Conservation of Baiji Lipotes vexillifer

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Conservation of Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer)

• By Cindy Kloos

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Why this topic?

• Conservation is huge field in Zoology
• Conservation alone is too broad
• Baiji or Yangtze River Dolphin (Lipotes
  vexillifer) is the most endangered Cetacean
  

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About Baiji

• Less than 50 (more like 20) exist in the wild
• One of few fresh water dolphin species
• Found only in the Yangtze River (China)
• Yangtze River plays huge economic role
  (transportation, fisheries, trade, etc)
  
• Species threatened by pollution, over fishing,
  poachers

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Conservation Efforts

• Chinese government refuses to protect its
  natural habitat
  
• Scientists have recommended capturing and raising
  it in captivity or semi-captivity
  
• Yet to happen no funding by Chinese government,
  only funding is from Japan

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Search Process

• I came across an article from Topix.net called
  Last Chance for Chinas Dolphin
  
• This article mentioned the IUCN Red List of
  Threatened Species
  
• A search for Lipotes vexillifer produced lengthy
  bibliography
  
• Used this bibliography to locate initial sources

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Print Sources

• UBC has excellent sources for Marine Species
• From the IUCN bibliography, I searched UBC for
  Handbook of Marine Mammals. Volume 4 River
  Dolphins and the Larger Toothed Whales
  
• Used UBC links to subject headings to locate
  additional sources

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Subject Headings

• From the UBC catalogue the subject headings
  relevant to my topic are
  
• Marine mammals
• Wildlife Conservation
• Endangered species
• Cetacea
• Mammal populations
• Fisheries Environmental Aspects
• The first 4 were used when doing database/online
  searches

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Sample of Print Resources

• William F. Perrin, Bernd Würsig, J.G.M.
  Thewissen. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of marine mammals.
  San Diego Academic Press, 2002.
  
• Twiss, John R. Jr. and Randall R. (Eds)
  Conservation and management of marine mammals.
  Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Institution Press,
  1999.
• Simmonds, Mark. Whales and dolphins of the world.
  Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press, 2004.
  
• Reynolds, John D. (Ed.) Conservation of exploited
  species. Cambridge New York Cambridge
  University Press, 2001.
  
• IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group. Dolphins,
  porpoises and whale 1994-1998 action plan for
  the conservation of cetaceans. Gland,
  Switzerland IUCN, 1994.

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Sample of Online Resources

• Databases
• Zoological Records
• BIOSIS Previews
• Websites
• USFWS Threatened and Endangered Species System
  (TESS) US Fish Wildlife Service.
  
• ITIS Integrated Taxonomic Information System
• Thomson Scientifics' BiologyBrowser
• NBII Search BioBot

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Comments? Questions?