The Mona Lisa is not the smile goddess, the Yangtze finless porpoise is.

The images of animals and plants in ancient literature often rely on the descriptions of eyewitnesses and the brains of the plotters. although they are related to the real image, what is often more noticeable is the difference. It can be seen from the animal "Pig in the Water".

In the "different Fish Map" drawn by Zhao Zhiqian in the Qing Dynasty, there is a big guy with pig noodles and fish body. Picture: artron.net

They lived in the water and were good at swimming. The ancients did not regard them as fish, but treated them as beasts. Because the immortal beast does not see the end, the understanding and record of it can only come from misinformation. In some folk genie legends, they are portrayed as guardians in the water, guarding the safety of merchant ships on the river, or haunting water monsters that set off huge waves to overturn the ships and attack the crew. What is the origin of these "pigs in the water"?

"Hai Cuo Tu" also has such a sea? [thost n], in which "?" The word is also called "dolphin".

The famous "Haicuo Map" also shows such a large fish with a smooth back without dorsal fins and a short snout. Only the ridged dolphin and the finless porpoise meet these two characteristics, because the ridged dolphin is not distributed in our country, so it should be the finless porpoise.

The lovely finless porpoise. Picture: ori2uru / flickr

A smiling angel swimming in the water

The finless porpoise refers to the whales of the genus porpoise. They are 1.2 to 1.7 meters long, with a gray-black body surface, a short snout, a rounded forehead, a flat tail and no dorsal fin. With small eyes and poor eyesight, they rely on echolocation to "see" like other cetaceans.

Finless porpoises swimming in the water. Picture: Akimasa Harada / flickr

They rarely jump out of the water as high as some dolphins, and basically have no habit of following ships, so humans rarely see them when they work on the surface. Even if they do, most of the time they just see their backs above the water.

The back of the finless porpoise is above the water. Picture: Jean-Pierre Sylvestre / Biosphoto

Finless porpoises usually breed at the turn of spring and summer. As mammals, female finless porpoises are pregnant and breastfeeding in the water, with a gestation period of 11 to 12 months, similar to other toothed cetaceans. After birth, the cub will live with his mother for a longer period of time. Newborn finless porpoises learn predation skills from 3 months, but the real weaning period is 7 months later. Fish, shrimp and software creatures in the water are the main food of the finless porpoise.

Finless porpoises are distributed in the coastal waters of the Indian Ocean and Pacific tropics, subtropics and temperate zones in Asia. Although they are called finless porpoises, they do not belong to the category of freshwater porpoises in the strict sense.

Now the genus finless porpoise is generally divided into two species, the Intai finless porpoise N. phocaenoides and the narrow ridged finless porpoise N. asiaeorientalis. The former is distributed along the Indian Ocean and Hong Kong, China, while the latter includes two subspecies: N. A. sunameri (East China Sea subspecies) in Korea and Japan; N. A. asiaeorientalis, the familiar Yangtze finless porpoise, which is only distributed in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and its large lakes in China. It is the only freshwater population of the genus finless porpoise and the whole porpoise family.

The distribution map of the finless porpoise. Photo: Jiuqiaozi / wikipedia

The Yangtze finless porpoise in danger of extinction

The distribution area of the Yangtze finless porpoise is relatively narrow, only living in a few tributaries and lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, which highly overlaps with the area of human activities, so it is easily affected by human activities.

Picture: animalia-life.club

The development of the Yangtze River fishery and shipping industry, the construction of water conservancy projects and the water pollution and ecological destruction brought about by the Yangtze River finless porpoise are a serious threat to the survival of the Yangtze finless porpoise. The propeller of the hull cut their bodies, illegal fishing gear and electric fishing killed and injured them, the fishing method of fishing made them die of hunger in winter, and the falling water level caused them to be stranded in shallow cofferdams. This kind of creature, which has lived on the earth for more than 20 million years, is now in rapid decline under the interference of human activities and is in danger of extinction. The existing population of the Yangtze finless porpoise is much less than our national treasure, the giant panda.

