BBC: Finless porpoises in China on brink of extinction

Finless porpoises, a rare type of toothed whale, may be even more endangered than previously thought.

A survey of finless porpoises in Asia has revealed there are two species, not one, and that they rarely intermingle.

"Most conservation biologists have a strong feeling that the Yangtze finless porpoise has a very high risk of extinction"

- Prof Guang Yang

More worrying, finless porpoises living in the freshwater of China's Yangtze river are genetically unique, say scientists, who warn that greater efforts must be made to prevent these animals, numbering fewer than 1000, from following another Yangtze cetacean, the Baiji, to extinction.

Read the Article