So Long and Thanks for Nothing, Assholes.

 

The Baiji is dead. Long live the Baiji.

Actually, this is kind of old news, but newly published (in Biology Letters.) Last year’s intensive survey of the Yangtze river dolphin’s entire historical habitat failed to reveal a single living individual. Even if some cryptos evaded the survey… things don’t look good.

Ominously/tragically, the website of the baiji conservation website is down, probably from an overload of just-too-late interest.

Echoing the original paper, BBC claims “If confirmed, it would be the first extinction of a large vertebrate for over 50 years.“

Well, if by “large” you mean > fruit-bat sized, and you reject extinctions of distinct ’sub’ species. We’ve seen the obverse claim skewered before.

Here’s the most tragical bit: the map for Baiji recovery now applicable only in alternate multiverses.

some things to say about Douglas Adams, river dolphin monophyly etc. but not now.