect to see a tearful porpoise in the water in a nature reserve in Hubei, this photo was quickly fermented on the Internet after the media dissemination, many people believe that this is a signal that the finless porpoise is about to become extinct, which means that at the moment when the ecological environment is constantly deteriorating, the finless porpoise is in danger.
So, now that more than 7 years have passed, what is the current situation of the existence of finless porpoises in the Yangtze River? They are still endangered, and have their populations recovered?
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="4" > "Smile of the Yangtze River" is back! Rare porpoises appear in Nanjing</h1>
Finless porpoise is an independent species unique to China living in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. They look similar to dolphins and are also aquatic mammals.
As early as 2013, the finless porpoise was already an endangered species, and in 2017, the finless porpoise also became a national first-class protected animal in China.
In July 2018, the number of finless porpoises was only about 1,000, while in 2006, there were still about 1,800 finless porpoises, which can be seen that in just 12 years, the population of finless porpoises has decreased by more than 40%, which is obviously not a good news.
We all know that due to human activities, the ecological environment of the Yangtze River Basin has already been seriously damaged, in addition to the finless porpoise, there are many species living in the Yangtze River, and they are also facing a situation of rapid decline in populations.
Therefore, in 2019, the Ministry of Agriculture decided to impose a 10-year fishing ban on the key waters of the Yangtze River, which officially took effect from January 2021, which also provided opportunities for endangered species such as finless porpoises to recuperate.
So, after the Yangtze River fishing ban period began for more than half a year, recently, in Nanjing, people saw a number of porpoises in the river water, many people said happily, "the smile of the Yangtze River" is back, because the porpoise is called "smiling angel", they reappear in the Yangtze River, I have to say, it is really a good thing.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="25" > so what is the reason for the smaller and smaller number of finless porpoises? </h1>
Speaking of which, as early as many years ago, finless porpoises have been protected animals, but their populations are still decreasing, making the survival prospects not optimistic, researchers say, roughly related to the following reasons:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="26" > first, the porpoise breeding speed is very slow, and the female finless porpoise is flooded with maternal love</h1>
As a mammal, after mating, the finless porpoise needs to be pregnant for 10 months before giving birth to a litter, and the female finless porpoise will also take the cubs, living in shallow areas, on the one hand, to better breastfeed, on the other hand, so that the cubs can better adapt to life in the water.
This led to the past, many people in the discovery of this law, will go to the shallow water to hunt the finless porpoise, and because the female finless porpoise mother is very strong, so people will also catch the finless porpoise pups first, wait until the female finless porpoises are reluctant to keep getting closer to the cubs, try to rescue, and then the female finless porpoises are also captured. In this way, naturally, the number of finless porpoises continues to decrease.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > Second, humans "grab" the rations of finless porpoises, resulting in a shortage of finless porpoise food</h1>
From the perspective of food, the finless porpoise is mainly based on various small fish, and many of the fish that we can often buy on the market are actually one of the main foods of the finless porpoise.
It seems that these fish do not seem to have any existential crisis, but in fact, due to the large-scale fishing of humans, the number of wild fish is not optimistic, and what we buy in the market is generally artificially farmed.
This leads to the Yangtze River suitable for the number of wild fish suitable for the porpoise to eat after the continuous reduction, the porpoise will appear "not enough to eat" situation, so now, on the one hand, the Yangtze River fishing ban period, hope to allow the species in the Yangtze River to be restored, on the other hand, in order to make the porpoise full of food, will also regularly put artificially farmed fish into the Yangtze River for them to eat.
However, due to the very slow reproduction rate of finless porpoises, naturally, even if food is plentiful today, it will still take a long time to restore the population, which makes finless porpoises still very rare today.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="28" > third, the destruction of the Yangtze River by human activities has led to damage to the finless porpoise habitat</h1>
In addition to the development of the fishing industry, in fact, human beings in the Yangtze River Basin around the lake to create land, high dam projects, etc., will lead to the habitat of the porpoise affected, especially after the completion of the Three Gorges Dam, the number of finless porpoises has suddenly decreased a lot.
At the same time, passing ships will also make a lot of noise, which will affect the echo positioning system of the finless porpoise, so that they often get lost, and the oars of the ship are also easy to hurt the porpoise, naturally, under many factors, they have become an endangered species, which is rare to see.