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The Finless Porpoise (Neophocaena phocaeniodes) is one of six porpoise species. In the waters around Japan, at the northern end of its range, it is known as the sunameri. A freshwater population found in the Yangtze River in China is known locally as the jiangzhu or "river pig". Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
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. ...
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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...
Eutheria is a taxon (specifically, an infraclass) nearly synonymous with Placentalia, containing the placental mammals and the nearest ancestors of placental mammals (which are known only from the fossil record). ...
Suborders Mysticeti Odontoceti Archaeoceti (extinct) (see text for families) The order Cetacea (IPA: , L. cetus, whale) includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. ...
Families See text The toothed whales (systematic name Odontoceti) form a suborder of the cetaceans. ...
Genera Neophocaena Phocoena - Harbor porpoises Phocoenoides - Dalls porpoises The porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. ...
In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal method of naming species. ...
Georges Cuvier Baron Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (August 23, 1769–May 13, 1832) was a French naturalist and zoologist. ...
Image File history File links Cetacea_range_map_Finless_Porpoise. ...
Genera Neophocaena Phocoena - Harbor porpoise Phocoenoides - Dalls porpoise The porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. ...
The Yangtze River or Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), or Drichu in Tibetan (Tibetan: འབྲི་ཆུ་; Wylie: bri chu) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. ...
Distribution
The Finless Porpoise lives in the coastal waters of Asia, especially around India, China, Indonesia and Japan. A unique fresh water population is found in the Yangtze River. At the western end, their range includes the length of the western coast of India and continues up into the Persian Gulf. Throughout their range, the porpoises stay in shallow waters (up to 50m [160 ft]), close to the shore, in waters with soft or sandy seabeds. In exceptional cases they have been encountered as far as 160 kilometres (100 miles) off-shore in the East China and Yellow Seas, albeit still in shallow water. World map showing the location of Asia. ...
The Yangtze River or Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), or Drichu in Tibetan (Tibetan: འབྲི་ཆུ་; Wylie: bri chu) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. ...
Map of the Persian Gulf. ...
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The East China Sea is a marginal sea and part of the Pacific Ocean. ...
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Physical description The Finless Porpoise almost completely lacks a dorsal fin. Instead there is a low ridge covered in thick denticulated skin. This demonstrates that the body shape that has evolved to be the optimum for sharks, dolphins and porpoises is not the only possible body shape for a marine animal. Dorsal fin of an orca A dorsal fin is a fin located on the backs of fishes, whales, dolphins, and porpoises, as well as the (extinct) ichthyosaurs. ...
Orders Carcharhiniformes Heterodontiformes Hexanchiformes Lamniformes Orectolobiformes Pristiophoriformes Squaliformes Squatiniformes Symmoriida(extinct) Shark (superorder Selachimorpha) are fish with a full cartilaginous skeleton[1] and a streamlined body. ...
Genera See article below. ...
Genera Neophocaena Phocoena - Harbor porpoise Phocoenoides - Dalls porpoise The porpoises are small cetaceans of the family Phocoenidae; they are related to whales and dolphins. ...
Adult Finless Porpoises are a uniform light grey colour. Newborn calves are mostly black with grey around the dorsal ridge area, becoming fully grey after 4-6 months. Adults grow more than 1.55 metres (5 ft) in length and up to 30-45 kg (65-100 lb) in weight. Males become sexually mature at around 4 - 6 years of age, and females at around 6 - 9 years of age.
Diet Finless Porpoises are reported to eat fish and shrimp in the Yangtze River, and fish, shrimp and squid in the Yellow Sea/Bohai area and off Pakistan. In Japanese waters they are known to eat fish, shrimp, squid, cuttle fish and octopuses. Finless Porpoises are opportunistic feeders utilising various kinds of available food items available in their habitat. Seasonal changes in their diets have not been studied. They also apparently ingest some plant material when living in estuaries, mangroves, and rivers including leaves, rice, and eggs deposited on vegetation. A giant grouper at the Georgia Aquarium Fish are aquatic vertebrates that are typically cold-blooded; covered with scales, and equipped with two sets of paired fins and several unpaired fins. ...
Superfamilies Alpheoidea Atyoidea Bresilioidea Campylonotoidea Crangonoidea Galatheacaridoidea Nematocarcinoidea Oplophoroidea Palaemonoidea Pandaloidea Pasiphaeoidea Procaridoidea Processoidea Psalidopodoidea Stylodactyloidea True shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. ...
Suborders Myopsina Oegopsina Squid are a large, diverse group of marine cephalopods. ...
Families Sepiadariidae Sepiidae Cuttlefish are animals of the order Sepiida, and are marine cephalopods, small relatives of squids and nautilus. ...
