{"id":4629,"date":"2025-05-07T02:06:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T20:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=4629"},"modified":"2025-05-29T11:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T05:36:23","slug":"yangtze-finless-porpoise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/yangtze-finless-porpoise\/","title":{"rendered":"Yangtze Finless Porpoise"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Yangtze Finless Porpoise Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>Scientists use classical poems to map the decline of Yangtze finless porpoise from the Tang Period to the People&#8217;s Republic of China.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: inherit; font-size: 35px; font-style: inherit;\">Why in the News?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Chinese scientists have utilised classical Chinese poetry<\/strong>\u00a0to reconstruct the\u00a0<strong>historical distribution<\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0<strong>Yangtze finless porpoise<\/strong>, the\u00a0<strong>only known freshwater porpoise species in the world<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>This study demonstrates the\u00a0<strong>scientific use of ancient literary records<\/strong>\u00a0to track\u00a0<strong>biodiversity trends over 1,000+ years<\/strong>, from the\u00a0<strong>Tang Dynasty (618\u2013907 CE)<\/strong>\u00a0to the\u00a0<strong>modern People&#8217;s Republic of China<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>About the Yangtze Finless Porpoise<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Habitat<\/strong>: Found exclusively in the\u00a0<strong>Yangtze River<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Asia\u2019s longest river<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unique traits<\/strong>: Known for a\u00a0<strong>mischievous smile<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>intelligence similar to gorillas<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ecological role<\/strong>: Considered a\u00a0<strong>key indicator species<\/strong>, reflecting the\u00a0<strong>overall health<\/strong>\u00a0of its freshwater ecosystem.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Size &amp; Behaviour<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong>Small-bodied<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>slow-moving<\/strong>, and\u00a0<strong>non-migratory<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Conservation Status<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IUCN Red List<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong>Critically Endangered<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Estimated population<\/strong>:\u00a0<strong>Only 1,000\u20131,800 individuals<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Extinction risk<\/strong>: High \u2013 parallels drawn with the\u00a0<strong>Baiji dolphin<\/strong>, declared\u00a0<strong>functionally extinct in 2006<\/strong>, marking the\u00a0<strong>first human-driven extinction of a dolphin species<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Yangtze Finless Porpoise FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1.\u00a0<\/strong>What is the Yangtze finless porpoise?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong>\u00a0It is a critically endangered freshwater cetacean species found only in the Yangtze River in China.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2.\u00a0<\/strong>What is its IUCN Red List status?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong>\u00a0The Yangtze finless porpoise is listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q3.\u00a0<\/strong>Is it the only freshwater porpoise species?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans.<\/strong>\u00a0Yes, it is the only known freshwater porpoise species in the world.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/wildlife-biodiversity\/scientists-use-classical-poems-to-map-decline-of-yangtze-finless-porpoise-from-tang-period-to-peoples-republic-of-china\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">DTE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Yangtze finless porpoise is a critically endangered freshwater cetacean found only in China&#8217;s Yangtze River, facing severe threats to its survival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":47147,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,23,396],"class_list":{"0":"post-4629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-prelims-pointers","9":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","10":"tag-yangtze-finless-porpoise","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}