In Search of the Baiji
and its mother
(shown at right)
.
The male baby was born at the Institute of Hydrobiology Baiji Aquarium
in Wuhan on July 5, 2005, weighing 6 kg with a length of 70 cm.
This is the first Yangtze River Finless porpoise and freshwater
cetacean ever born in captivity.
Dr. Zhang also told us that he would be visiting the United States in
mid-December to attend the
16th
Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals
, hosted by
the
Society of Marine
Mammology
, in San Diego. Since we live relatively nearby, in
Los Angeles, we arranged to drive down to San Diego to meet with
him. It had been 10 years and three months since our first
visit to China to learn about the baiji, when we had originally met
Dr. Zhang in Wuhan.
Ten-year reunion:
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