Aquatic Mammals Blog

It's all about marine mammals to those who wish to explore all aspects of marine mammal's ecology, behavior and acoustics. When I first started writing Aquatic Mammals Blog, one of the main aims to provide a basic guide of how to identify species and their lifestyle according to my research knowledge and field studies.

Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Chinese white dolphin) in Chinese waters

Taxonomy:
The Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin (Sousa chinensis) is included in the order Cetacea, suborder Odontocetes (Toothed cetacean) and family Delphinidae.
 Fig 1. Moving behaviour of an adult dolphin (Photo: Rajitha)
 Fig 2. Breaching of a dolphin (Photo: Rajitha)
.Fig 3. Foraging behaviour of a mother(white) and calf (black) (Photo: Rajitha)

Characteristics habitats and values:
Young is black or is grey, the adult is pink. The pink colour of the body is not caused by pigments, but by the blood vessels under the epidermis, which is related to the regulation of body temperature. Chinese white dolphins rarely enter waters deeper than 25 m. Their main habits are mangrove waterways, bays, tropical river deltas or brackish waters along the shoreline, in the Eastern Indian and Western Pacific oceans. The Chinese white dolphin has small eyes and poor eyesight. Its orientation and orientation mainly depend on the echolocation system. It is of great scientific in bionics, species evolution and biodiversity etc.

The Chinese white dolphin is not unique to China, although it bears the name “China”. It is estimated that as of 2016, there were more than 1,800 white dolphins in the country that could be counted. Exhibit great plasticity in the production of sounds, including echolocation clicks and whistles. These whistles are continuous, narrowband, frequency-modulated sounds that are primarily used in communication with conspecifics. Bycatch, ship collision and ocean industry noises are the main reason for the decline of resources.

Conservation:
Endangered and Protected listed in the List of National Key Protected Wildlife; class I, Red List of Species in China; Endangered (EN), CITES Appendix I, The IUCN Red list; Near Risk(NT,2008). Now it has established Marine Species National Nature Reserve and Pearl river estuary Chinese White Dolphin National Nature Reserve. In recent years, due to the increase in conservation measures, the population of white dolphins has increased, but the conservation situation is still serious.
                                           (https://youtu.be/V19FY455TeY)


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