The water of the Yellow River rises from the sky and flows east to the sea and never returns! Whenever I read this poem, I think of the lovely wild animals that once galloped on the land of China.
Some of them are like the river that rushes to the sea, disappearing forever on the land of China.
First place, white dolphin
Known as the "Yangtze River Goddess", "Storm Barometer", "Ancient Fossils of Life", "Yangtze River Giant Panda" and a series of titles and reputations of the white-tipped dolphin, about 2-2.5 meters in length, belongs to mammals, the body shape is spindle-shaped, for the cetacean - tooth whale subfamily - white and dolphin genus, plump and slender, has the title of "Chinese mermaid", weighs 80 to 220 kg, is China's largest type of freshwater dolphin, due to long-term living in the turbid river water, audiovisual organs have been degraded, the eyes are very small and poor vision, The sonar system is particularly developed, the head can scan the surrounding environment like radar, mainly eat small fish and shrimp, swim fast, mainly live in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and with Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake.
Usually in pairs or in groups, during the spring mating season, more than a dozen head usually move together, and since the 1960s, it has been declared extinct in 2006 after a variety of disasters such as water transport, economic development, and illegal fishing.
Second place, Chinese rhinoceros
It was once widely distributed in the southern provinces of China, mainly inhabiting the forest edge mountainous areas close to the water source, and during the Tang Dynasty, it was distributed in Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Guizhou, and even Qinghai.
Rhinoceros leather armor is the equipment of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States warriors, and the history books record that thousands of soldiers of the Yue King Fu were wearing rhino armor to fight. The army's demand for rhinoceros armor increased, and rhinos were hunted indiscriminately for a long time. In the late Western Han Dynasty, rhinos were basically extinct in the Central Plains. Since the Song Dynasty, the rhinoceros has become a mythical creature called a "strange beast", associating it with the qilin and tianlu, believing it to be a hybrid of buffalo and dragon. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the living environment of the Chinese rhinoceros has been compressed into the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the Qing Dynasty, only official hunting was allowed. Rhinos were killed indiscriminately by officers and soldiers. The wars in the early years of the Republic of China led to the hunting and killing of white rhinos, which were declared extinct in 1922.
Third place, Przewalski's Wild Horse
Large ungulates, the overall shape resembles a horse, but there is no long hair on the forehead, and the neck mane is short and upright. The body length is 220 to 280 cm, the shoulder height is more than 120 cm, and the weight is more than 200 kg. The head is long, the neck is thick, its ears are shorter than the ears of a donkey, and its hooves are wide and round.
Once widely lived in Xinjiang, Mongolia and other regions, the advancement of science and technology and the rise of wild hunting, so that the wild Przewalski's wild horses became extinct, after liberation, from the German zoo to introduce individual populations, however, the homogeneity of genes makes them no longer strong. Semi-dependent on feeding to survive.
Przewalski's wild horses are the world's only wild horse breed, and in the first half of this year, a total of 41 wild horse foals were born in the Junggar Basin of Xinjiang, most of which are produced in non-artificial captive wild stocks.
Fourth place, the high-nosed antelope
They once spread throughout Eurasia, in the 1960s due to over-hunting and environmental destruction was once endangered, because the antelope horn has a high medicinal value, the price of half a kilogram of antelope horn is as high as 2,000 US dollars, many poachers for the sake of profit red eyes, in addition to the explosion of human population, and the expansion of the scale of grassland breeding, encroached on the living space of high-nosed antelope. Although in recent years, the number has rebounded due to the protection of environmentalists.
In 2015, more than 200,000 high-nosed antelopes suddenly died violently, and once roamed the grasslands for thousands of years, because they were infected with bacteria, causing hemorrhagic sepsis or blood poisoning, which, due to the climate at the time, could induce benign bacteria to turn into deadly bacteria. However, due to the high medicinal value of antelope horn at that time, half a kilogram of antelope horn was once fried to 2,000 US dollars. Many poachers have red eyes for the sake of profit and try their best to hunt and kill antelopes, which eventually leads to the complete extinction of high-nosed antelopes in Our country!
Fifth place, Xinjiang Tiger
Also known as the Caspian sea tiger, extinct in 1916, The Xinjiang tiger is mainly distributed in central Xinjiang, from Korla along the Peacock River to the Lop Nur area, the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains also have survival, with obvious distribution along the water source, and the southeast edge of the Tarim Basin is rarely distributed in Xinjiang tigers. With the discovery of the ancient kingdom of Loulan, the Caspian tiger was discovered at the same time, but it also accelerated its extinction, hunting activities and fur, and skeletal trade led to the extinction of the world's third largest tiger after the Bengal tiger and the Siberian tiger.