Families 14 in two suborders, see text The octopus is a cephalopod of the order Octopoda that inhabits many diverse regions of the ocean, especially coral reefs. ...
An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water which has a free connection with the open sea and within which sea water mixes with fresh water. ...
Above and below water view at the edge of the mangal Mangroves are woody trees or shrubs that grow in mangrove habitats or mangal (Hogarth, 1999). ...
For the Second World War frigate class, see River class frigate The Murray River in Australia A waterfall on the Ova da Fedoz, Switzerland A river is a large natural waterway. ...
Leaves are an Icelandic five-piece alternative rock band who came to prominence in 2002 with their debut album, Breathe, drawing comparisons to groups such as Coldplay and Doves. ...
Species Oryza glaberrima Oryza sativa Brown basmati rice Terrace of paddy fields in Yunnan Province, southern China. ...
Schooling Finless Porpoises are generally found as singles, pairs, or in groups of up to 12, although aggregations of up to about 50 have been reported. Recent data suggests, that the basic unit of a Finless Porpoise pod is a mother/calf pair or two adults, and that schools of three or more individuals are aggregations of these units or of solitary individuals. Social structure seems to be underdeveloped in the species, and the mother/calf pair is probably the only stable social unit.
Behaviour and Reproduction Like other porpoises, their behaviour tends to be not as energetic and showy as that of dolphins. They do not ride bow waves, and in some areas appear to be shy of boats. In the Yangtze River, Finless Porpoises are known to leap from the water and perform "tail stands". Breeding occurs in late spring and early summer, after a gestation period of 10-11 months. Calves cling to the denticulated area of skin on their mother's back and are carried by her as she swims. Calves are weaned at 6-15 months. Gestation is the carrying of an embryo or fetus inside a female viviparous animal. ...
Swimming style Although they show no acrobatics in the water, Finless Porpoises are believed to be very active swimmers. They typically swim just beneath the surface of the water and roll to one side when surfacing to breath. This rolling movement disturbs very little water on the surface, so they are often overlooked when rising to breath. Surfacing generally lasts for one minute, as they take 3 to 4 quick successive breaths, then quickly submerge into the water. When they reemerge, the Finless Porpoise is often located a great distance from the point where they dove beneath the water's surface.
Conservation There are not enough data to place Finless Porpoises on the endangered species list, except in China, where they are endangered. Since this species is the most coastal of all porpoises, it has the most interaction with humans. This interaction often puts the Finless Porpoise at risk. Like other porpoises, large members of this species are killed by entanglement in gill nets. Also, this porposie is widely hunted in Japan by guns and "fishforks". In addition, unlike other members of this family, Finless Porpoises have been captured and placed on live display in Japan for over 15 years. The Siberian Tiger, a subspecies of tiger. ...
There are no good estimates of the animals' abundance. However a comparison of two surveys, one from the late 1970s and the other from 1999/2000 shows a decline in population and distribution. Scientists believe that this decline has been on-going for decades and that the current population is just a fraction of its historic levels. A 2006 expedition estimated that fewer than 400 of animals survived in the Yangtze River. [1]. The 1970s decade refers to the years from 1970 to 1979. ...
1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...
2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...
At the end of 2006 it was estimated that there are about 1400 porpoises left living in China, with between 700 and 900 in the Yangtze, with about another 500 in Poyang and Dongting Lakes.
2007 population levels are less than half the 1997 levels, and the population is dropping at a rate of 7.3 per cent per year. Current conservation efforts were undertaken alongside those for the recently extinct Baiji. Binomial name Lipotes vexillifer Miller, 1918 Natural range of the Baiji The Baiji (Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (Lipotes vexillifer, Lipotes meaning left behind, vexillifer flag bearer) was a freshwater dolphin found only in the Yangtze River in China. ...
Sand dredging has become a mainstay of local economic development in the last few years, and is an important source of revenue in the region that borders Poyang Lake. But at the same time, high-density dredging projects have been the principal cause of the death of the local wildlife population.
Dredging makes the waters of the lake muddier, and the porpoises cannot see as far as they once could, and have to rely on their highly-developed sonar systems to avoid obstacles look for food. Large ships enter and leave the lake at the rate of two a minute and such a high density of shipping means the porpoises have difficulty hearing their food, and also cannot swim freely from one bank to the other. [2]
Gallery Two Finless porpoises swimming underwater Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
| Finless porpoise preforming a tail stand Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
| Finless porpoise looking at the camera Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
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References - ^ http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/12/13/china.dolphin.ap/index.html
- ^ http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/839-Poyang-Lake-saving-the-finless-porpoise
This image shows the fluke of Sperm Whale as it begins a dive into the Gulf of Mexico. ...
External links Wikispecies has information related to: Neophocaena phocaeniodes - Saving the finless porpoise
- Convention on Migratory Species
- Finless Porpoise
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