River Dolphins Down for the Count, and Perhaps Out

摘要

The world's rarest cetacean is nowhere to be found. Last week, a 3500-kilometer survey along China's Yangtze River failed to turn up a single river dolphin, or baiji (Lipotes vexillifer). "It's going to take a rescue effort of epic proportions to save this species," says Karen Baragona, director of the World Wildlife Fund's China programs. But it may already be too late for the nearly blind, pale creature. Expedition organizer August Pfluger, head of the Swiss-based baiji.org Foundation, says bluntly: "The baiji is functionally extinct."