Chinese White Dolphin
Conservation status
Data deficient [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Family: Delphinidae Genus: Sousa Species: S. chinensis Subspecies: S. c. chinensis
Trinomial name
Sousa chinensis chinensis (Osbeck, 1765)
Chinese White Dolphin range (blue area)

The Chinese White Dolphin (Sousa chinensis chinensis; Traditional Chinese: 中華白海豚; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōnghuá bái hǎitún), also called Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, is a species of the Humpback dolphin and is one of eighty cetacean species. The adult dolphin is usually white or grey in colour. The population along the Chinese coast is unique in that they exhibit a pink-coloured skin.^[1] This colour of the skin is not a result of colour pigmentation, but is actually from blood vessels used for thermoregulation to prevent overheating during exertion. The adult's body length is about 220 - 250 centimetres and the infant's body length is about 1 metre. The average weight of an adult is around 150 to 230 kilograms. Image File history File linksMetadata Size of this preview: 800 × 600 pixels Full resolution (1600 × 1200 pixel, file size: 186 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) River dolphines (make the habitat in freshwater), known as rare pink dolphines. ... The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ... Animalia redirects here. ... Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ... Subclasses Subclass Allotheria* Order Docodonta (extinct) Order Multituberculata (extinct) Order Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Order Triconodonta (extinct) Order Volaticotheria (extinct) Subclass Prototheria Order Monotremata Subclass Theria Infraclass Trituberculata (extinct) Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals characterized by the production of milk in females for the nourishment of... Suborders Mysticeti Odontoceti Archaeoceti (extinct) (see text for families) The order Cetacea (IPA: , L. cetus, whale) includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. ... Genera See text Oceanic dolphins are the members of the Delphinidae family of cetaceans. ... Binomial name Sousa chinensis Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Chinese White Dolphin) range Binomial name Sousa plumbea Indian Humpback Dolphin range Binomial name Sousa teuszi Atlantic Humpback Dolphin range The humpback dolphins are the members of the genus Sousa. ... Trinomial nomenclature is a taxonomic naming system that extends the standard system of binomial nomenclature by adding a third taxon. ... Pehr Osbeck Pehr Osbeck (1723 – 23 December 1805) was a Swedish explorer and naturalist. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1357x628, 34 KB) , User:Pcb21 after User:Vardion. ... Traditional Chinese (Traditional Chinese: 正體字/繁體字, Simplified Chinese: 正体字/繁体字) refers to one of two standard sets of printed Chinese characters. ... Pinyin (拼音, Pīnyīn) literally means join (together) sounds (a less literal translation being phoneticize, spell or transcription) in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: Han language pinyin), which is a system of... In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ... Binomial name Sousa chinensis Osbeck, 1765 Pacific Humpback Dolphin (Chinese White Dolphin) range Sousa plumbea Cuvier, 1829 Indian Humpback Dolphin range Sousa teuszi Kükenthal, 1892 Atlantic Humpback Dolphin range The humpback dolphins are the members of the genus Sousa. ... Suborders Mysticeti Odontoceti (see text) The order Cetacea includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. ... Genera See article below. ... Natural Ultramarine pigment in powdered form. ... f you all The blood vessels are part of the circulatory system and function to transport blood throughout the body. ... Thermoregulation is the ability of an organism to keep its body temperature within certain boundaries, even when temperature surrounding is very different. ...

The Indo-Pacific dolphins can be found throughout Southeast Asia, and they breed from South Africa to Australia. There are two subspecies, with Sumatra, one of the Indonesian islands, as the dividing line between the Chinese and the Western subspecies, Sousa chinensis plumbea. Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Sumatra (also spelled Sumatera) is the sixth largest island in the world (approximately 470,000 km²) and is the largest island entirely in Indonesia (two larger islands, Borneo and New Guinea, are partially in Indonesia). ...

The two subspecies differ in color and size of their dorsal fin.

The subspecies found in Southeast Asia has pinkish white skin and a larger dorsal fin but lacks the fatty hump of its South African and Australian counterparts.

Color changes in growth period

• Birth: Black in color.
• Childhood: Grey in color.
• Youth age: Pinkish grey with spots.
• Adult: Pinkish white and the spots will fade out.

