Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin [Hardcover]

Samuel Turvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2009

The tragic recognition of the extinction of the Yangtze River Dolphin or baiji in 2007 became a major news story and sent shockwaves around the world. It made a romantic story, for the baiji was a unique and beautiful creature that features in many Chinese legends and folk tales. The Goddess of the Yangtze, as it was known, was also the lone representative of an entire and ancient branch of the Tree of Life. But perhaps the greater tragedy is that its status as one of the world's most threatened mammals had been widely recognized, yet despite wide publicity virtually no international funds became available.

Samuel Turvey here tells the story of the plight of the Yangtze River Dolphin from his unique perspective as a conservation biologist deeply involved in the struggle to save the dolphin. This is both a celebration of a beautiful and remarkable animal that once graced one of China's greatest rivers, its natural history and its role as a cultural symbol; and also a personal, eyewitness account of the failures of policy and the struggle to get funds that led to its tragic demise. It is a true cautionary tale that we must learn from, for there are countless other threatened species that will suffer from the same human mistakes, and whose loss we shall not know until it is too late.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Turvey, a conservation biologist with the Zoological Society of London, was a researcher and lead author of the 2006 scientific report that found that the baiji-a pearly-white freshwater dolphin formerly endemic to China's Yangtze River-were probably extinct. This book chronicles the last-ditch efforts he and others took to save them. Industrialization in China has had incredible ecological costs; the Yangtze is not only a superhighway of ship traffic, but a receptacle for continuous discharges of raw sewage and toxic industrial effluents, and the baiji are just one of many species to suffer rapid declines (shad, sturgeon, paddlefish, aquatic birds). Among human inhabitants on the Yangtze basin, dysentery and intestinal cancers are already epidemic. Though grim, Turvey's work is also a primer on the science, politics and ethos of conservation, including case histories of successful recovery programs (e.g., the California Condor). Withering in his criticism of the Chinese bureaucracy, the rivalries between competing research institutes, the reluctance of outside scientists to become involved, and the frequently self-serving machinations of environmental activists, Turvey's book is a harsh cautionary tale that's honest and realistic about what's needed to save species facing extinction.
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From Booklist

Zoologist Turvey published a scientific paper in 2007 concluding that the Yangtze River dolphin has become extinct; this anguished chronicle expands on his last-ditch campaign to avert the mammal’s oblivion. As background to his involvement, Turvey recounts the creature’s role in Chinese folk stories, its scientific classification as Lipotes vexillifer in 1918, and estimates of its population. As Chinese zoologists resumed work after the Cultural Revolution, they noted a decline in numbers attributable to industrial degradation of the Yangtze River environment and initiated a captive breeding program. Turvey comments skeptically about the quality of the Chinese program, whose lack of success in the face of imminent extinction mobilized him to impassioned action. In biting terms, Turvey indicts the financial backer of his enterprise as an undependable publicity seeker, and scores, too, a perceived indifference to his grant applications from well-known international conservation groups. Surmounting obstacles, Turvey succeeds in launching his expedition on the Yangtze, a voyage of demoralizing discovery that the dolphins have vanished. Turvey’s work of warning should sting the community of endangered-species organizations. --Gilbert Taylor

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 1 edition (January 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199549478
• ISBN-13: 978-0199549474
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,824,921 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sad, sombre, frustrating truth, November 3, 2009

By 

*Snake*Charmer* (Kent, CT United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin (Paperback)

Knowing the outcome of this sad story before you read it makes it hard to bear at times, but it is necessary to understand what conservation entails and how easily it seems to get lead astray. This in a very informative book- not only for our sad loss of this particular species but for conservation of endangered species in general. It made me appreciate just how much it takes to persuade people and organizations to do what I always thought they were meant to do. For example large conservation organizations rejecting the Yangtze River Dolphin's applications for funding because it was too risky, in other words it was already critically endangered. This amazed me, I always assumed that critically endangered animals were conservation organization's top priority. The author, who was involved in the last attempts to save the dolphin and most recent baiji survey, is extremely honest and straight forward. This book outlines many details that are important to the survival of endangered animals and ultimately the survival of our planet. Read this book, not for a fun read, but to enlighten and educate yourself. You will be glad you did.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An indictment on the recent extinction of the Baiji, July 20, 2009

By 

I. C. Thomas "Ian T" (Foothills of Confusion, Vic. Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Witness to Extinction: How We Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin (Hardcover)

"The baiji is gone, and with it we have lost 20 million years of unique evolution, an entire mammal family, the top predator of the Yangzte ecosystem, the reincarnation of a drowned princess - and one the most enigmatic and beautiful creatures on earth."

Samuel Turvey's detailed account of the entire history of the Baiji, up to untimely extinction (probably in 2006), is a lively, well-written account - an engaging piece of nature and travel writing - but, more importantly, a good summation of all that can go wrong when proper and timely efforts are not made to conserve a critically endangered species. With the historical lack of understanding of conservation in China (and the pressure of development), the mistakes made there are tragic, if understandable.

However, Turvey makes clear that what was needed was repeated time and again by scientists and conservationists at workshops and conferences and in journal papers, official reports and the popular press, but this information was never put into practice. Turvey puts the reader right on the spot at each step of the way, revealing many of the personalities and the dying environment in which the Baiji lived. The relentless threats (including dams, long-line fishing and pollution), political difficulties between countries and even research centres, human-wildlife conflicts, lack of understanding (including mistreatment of captured specimens and failure to attempt a breeding programme) are recounted in Turvey's lively observational style.

Perhaps the image that remains longest is of Qi Qi, a Baiji resident at the Institute of Hydrobiology in Wuhan for 22 years - "footage of Qi Qi swimming round and round his concrete pool played to the soundtrack of a Chinese rendition of 'Que Sera Sera'. It was too unintentionally and horribly poignant for words."

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, January 18, 2012

By 

mkent - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Witness to Extinction : How we Failed to Save the Yangtze River Dolphin (Kindle Edition)

This is an extremely well written book that tells the sad story of a species becoming extinct. Very easy to read. Important work.