The world’s first artificially bred Yangtze finless porpoise has both children aged 18 and over.

　　China news agency, Wuhan, July 5 (Reporter Ma Furong) The world’s first Yangtze finless porpoise "Taotao", which was successfully bred in an artificial environment, celebrated its 18th birthday on the 5th.

　　"According to the average life expectancy of 223 years old,’ Taotao’ has entered the transition stage from middle age to old age." Hao Yujiang, an associate researcher at the Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that "Taotao" is still very healthy at present, judging by indicators such as eating, behavior, community relations and blood physiology.

　　In recent years, "Taotao" has bred offspring many times, realizing "both children and children". Today, his son "Hanbao" is 3 years old and 1 month old, and his daughter "Xiao Jiu Jiu" just finished her first birthday. "The monitoring found that’ Taotao’ has a strong reproductive ability and is expected to be a’ father’ again this year or next year." Hao Yujiang said.

　　The Yangtze finless porpoise is a national first-class protected wild animal in China and a freshwater cetacean endemic to the Yangtze River. According to the results of scientific research in 2022, its population number is 1249. This is the first time that the population of the Yangtze finless porpoise has stopped falling and rebounded since the monitoring record was recorded.

　　In view of the Yangtze finless porpoise protection, since 1980s, China has explored and established three protection strategies: in-situ protection, ex situ protection and artificial breeding.

　　At present, China has established 8 dolphin nature reserves and 3 ex situ conservation groups in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, among which about 160 finless porpoises live in ex situ conservation areas. At the end of April this year, researchers released four finless porpoises living in the nature reserve in the wild for the first time. Now four finless porpoises have been integrated into the Yangtze River, which is of great significance to promote the natural population recovery of the Yangtze River finless porpoises.

　　In artificial breeding, Institute of Aquatic Sciences of Chinese Academy of Sciences has established a mature breeding technology system in artificial environment. At present, there are 11 Yangtze finless porpoises in Baiji Dolphin Museum of Institute of Aquatic Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, of which 4 are bred and survived in artificial environment.

　　"With the promotion of the Yangtze River protection work, the full implementation of the Yangtze finless porpoise protection strategy, and the continuous improvement of the national protection awareness, the Yangtze finless porpoise protection has entered a new stage." In Hao Yujiang’s view, continue to strengthen the restoration of the natural ecological environment of the Yangtze River and promote the recovery of natural populations; Improve the genetic diversity of ex-situ conservation population; Developing artificial insemination technology and optimizing the population structure and quantity of artificial breeding will be the direction of efforts for the protection of Yangtze finless porpoise in the future.