Life expectancy

A Chinese White Dolphin can live as long as 40 years. The eldest dolphin lives in Hong Kong and is known to be about 33 years old. Scientists have discovered that the age of a dead dolphin can be determined by observing the cross section of its teeth.

Behavior

Chinese White Dolphins swim to the water surface to breathe every twenty to thirty seconds and after that they will dive into deep water again. A calf surfaces from the water twice as much as an adult. This is because calves have a smaller lung capacity than an adult. Adult dolphins can stay underwater for about two to eight minutes but a calf can only stay underwater for one to three minutes. On average, adult dolphins rarely stay under water for more than four minutes.

They sometimes jump out of water and expose their whole body. This behavior, called breaching, is often impressive to human observers. Besides jumping out of water, White Dolphins also come up vertically out of the water, exposing the front half of the body. They have a pair of protruding eyes and they can see clearly in both air and water. Whales exhibit various types of physical behaviour when they surface. ...

Reproductive cycle

Chinese White Dolphins are quite sociable creatures and usually live in small groups of three to four. Female white dolphins become mature at ten years old while the males become mature at thirteen years old. The Chinese White Dolphins usually mate from the end of summer to autumn. Infant dolphins are usually born eleven months after the mating. Mature female white dolphins can give birth every three years and the parental care will last until their offspring can find food themselves.

Dolphin watching

Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd. has been running boat trips to visit the Chinese White Dolphins for the past five years. The dolphins mainly live in the waters of Lantau North, Southeast Lantau, the Soko Islands and Peng Chau. They primarily do this to raise awareness of Hong Kong citizens on the dolphins. Ten percent of the profits of the organization goes into research for Friends of the Earth (HK)'s Water Action Group, which is a charity aimed to raise public awareness of Hong Kong's coastal environment (see ecology of Hong Kong). However, this action has been criticized as further endangering the Chinese White Dolphins. Lantau Island (based on its old name 爛頭島 lan tau do, lit. ... Soko Islands (索罟群島) is a group of islands in Hong Kong. ... Peng Chau (坪洲 in pinyin: Píngzhōu; in Jyutping: ping4 zau1; literal meaning: Flat Islet) is a small island located off the north-eastern coast of Lantau Island. ... Friends of the Earth is an international network of environmental organizations in 70 countries. ... Other Hong Kong topics Culture - Economy Education - History - Politics Hong Kong Portal The ecology of Hong Kong is mostly affected by the results of climatic changes. ...

Threats

The sea of Hong Kong is becoming a very dangerous habitat for the Chinese White Dolphins. This is due to the increasing numbers of poaching, landfills, and sea traffic. Since Chinese White Dolphins are territorial animals and rarely stray far away from their habitat, the water pollution in Hong Kong has a high impact on them.

Industrial, agricultural, and domestic sewage are amongst the threats to the dolphins. In the Pearl River Delta, about 190,000 cubic metres of sewage is drained into the sea without any treatment daily. The raw sewage and industrial pollutants affect the dolphins as well as the whole ecosystem. The large amounts of heavy metals, such as mercury, and organic materials that have been found by scientists in the corpses of Chinese White Dolphins indicates that tributyltin (TBT), an anti-fouling agent, and organochlorines, such as PCBs and DDT, have entered the dolphins' food chain. These have had a negative impact on the immune systems of the dolphins. It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). ... DDT or Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane is the first modern pesticide and is one of the best known synthetic pesticides. ...

As mentioned above, the construction of the Chek Lap Kok Airport resulted in a 9.5 square kilometer loss of prime dolphin habitat. Other construction projects like the North Lantau Expressway, river trade terminal between Tuen Mun and Castle Peak Power Station, and Hong Kong Disneyland, need further reclamation. This will lead to a yet more severe loss of dolphin habitat. Another potential threat is the proposed LNG terminal on the Soko Islands. Hong Kong International Airport Hong Kong International Airport (香港國際機場), popularly referred to as Chek Lap Kok Airport (赤鱲角機場 Pinyin: Chìliè Jiǎo, Red Perch Cape), is the international airport of Hong Kong. ... The fountain featuring Mickey Mouse in the Park Promenade next to Hong Kong Disneyland The Disney music album released to celebrate the opening of disneyland Hong Kong Disneyland (Traditional Chinese: 香港迪士尼樂園; Cantonese Jyutping: hoeng1 gong2 dik6 si6 nei4 lok6 jyun4; Mandarin Pinyin: XiānggÇŽng Díshìní Lèyuán... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Soko Islands (索罟群島) is a group of islands in Hong Kong. ...

