The Yangtze finless porpoise protection program of the largest scale in China kicked off in Hubei, Hunan and Jiangxi Province. 8 Yangtze finless porpoises will be moved from Poyang Lake to nature reserves in Hubei and Hunan Provinces.

At present, there are 450 Yangtze finless porpoises in Poyang Lake, accounting for about half of the total amount in China.

All of the 8 selected Yangtze finless porpoises will be transported to Tian’ezhou in Shishou, Hubei, and Hewangmiao at the junction of Jianli, Hubei and Huarong, Hunan by March 27. According to plan, a second batch of 4 Yangtze finless porpoises will be moved from Tian’ezhou to Hewangmiao in this autumn and winter. And another 4 will be transported from Poyang Lake to Tian’ezhou nature reserve in the winter of 2017.

The Tian’ezhou nature reserve was constructed by Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1992 to protect finless porpoise in Yangtze River. The number of Yangtze finless porpoise in Tian’ezhou has been increased to more than 40 from the original 5 in 2006. The finless porpoises from Poyang Lake will contribute to natural multiplication and genetic diversity of Yangtze finless porpoise. (Hubei. gov. cn)