Ancient poems tell the story of charismatic river porpoise's decline over the past 1,400 years
Endemic to China's Yangtze River, the Yangtze finless porpoise is known for its intelligence and charismatic appearance; it looks like it has a perpetual smile on its face. To track how this critically endangered porpoise's habitat range has changed over time, a team of biodiversity and conservation experts compiled 724 ancient Chinese poems referencing the porpoise from historic collections across China. Their results show that the porpoise's range has decreased by at least 65% over the past 1,400 years, with the majority of this decline occurring in the past century.
5 May 00:00 · ScienceDaily