CCTV news: "The white dolphin has no natural enemies in the Yangtze River, and its only enemy is people." Although nearly 40 years have passed, when Liu Renjun mentioned what happened to Qi Qi, his voice was still full of pain.
Liu Renjun is a baiji dolphin expert at the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. On January 11, 1980, on a rainy and snowy night, Liu Renjun received a call from the Hunan Chenglingji Aquatic Products Purchase Station, where a live baiji dolphin was captured by locals. Liu Renjun rushed to the scene overnight and took it away from the Yangtze River. For the next twenty-two years, he became inseparable from this white dolphin, and this white dolphin also had a nice name: Qi Qi.
"Ki Ki is famous in the world."
Freshwater dolphin video infographic
At the first sight of Qi Qi, Liu Renjun's mood was a little complicated.
Known as the "Goddess of the Yangtze River", the white-tipped dolphin is a freshwater cetacean endemic to China and is only produced in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Tens of millions of years ago, they lived in the Yangtze River and are called "living fossils". In 1984, the baiji dolphin was added to the Red Book of Endangered Species in China. In 1986, the macroscopic population of the baiji dolphin was less than 300 and was listed as an "endangered" species. By 1996, it had become "CR".
In this case, the appearance of Qiqi is a surprise, but when Liu Renjun saw it, he was at a loss for a moment - when the stretcher supported 137 pounds of Qi qi, he saw that Qi Qi's back was poked two large holes by the iron hook of the fish, and it was already suppurative and smelly.
"I just started raising baiji dolphins, and I have no experience."
Later, Liu Renjun asked two veterinarians at the Beijing Zoo to help him heal, but he did not see any improvement in the past six months. After thinking about it, he decided to make a special "vest" for Qi Qi. He used raw muscle dispersion, Yunnan Baiyao and other ingredients to match Qi Qi with good medicine, and then wrapped it in a "vest" made of four layers of disinfectant gauze. After 5 days, a miracle occurred.
"All the skin rotting wounds are all healed, you say how good." When the 78-year-old Liu Renjun talked about this past, his eyes flashed with light, as if he saw the agile figure of Qi Qi again, returning to those accompanying days...
Acquaintance, they are careful. Liu Renjun fed Qi Qi small fish, and the vigilant Qi Qi was far away at first, and then tried to get closer a little, slowly swimming to his hand and taking away the small fish.
Acquainted, they played. Ki Ki is more and more like a naughty child, who will be happy, will show kindness, and will also lose his temper. It will splash water on him, and it will quickly open its mouth when it bites his fingers. "Once I fed it and it bit my finger, but it immediately let go, and you say how good it is."
For Liu Renjun, the most regrettable thing is that in Qi Qi's lifetime, he could not find a companion for it.
In 1986, the institute caught two white dolphins, one called Lian Lian, the other called ZhenZhen, Lian Lian was the father, and Zhen Zhen was the daughter. The arrival of Zhenzhen makes Qi Qi no longer lonely, but they have gone from strange to familiar, and they have not yet been able to truly establish an intimate relationship, and Zhenzhen died of interstitial pneumonia.
After that, Liu Renjun could no longer find a female white dolphin, paired with Qi Qi. "In the 1990s, the white dolphin was almost no longer seen." Liu Renjun sighed deeply.
On July 14, 2002, a phone call broke Liu Renjun's heart - Qi Qi left. It didn't say goodbye; he, didn't say goodbye.
Ki Ki, become a sign. Liu Renjun said movingly: "It has created a generation of scientists, if there is no research on the white dolphin, there can be no success in the protection of the Yangtze River porpoise, Qi Qi is famous in the world, people say Qi Qi will give a thumbs up." ”
"Functional extinction", this is the definitive word for the fate of the current white dolphin. "Functional extinction is not disappearing, hopefully it will appear somewhere in the Yangtze River." Liu Renjun said that the white-tipped dolphin reserve has been built. Despite the slimness, Liu Renjun and we still have a glimmer of hope, hoping that one day we can see the light of the white dolphin jumping out somewhere on the Yangtze River.
"When it is still possible, we all take action, and this is a great credit to us."