The long-threatened Yangtze river dolphin in China is probably extinct, according to an international team of researchers. They say this marks the first whale or dolphin to be wiped out because of human activity. This report from Quentin Sommerville:





There is every likelihood that the Yangtze river dolphin is extinct, according to the Zoological Society of London. The society participated in an international survey which examined over 1,500 kilometres of the river last year and failed to find a single baiji dolphin. Back in the late 1990s a similar survey found thirteen live dolphins. In the 1950s their population numbered in the thousands.

China's rapid modernisation is blamed for the dolphin's demise. Industrial pollution, heavy river traffic and the construction of the Three Gorges dam are thought to have killed many.



However, the World Conservation Union says that an animal can only be declared extinct if it hasn't been found in the wild for fifty years. The last confirmed sighting of the baiji dolphin was five years ago, although there have been unconfirmed sightings since then.



But even if a number of the dolphins have survived, they and other freshwater animals, like the Yangtze finless porpoise, are in serious danger of disappearing forever.



Quentin Sommerville, BBC News, Beijing





There is every likelihood

it is expected or very likely



is extinct

doesn't exist anymore, has died out



an international survey

a review, study or report written by people from different counties



failed to find a single

didn't find even one



rapid modernisation

quickly becoming modern and industrialised



demise

end, extinction



Industrial pollution

fumes and dirt from factories



declared

said by an official body (here, the World Conservation Union)



in the wild

in the natural setting for an animal (not in a zoo or someone's house as a pet)



confirmed sighting

more than one person said that they had seen a particular thing (here, a dolphin)



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