The curtain of the King of Freshwater Fish in China -The Extinction of the Yangtze River Baiji

On the evening of July 21, 2022, the World Nature Conservation Alliance (IUCN) updated the red list of the endangered species. In this list, the Yangtze River White River, known as the "King of Fresh Water Fish in China", was officially announced.

The earliest Bai River can be traced back to the Bai Yanji of 150 million years ago. They survived the Great extinction of the species at the end of the Baiji period, but eventually disappeared completely in the 21st century, which made people sigh.

History of the Yangtze River Baiji [2]

Today, let's review the "life resume" of the Yangtze River Baiji, which only commemorates them.

King of Freshwater Fish

Bai Yan was called 然 in ancient times. Of course, it also has a very nice name: swordfish.

The reason why swordfish is called Bai Yan's head is very special and grows particularly long, and can even reach one -third of the body length, like a long sword.

(Bai Yan found in the lower reaches of Gezhou dam in 1993 [2])

It can be known as the "King of Freshwater Fish", and Bai Yan itself naturally has a body advantage. The Yangtze River Baiya is a large fish. Its body length can generally reach 2-3 meters, while the maximum can reach 7 meters, and the weight is sometimes more close to 1 ton.

In response to this, the folk has the saying that "a pound of salad is a pound". So Bai Yan also has another name: elephant fish.

However, Bai Yan is not a "little white flower" that is bullied by the fish, but a very fierce hunter. Its food in the water is mainly other fish, unlike many fish to predatory floating creatures.

Coming from ancient times

The Yangtze River Baiji (scientific name: PSEPHURUS GLADIUS) is an evolutionary ancient fish, which belongs to the genus Baiya, and its close relative is a spoon of Polyodon Spila. Their ancestors were very diverse and widely distributed at 3400-75 million years ago [1].

Figure 鲟 鲟 鲟 鲟 鲟 [1]

The earliest crickets can be traced back to the Baiji Period of 200 million years ago. They have gone through a long geological age, including the fifth extinction of the Baiji Period (Bai Yan-Gu Jinji Extinction).

In fact, for a long time, the Yangtze River Baiji is not limited to the Yangtze River Basin, but is widely distributed in the major rivers of our country, such as the Liaohe, Haihe, the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Qiantang River and even the sea. Activity range [2].

The historical distribution range of the Yangtze River Baiji shrinks [2]

However, over time, the distribution range of the Yangtze River Baiji is getting narrower. After the 1950s, the Yangtze River Baiji was only distributed in the Yangtze River and the Yangtze River.

For a long time, the Yangtze River Baiji can be caught by commercial. For example, in the 1970s, the annual fishing volume was as much as 25 tons.

Due to the fragmentation of excessive fishing and living environment, and the construction of a series of dams, the tourism of the Yangtze River Baiyu was affected, and the number of populations in the Yangtze River Baiyu declined sharply and became endangered species.

Observed the Yangtze River Baiji incident changes over time [2]

Last scene

The last curtain of the Yangtze River Bai Yan was in 2003.

On January 24, 2003, fishermen from Fuxikou, Youth Town, Luoting Town, Nanxi County discovered a injured Yangtze River Baiji, and reported to the fishing administration institution immediately.

Soon, rescuers rushed to the scene for protection and began emergency rescue of the white cricket.

This is a large white ravioli with a length of more than 3 meters. The fish kiss is up to 1 meter. It is sluggish because of the injury of the head wrinkles on the head of the head. Essence

The rescue staff jumped into the water to correct Bai Yan's body, and constantly passed oxygen to the water to allow catfish to survive the crisis.

Subsequently, the catfish was transferred to a relatively stable river for further treatment. After strict disinfection treatment of the wound, and injecting the corresponding drugs, it was finally sutured by surgery to save the Yangtze River Baiyu.

Save the Yangtze River Baiji (Picture Source: Red Star News)

After this big white magpie recovers, the rescuers put it back to the Yangtze River. Of course, in order to protect and follow up, the researchers also installed sons for the white pupae.

During this period, the researchers have been able to track the Sonal signal of Baiyu, and find that the rescued Dabai Mang can be free to swim in the Yangtze River, leaving many "footprints".

On January 30, 2003, the tracking ship responsible for tracking the big white magpie was damaged by accident and could not continue sailing, which led to a delay of six or seven hours. And this is the separation of just a few hours, but it has always lost this big white sanctuary signal.

Since then, professionals have searched Shengnan signal many times in the Yangtze River, and went from the Yangtze River from Sichuan to Chongqing to Hubei all the way along the Yangtze River, but still did not find the trace of this big white.

This big white magpie completely disappears in the human world, and it also represents the species of Baiya, which completely disappears from the human perspective.

In 2020, the Yangtze River Aquatic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Aquatic Sciences published a paper, stating that the Yangtze River Baiyan has been extinct from 2005 to 2010.

However, the World Nature Conservation Alliance (IUCN) believes that further demonstration is needed, so the conclusions given are "follow -up still needs to be discussed."

Two years later, in 2022, IUCN eventually announced that the Yangtze River Baiyu was completely extinct.

However, we still look forward to this may only be misjudgment.

After all, although there have been more than 20 years, they have not been discovered again, but maybe they just hide, or they are just not noticed, everything is possible, maybe one day, we will also find Intersection

In the future, we are still working hard

In fact, there is another kind of 鲟 in the list of IUCN this time -Aciverser Dabryanus is extinct in the wild, which means that it is also dangerous.

Fortunately, there is still time, because we can now artificially reproduce the Yangtze River, thereby establishing a number of artificial groups. Therefore, in the future, we will gradually make the Yangtze River in the Yangtze River through artificial reproduction and establishment of a protected area like a giant panda.

In

Protecting biological diversity is actually protecting humans.

In the past years, the ecological destruction of the Yangtze River has been severe, which has also caused endangered such as Yangtze River and white -fin dolphins. Now the "Yangtze River Protection" has become a consensus. Since 2021, my country has officially implemented the "ten years of fishing" in the Yangtze River. The "Yangtze River Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" is also officially promulgated and implemented, which will be of great significance to the entire ecological recovery of the entire Yangtze River Basin.

Perhaps in the future, we will see the increasingly prosperous Yangtze River ecology, and we will never see a tragedy similar to the extinction of the Yangtze River.

references

1.Peng Z, Ludwig A, Wang D, et al. Age and biogeography of major clades in sturgeons and paddlefishes (Pisces: Acipenseriformes)[J]. Molecular phylogenetics and evolution, 2007, 42(3): 854-862.

2.Zhang H, Jarić I, Roberts D L, et al. Extinction of one of the world's largest freshwater fishes: Lessons for conserving the endangered Yangtze fauna[J]. Science of the Total Environment, 2020, 710: 136242.

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Production: Li Lei

Producer: China Science Popularization Expo

Edit: Wang Tingting

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