Overfishing and heavy boat traffic near northern Lantau also threatens the lives of the dolphins. Overfishing may be a major danger to the dolphins because there are few regulations on the fishing industry set by the Hong Kong Government. There are many fish that are caught which become bycatch ('trash fish') because they are not the right size or species to be sold for profit. Therefore, dolphins risk both being caught and becoming bycatch. As for boat traffic, about 70 boats pass an average Hong Kong shipping channel daily (Mak, 1996). Boat engine noise interferes with the dolphins' communication channels through animal echolocation. Echolocation, also called Biosonar, is the biological sonar used by several mammals such as bats (not all of them), dolphins and whales. ...

Origin of a Cantonese slang

The Cantonese has a slang "Wu Gei Bak Gei" (often written as 烏忌白忌, lit. "black taboo white taboo") which means someone being a bad omen or a nuisance etc. The phrase originates from the Cantonese fishermen, because they claim that the dolphins eat the fish in their nets. This article is about cultural prohibitions in general, for other uses, see Taboo (disambiguation). ...

However, in proper Chinese, it should be written as 烏鱀白鱀, with the "Gei" originally in olden Chinese, means dolphins. The "Wu" referring to the finless porpoises, which are black, and the "bak", white, referring to Chinese River Dolphins. These two species often interrupt and ruin the fishermen's catch. As years passed, because "dolphin" sounds the same as "bad luck", the meaning of the phrase changed. However, in Cantonese, the "wu" refers to the calves of Chinese White Dolphin and "bak" refers to the adults. Note that River Dolphins (Baiji) do not exist in Hong Kong. Nowadays, dolphins are not called "gei" anymore, but 海豚 (Hoi tuen), literally meaning "Sea pig". Binomial name Lipotes vexillifer Miller, 1918 Natural range of Lipotes vexillifer The Chinese River Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) was a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China. ...

Timeline of main events

• 1637: The Chinese White Dolphin was first discovered in Hong Kong by an adventurer Peter Mundy near the Pearl River. The species are attracted to the Pearl River Estuary because of its brackish waters.

• Late 1980s: Environmentalists started to pay attention to the Chinese White Dolphin population.

• Early 1990: The Hong Kong public started to become aware of the Chinese White Dolphin. This was due to the side effects of the construction of the Chek Lap Kok Airport. It was one of the world's largest single reclamation projects: the reclamation of nine square kilometers of the seabed near Northern Lantau, which was one of the major habitats of the dolphins.

• Early 1993: Re-evaluation of the environmental effects of the construction of Chek Lap Kok Airport. This alerted eco-activists such as those from the World Wide Fund for Nature in Hong Kong, in turn bringing media attention on the matter. Soon enough, the Hong Kong Government began getting involved by funding projects to research on the Chinese White Dolphins

• Late 1993: The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department was founded.

• 1996: Dr. Thomas Jefferson began to conduct research on the Chinese White Dolphin's in hope of discovering more about them.

• 1997: The Chinese White Dolphin became the official mascot of the 1997 sovereignty changing ceremonies in Hong Kong.

• 1998: The research results of Dr. Thomas Jefferson was published in "Wildlife Monographs".

• 1998: The Hong Kong Dolphinwatch was organized and began to run dolphin watching tours for the general public to raise the public's awareness of the species.

• 2000: The Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department started to conduct long-term observation of the Chinese White Dolphins in Hong Kong.

• 2000: The population of Chinese White Dolphins has reached around only 80-140 dolphins in the Pearl River waters.

Pearl River in Guangzhou Pearl River at night, Guangzhou The Zhu Jiang, (珠江 Pinyin: Zhū Jiāng), or Pearl River, is Chinas third longest river (2,200 km, after the Yangtze River and the Yellow River), and second largest by volume (after the Yangtze). ...

See also

• Chinese River Dolphin

Binomial name Lipotes vexillifer Miller, 1918 Natural range of Lipotes vexillifer The Chinese River Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) was a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China. ...

References

External links

• The Agriculture, Fishies and Conservation Department
• Hong Kong Dolphinwatch Ltd.
• Hong Kong Dolphin Conservation Society