The Xinjiang tiger is large, with a well-developed mane, long yellow-brown body hair, white abdomen and the inside of the limbs, a double row of black longitudinal stripes on the back, and many black rings on the tail.
Male tigers are about 2.7 to 2.95 m long and weigh 170 to 240 kg, while female tigers are 2.4 to 2.6 m long and weigh 85 to 135 kg. The general lifespan is between 10 and 15 years.
Sixth place, directly under the macaque
After entering the 20th century, a large number of residents poured into the Wuling Mountain area, and the deforestation and habitat encroachment made the macaques less and less, and in 1977, a villager in Shuanglin Village, Liuliping, killed a macaque, peeled off its skin, and nailed it to the wall of his home. Since then, there has been no news of macaques.
However, in 2008, locals found 5 or 6 macaques active, and the countless human activities and economic development made this macaque that lived in the far north of China extinct. After 1960, it was largely no longer reproduced.
Eighth place, sickle-winged chicken
Siberian grouse, named after the feathers on its wings that resemble sickles. It exists only in Russia and China, in China, mainly in the Heilongjiang And Xiaoxing'an Mountains, mostly inhabiting forests and slopes at altitudes of 650-1500 meters. It feeds mainly on the rhizome fruits of plants and small insects.
In 2001, the sickle-winged chicken was declared extinct in China.
Ninth place, Guizhou salamander
The head is longer than the head wide, the pupils are rounded, the limbs are thin and long, the forelimbs are 4 fingers, the hind limbs are 5 toes, the whole body is smooth, there are fine grooves on both sides of the tail, and the average total length of males is 11 cm, and the females are 14 cm.
Extinction in 1970, deforestation and environmental pollution led to the extinction of this animal, which requires the natural environment.
Tenth place, bald stork
It once existed widely in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, floodplains and other areas. After 1950, due to the development of agriculture, this clumsy bird gradually disappeared, and the specific year is not recorded. It is precisely because of its disappearance. People began to pay attention to the protection of the crested ibis.
Eleventh, red-legged white-rumped langur
It is named after the fact that its male buttocks have triangular white rump spots. Males are about 61–76 cm long, tails about 56–76 cm long and weigh 7–10 kg.
Also known as the white-rumped langur, it only survives on Hainan Island. Extinction in the 1970s.
Twelfth place, Chinese guinea deer
The Chinese guinea deer has slightly lighter summer hair, white tip, yellow-brown fur, white abdomen and bottom of tail, and a dark stripe along the spine on the back, which became extinct in the 1970s, and the elves in the forest survive in the southern region, and economic development has led to the compression of living space.
Thirteenth place, Allosaurus carp
It is endemic to China and is distributed in Yunnan Yilong Lake. Historically known as the Lake of Allosaurus, it is a common species. In 1951 and 1972, the lake was released twice, causing the water level in the lake to drop by more than 4 meters, the water surface to shrink greatly, the large area of shoals, gravel fields and bays on the shore of the lake dried up, and the fish habitat and breeding site were seriously damaged, resulting in the compression of the living space of the allosaurus carp, a sharp decrease, and extinction in 1981.
Fourteenth place, crowned duck
The crowned duck is a rare and endangered bird in the world, so far there are only three specimens preserved in the world, one of which is preserved in the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, and the other two are one female and one male, preserved in the Japanese Mountain Order Bird Research Institute, extinct around 1950, agricultural development and hunting have made the originally small population extinct.
Fifteenth place, Yangtze River white sturgeon
Extinction between 2005 and 2010, the last time it was recorded was 16 years ago, when it was officially declared extinct in 2020, and it survived in the Yangtze River Basin for 150 million years, known as the living fossil of the Yangtze River.
When it comes to extinct animals, most of us first think of dinosaurs, mammoths and other prehistoric animals, however, more animals are extinct in modern times, according to statistics, there are 75 species extinctions every day, 3 species per hour are extinct, equivalent to one species extinction every twenty minutes, although extinct animals no longer exist, but still worthy of our reflection, their extinction is mostly caused by human activities, can be a wake-up call for us humans, let us pay attention to the protection of the environment, Live in harmony with wildlife.