Realities of Baiji Conservation

The realities of baiji conservation are discussed. It is asserted that the baiji has been a conservation cause celebre over the last 15 years. But there is precious little evidence of this vanishing creature's supposed celebrity. No large nongovernmental organization has campaigned forcefully o...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Conservation biology 2006-06, Vol.20 (3), p.626-628
Main Authors: REEVES, RANDALL R., GALES, NICHOLAS J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal glands
Animals
Biodiversity conservation
Cetaceans
China
Conservation biology
Conservation Focus: Baiji, Freshwater Dolphin
Conservation of Natural Resources - methods
Dolphins
Dolphins - physiology
Ecosystem
Habitat conservation
Models, Biological
Porpoises
Rivers
Species
Whales
Wildlife conservation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The realities of baiji conservation are discussed. It is asserted that the baiji has been a conservation cause celebre over the last 15 years. But there is precious little evidence of this vanishing creature's supposed celebrity. No large nongovernmental organization has campaigned forcefully or invested more than a pittance to the cause; most have simply looked the other way. For its part, the Chinese governmental seems to have weathered the occasional squall of international outrage over the baiji's imminent demise without making any serious investment. It is concluded that if no concerted effort is made to establish captive populations of such species, using the best that state-of-the-art husbandry has to offer, their record of survival and reproduction in captivity would never improve, making it a classic self-fulfilling prophecy.
ISSN:0888-8892
1523-1739
DOI:10.1111/j.1523-1739.2006.00472.x