What family is the baiji in?

1. Is a baiji a whale?
2. What animals are related to the baiji dolphin?
3. Why did baiji go extinct?
4. How many baiji are left in the wild?
5. What did the baiji eat?
6. Why are Pyrenean Ibex extinct?
7. When was the baiji first discovered?
8. When was the last time baiji was seen?
9. Is the Pyrenean ibex extinct?
10. Do baiji dolphins live in groups?

Is a baiji a whale?

The baiji is the only member of the mammal family called Lipotidae. This is because the baiji has unique features which are not shared with any other whale or dolphin species. ... The Lipotidae separated from the other river dolphins during the evolutionary process about 20 million years ago.

What animals are related to the baiji dolphin?

The closest known relative of the Baiji is Parapontoporia, native to the Western Coast of North America during the Latest Miocene and Pliocene. The Baiji was one of five species of dolphins known to have made fresh water their exclusive habitat.

Why did baiji go extinct?

The baiji is one of only a few dolphin species that is known to have adapted from the ocean to a freshwater environment. The likely cause of the baiji's decline is from the use of fishing nets with hooks that snag and drown the dolphins as bycatch. Other causes may include habitat degradation.

How many baiji are left in the wild?

By the mid 1980s surveys revealed that only an estimated few hundred baiji survived; by 1990, the baiji was critically endangered - there were only thought to be 100 left and in 1997 only 13 individuals remained.

What did the baiji eat?

The diet of baiji consists of mainly, if not entirely, of fish. They use their long beaks to probe muddy bottoms for food. Their dives are short, lasting only 10-20 seconds. Baiji have poor eyesight but use a highly developed echolocation faculty to find food.

Why are Pyrenean Ibex extinct?

DNA analyses of Pyrenean Ibex found evidence that, after a demographic expansion about 20,000 years ago, its population went through a bottleneck caused by hunting, inbreeding and other factors, which ultimately caused its extinction.

When was the baiji first discovered?

The newly proposed species marks the first new discovery of a true river dolphin since 1918, when researchers identified Lipotes vexillifer, the Yangtze river dolphin or baiji, in China. The baiji was declared "functionally extinct" in 2006 after scientists failed to find even one individual.

When was the last time baiji was seen?

The last confirmed baiji sighting was in 2002; an exciting 2007 sighting eventually turned out to be a finless porpoise. The dolphin is the most recent large aquatic mammal to have gone extinct since the 1950s, when hunting and overfishing killed off the Caribbean monk seal.

Is the Pyrenean ibex extinct?

The Pyrenean ibex became extinct in January of 2000, when a falling tree landed on the last surviving member of the species. Three and a half years later, the Pyrenean ibex became extinct for the second time, when a newborn clone gasped her first and last breaths in a Spanish laboratory.

Do baiji dolphins live in groups?

Image credit: baiji.org. The baiji, also known as the Chinese River Dolphin and Yangtze River Dolphin, is a freshwater dolphin endemic to the Yangtze River in China. Baiji are usually found in pairs and may aggregate to form larger social groups of 10 to 16 individuals.