Happy Labour Day to my North American Readers.  Speaking of readers, I apologize for the interruption in service yesterday and possibly today.  In fact, I am not sure if you will be reading this on Monday or not.  I have had some issues with my domain name subscription which should be sorted out soon. If you are here with me than let’s take a minute to learn about the Baiji Dolphin.  I would like to thank one of my faithful readers, Agapelife, for the excellent idea.

The Baiji Dolphin is a river dolphin found in the Yangtze River in China.  They are also known as the Whitefin Dolphin, Yangtze Dolphin and White Flag Dolphin.  They are beautiful creatures that can grow up to 2.60 m (8.5′) long and weigh about 167 kg (368 lbs). This particular dolphin has a similar appearance to other river dolphins with a stocky body, narrow upturned beak and a rounded melon with eyes set higher up on their head than most other dolphins.  Unlike the similar South Asian River Dolphin the Baiji Dolphin is capable of vision.  Although they are not blind they have eyesight equivalent to a 105 year old man wearing an eye patch. Of course this correlation isn’t scientifically proven but it does illustrate my point about them having very poor eyesight.  It is a good thing that dolphins can use that handy “echolocation” to find their prey items.

Now for the bad news.  Your chances of ever seeing a Baiji River Dolphin are incredibly slim.  No, it isn’t just because they are secretive and like to maintain a low-key lifestyle.  Unfortunately, human expansion and development along with substantial fishing of the Yangtze River has awarded the Baiji Dolphin with an unbearable honour.  This particular dolphin is the first species of cetacean (marine mammals) to become extinct as a result of human activity.  The only silver lining to this story is the fact that the Baiji Dolphin is only functionally extinct, which means there may still be a few individuals kicking around (errr… swimming around) but not enough to sustain a healthy population.  It isn’t much of a silver lining but it is something. I for one do not feel particularly proud to be responsible for the extinction of such an amazing mammal (or any living thing for that matter). I don’t want to preach but we really need to start shifting our awareness and realize that our actions on the environment has consequences.

It may be too late to save the Baiji Dolphin but if you would like to help prevent other marine mammals from the same fate than I recommend becoming involved.  Check out http://whaleadoption.org/ and become part of the solution.

Baiji Dolphin Fast Fact – Fossil records show that the Baiji Dolphin appeared about 25 million years ago and made its way from the Pacific Ocean to the Yangtze River about 20 million years ago.  Chinese Legends indicated that the Baiji Dolphin was a symbol of Peace and Prosperity and nicknamed the “Goddess of the Yangtze”.  Does anyone else get a bad vibe from humanity wiping out a symbol of peace and prosperity?

Well, I hope you were able to read today’s Wild Fact and more importantly I hope you were able to get the message from today’s Fact.  Have a great day everyone!