In the EDGE office we are anxiously awaiting the return of two of our team members – EDGE coordinator Carly Waterman and Dr. Sam Turvey have been in China conducting surveys with fishermen along the Yangtze River, in the hope that they might discover more about the current status of the top EDGE Mammal, the baiji (Lipotes vexillifer).
Last summer Sam visited China as part of a team hoping to relocate a group of baiji to an oxbow lake breeding facility. However, despite a thorough systematic search the expedition failed to find any surviving baiji, leading to the sad conclusion that this unique species was possibly extinct.
We wait in anticipation for Carly and Sam to return and tell us the results of their survey, and hope that there might be an indication that the baiji is still surviving in the waters of the Yangtze River.
To support conservation research into the decline of the baiji, please click here.