How big does a Baiji get? Here is an overview over the average adult age:
A grown Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) reaches an average size of 1.7 meter (5′ 8″).
When born, they have an average size of 0 cm (0′ 0″). A full-grown exemplary reaches roughly 112.07 kg (247.07 lbs). A Baiji has 1 babies at once. The Baiji (genus: Lipotes) is a member of the family Platanistidae.
As a reference: Humans reach an average body size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) while carrying 62 kg (137 lbs). A human woman is pregnant for 280 days (40 weeks) and on average become 75 years old.
The baiji (Chinese: 白鱀豚; pinyin: báijìtún , Lipotes vexillifer, Lipotes meaning “left behind”, vexillifer “flag bearer”) is a possibly extinct species of freshwater dolphin, and is thought to be the first dolphin species driven to extinction due to the impact of humans. Since Baiji means ‘white fin’ in Chinese, it means ‘white-finned dolphin’. In China, the species is also called the Chinese river dolphin, Yangtze river dolphin, Yangtze dolphin and whitefin dolphin. Nicknamed the “Goddess of the Yangtze” (simplified Chinese: 长江女神; traditional Chinese: 長江女神; pinyin: Cháng Jiāng nǚshén), it was regarded as the goddess of protection by local fishermen and boatmen. It is not to be confused with the Chinese white dolphin or the finless porpoise.The baiji population declined drastically in decades as China industrialized and made heavy use of the river for fishing, transportation, and hydroelectricity. It has been credibly claimed, after surveys in the Yangtze River during the 1980s, that baiji could be the first dolphin species in history that humans have driven to extinction. A Conservation Action Plan for Cetaceans of the Yangtze River was approved by the Chinese Government in 2001. Efforts were made to conserve the species, but a late 2006 expedition failed to find any baiji in the river. Organizers declared the baiji functionally extinct. The baiji represents the first documented global extinction of a “megafaunal” vertebrate for over 50 years since the demise of the Japanese sea lion and the Caribbean monk seal in the 1950s. It also signified the disappearance of an entire mammal family of river dolphins (Lipotidae). The baiji’s extinction would be the first recorded extinction of a well-studied cetacean species (it is unclear if some previously extinct varieties were species or subspecies) to be directly attributable to human influence.Swiss economist and CEO of the baiji.org Foundation August Pfluger funded an expedition in which an international team, taken in part from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Fisheries Research Agency in Japan, searched for six weeks for signs of the dolphin. The search took place almost a decade after the last exploration in 1997, which turned up only 13 of the cetaceans.In August 2007, a Chinese man reportedly videotaped a large white animal swimming in the Yangtze. Although the animal was tentatively identified as a baiji, the presence of only one or a few animals, particularly of advanced age, is not enough to save a functionally extinct species from true extinction. The last known living baiji was Qiqi (淇淇), which died in 2002. The World Wildlife Fund is calling for the preservation of any possible baiji habitat, in case the species is located and can be revived.A related creature from the Neogene period is Parapontoporia.
Animals of the same family as a Baiji
We found other animals of the Platanistidae family:
- South Asian river dolphin with an average maximal age of 28 years
- South Asian river dolphin with 1 babies per litter
- Amazon river dolphin with a size of 2.12 meter (7′ 0″)
- La Plata dolphin with 1 babies per litter
Animals with the same size as a Baiji
Not that size really matters, but it makes things comparable. So here are a couple of animals that are as big as Baiji:
- Anoa with a size of 1.58 meter (5′ 3″)
- Impala with a size of 1.42 meter (4′ 8″)
- Sable antelope with a size of 2.04 meter (6′ 9″)
- Cheetah with a size of 1.48 meter (4′ 11″)
- Scimitar oryx with a size of 1.91 meter (6′ 4″)
- South American fur seal with a size of 1.65 meter (5′ 6″)
- Subantarctic fur seal with a size of 1.63 meter (5′ 4″)
- Javan rusa with a size of 1.63 meter (5′ 5″)
- Sloth bear with a size of 1.6 meter (5′ 3″)
- Anoa with a size of 1.73 meter (5′ 9″)
Animals with the same litter size as a Baiji
Here is a list of animals that have the same number of babies per litter (1) as a Baiji:
- Taiwan vole
- Eastern lesser bamboo lemur
- South Andean deer
- Sooty mustached bat
- Pagai Island macaque
- Aye-aye
- Link rat
- Woosnam’s brush-furred rat
- Mule deer
- Black and rufous elephant shrew
Animals with the same weight as a Baiji
As a comparison, here are some other animals that weight as much as the Lipotes vexillifer:
- Naemorhedus sumatraensis with a weight of 110 kilos (242.51 lbs)
- Western gorilla with a weight of 113.29 kilos (249.76 lbs)
- Topi with a weight of 127.19 kilos (280.41 lbs)
- American black bear with a weight of 110.75 kilos (244.16 lbs)
- Harp seal with a weight of 132.25 kilos (291.56 lbs)
- Hourglass dolphin with a weight of 110 kilos (242.51 lbs)
- Spectacled bear with a weight of 123.09 kilos (271.37 lbs)
- Amazon river dolphin with a weight of 121.22 kilos (267.24 lbs)
- Schomburgk’s deer with a weight of 106 kilos (233.69 lbs)
- Sumatran serow with a weight of 110.94 kilos (244.58 lbs)