The lovely Yangtze finless porpoise is no longer common. Picture: animalia-life.club

Highly consistent with the Yangtze River finless porpoise activity area is the "Yangtze River Goddess" Baiji [jelly] dolphin, which is a true freshwater dolphin of the freshwater porpoise family. The body of a wild Baiji dolphin was found in 2004, and they have not been seen in public since then (those suspected traces do not count). In 2007, the Baiji dolphin was officially declared a functional extinction, and all individuals artificially captured for scientific research have died. (the last male Baiji dolphin, Qi Qi, died in 2002 at the Institute of Aquatic Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Wuhan. It is the longest living individual in captivity in the world.) now spare specimens for people to remember.

The once active Baiji dolphin is now almost out of sight. Picture: samo-opusteno.info

The Yangtze finless porpoise, the smile goddess, is following in the footsteps of the Baiji porpoise, the goddess of the Yangtze River. The estimated population of the Yangtze finless porpoise was about 1800 in 2006, reduced to 1200 in 2012 and only 1045 in 2014, a decline of more than 10 per cent a year. Recent studies have also found that the species sex ratio structure of the Yangtze finless porpoise is changing significantly, and the birth rate of both sexes is significantly out of balance, resulting in a decrease in the sex ratio of adults year by year.

The picture shows the mother of the Yangtze finless porpoise with two male cubs. Photo: Gao Baoyan

In addition, the underwater noise caused by human activities will also interfere with the development of sonar ability of Yangtze finless porpoise cubs. The ability of acoustic communication and sound detection plays an important role in the survival and reproduction of cetaceans. Excessive man-made underwater noise may not only have an irreversible impact on the young dolphins who are in a critical period of sound capacity development. it may also lead to the loss of contact between the cub and the mother dolphin and die.

Photo: Gao Baoyan

In May this year, the Fisheries Administration Office of the Yangtze River Basin of the Ministry of Agriculture organized a special discussion meeting on upgrading the protection level of the Yangtze finless porpoise in Shanghai, and the final meeting unanimously approved the proposal. The Yangtze finless porpoise will be upgraded from a national second-class protected animal to a national first-class protected animal.

Trying to restore their population.

For the sake of their own development, human beings have repeatedly reached out to nature. At present, the Baiji dolphin, which is functionally extinct, is very likely to become the first dolphin in the world to become extinct due to human activities. In order to prevent the Yangtze finless porpoise from falling into the same predicament, scientists are working hard to promote conservation.

Workers moved the Yangtze finless porpoise from Poyang Lake to its new home. Photo: Li Kun / WWF

At the end of 1992, the Chinese government began to establish the "Yangtze River Tianezhou National White Porpoise Nature Reserve" on the old road of the Yangtze River in Shishou City, Hubei Province, and implemented the plan to catch the Yangtze finless porpoise and move into the reserve. For more than 20 years, this remote breeding protection project has achieved initial success. The number of Yangtze finless porpoises released there has reached more than 80, and plans are being made to further expand the scope of the reserve and introduce more finless porpoises to improve the consanguinity of the Yangtze finless porpoises in the reserve.

Before the inspection, scientists carried the Yangtze finless porpoise carefully. Photo: Li Kun / WWF

In June 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture announced that two Yangtze finless porpoise rescue centers will be established in Poyang Lake and Dongting Lake, and five Yangtze finless porpoise ex-situ reserves will be established in Honghu, Qiandao Lake, Zhelin Lake, Gaobao Lake and Liaojiagou. We will strive to achieve restorative growth in the Yangtze River finless porpoise population by 2020.

The determination of government departments, the efforts of scientists and the efforts of volunteers all give us hope. I hope the smile of the Goddess of smile will bloom in the Yangtze River forever.

Picture: Yiqing / WWF

Come on, collect your smile goddess.

June 5th is World Environment Day.

Li Li Niang found out about the official spoiler of Travel Frog.

At 9: 00 this morning, the frog "Journey to China"

The finless porpoise rare postcard and a big wave of updates will be released.

A big spoiler. Guess what this SSR postcard looks like.

Now, you are the first person to know the news.

Go to Mobile Taobao to search for "Travel Frog" and have fun.

Perhaps the first to receive the postcard of "Goddess of smile"

It will be you!

Calendar Niang today's avatar

Small-headed porpoise of the family porpoideae