Chinese white dolphin

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Chinese white dolphin
Chinese white dolphin

Chinese white dolphin

Systematics
Order : Whales (cetacea)
Subordination : Toothed whales (Odontoceti)
Superfamily : Dolphin-like (Delphinoidea)
Family : Dolphins (Delphinidae)
Genre : Sousa
Type : Chinese white dolphin
Scientific name
Sousa chinensis
( Osbeck , 1765)

The Chinese white dolphin ( Sousa chinensis , Chinese  中華白海豚 , Pinyin Zhōnghuá bái hǎitún ) is a species of dolphin from the central, tropical Indo-Pacific .

Systematics

The species status of the Cameroon river dolphin ( Sousa teuszii ), whose range in the Atlantic is far from that of the other animals of the genus Sousa and which also differs in the number of vertebrae and teeth, is largely beyond doubt. The populations in the Indo-Pacific were traditionally considered as a single species ( Sousa chinensis ). Dale Rice, Rüdiger Wandrey, as well as Mendez and co-workers, however, differentiated a western species, the lead- colored dolphin ( Sousa plumbea ), which is different in color, has a distinct hump in the back and is distributed from South Africa to the East Indies. Sousa sahulensis , a species that was undescribed until 2014, lives on the north coast of Australia. In 2015, Sousa chinensis taiwanensis was described, a subspecies of the Chinese white dolphin found in the Formosa Strait, which differs from the nominate form ( S. c. Chinensis ) by a pattern with small, dark dots .

distribution

Chinese white dolphins are native to the tropical Indo-Pacific, their range extends from the east coast of the Indian subcontinent from the mouths of Krishna and Godavari to Southeast Asia, including the Indonesian area to southern China . They prefer coastal regions with a water depth of 20 meters or less and rarely go out to sea. However, these animals can occasionally be found in rivers, such as the Yangtze , but they rarely swim further inland and mainly stay in the estuary areas.

description

Chinese white dolphins reach a length of 2.4 to 2.8 meters and a weight of 170 to 260 kg. The color varies depending on the age and population, but is usually a light gray or white that can turn pink. The back hump, typical of the genus, on which the triangular fin sits in other Sousa species , is missing in the Chinese white dolphin. The head is characterized by a long snout and a slightly indented melon .

Way of life

The habitat of these dolphins are shallow, warm coastal waters and brackish water regions . They prefer sandbars or mangrove-lined coastlines, but can also be found in reef regions such as the Great Barrier Reef . They live in small groups of three to seven animals, but can also form larger groups. Sometimes they socialize with bottlenose dolphins , porpoises and other species of whales. Chinese white dolphins are considered slow swimmers and cautious animals that tend to move away from boats. The diet of these animals consists mainly of fish , but they also eat crustaceans .

threat

Sometimes these dolphins are hunted for their meat, but not on a large and commercial scale. Other threats to these animals are greater: fishing, because they get caught in fishing nets again and again, boat traffic, because the engine noise disturbs the underwater location of the animals or they are killed by ship propellers, the clearing of the mangrove forests on the coasts and the pollution of the Seas. Especially in densely populated regions such as southeastern China, these practices have led to a decline in population.

literature

  • Hadoram Shirihai, Brett Jarrett: Marine Mammals: All 129 Species Worldwide. Franckh-Kosmos-Verlags GmbH, 2008, ISBN 3-440-11277-2
  • Rüdiger Wandrey: The whales and seals of the world . Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH, 1997, ISBN 3-440-07047-6

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dale W. Rice (1998): Marine Mammals of the World. Systematics and Distribution , Society of Marine Mammalogy as Special Publication No. 4th
  2. ↑ Wandrey (1997), p. 76.
  3. ↑ a b Martin Mendez, Thomas J. Jefferson, Sergios-Orestis Kolokotronis, Michael Krützen, Guido J. Parra, Tim Collins, Giana Minton, Robert Baldwin, Per Berggren, Anna Särnblad, Omar A. Amir, Vic M. Peddemors, Leszek Karczmarski, Almeida Guissamulo, Brian Smith, Dipani Sutaria, George Amato, Howard C. Rosenbaum. Integrating multiple lines of evidence to better understand the evolutionary divergence of humpback dolphins along their entire distribution range: a new dolphin species in Australian waters? Molecular Ecology, 2013; DOI: 10.1111 / mec.12535
  4. ↑ Thomas A. Jefferson and Howard C. Rosenbaum: Taxonomic revision of the humpback dolphins (Sousa spp.), And description of a new species from Australia. Marine Mammal Science, Volume 30, Issue 4, pages 1494–1541, October 2014, DOI: 10.1111 / mms.12152
  5. ↑ John Y Wang, Shih Chu Yang and Samuel K Hung. 2015. Diagnosability and Description of A New Subspecies of Indo-Pacific Humpback Dolphin, Sousa chinensis (Osbeck, 1765), from the Taiwan Strait. Zoological Studies. 54:36. DOI: 10.1186 / s40555-015-0115-x
  6. ^ Shirihai & Jarrett (2008), 161.

Web links

Commons : Chinese White Dolphin  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files