How many baby Baijis are in a litter?
A Baiji (Lipotes vexillifer) usually gives birth to around 1 babies.
Each of those little ones spend around 319 days as a fetus before they are released into the wild. Upon birth, they weight 1 grams (0 lbs) and measure 91.3 cm (3′ 0″). They are a member of the Platanistidae family (genus: Lipotes). An adult Baiji grows up to a size of 1.7 meter (5′ 8″).
To have a reference: Humans obviously usually have a litter size of one ;). Their babies are in the womb of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks) and reach an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″). They weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual, and reach an average age of 75 years.
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.
Other animals of the family Platanistidae
Baiji is a member of the Platanistidae, as are these animals:
- South Asian river dolphin with 1 babies per pregnancy
- La Plata dolphin with 1 babies per pregnancy
- South Asian river dolphin becoming 28 years old
- Amazon river dolphin with 1 babies per pregnancy
Animals that share a litter size with Baiji
Those animals also give birth to 1 babies at once:
- Australian sea lion
- Red fruit bat
- Proserpine rock-wallaby
- Greater kudu
- Large-eared pied bat
- Maned rat
- Cape horseshoe bat
- Sloggett’s vlei rat
- Chacoan mara
- Silky anteater
Animals with the same weight as a Baiji
What other animals weight around 112.07 kg (247.07 lbs)?
- Common tsessebe usually reaching 133.5 kgs (294.32 lbs)
- Spectacled bear usually reaching 123.09 kgs (271.37 lbs)
- Ribbon seal usually reaching 90 kgs (198.42 lbs)
- Buru babirusa usually reaching 92.33 kgs (203.55 lbs)
- Western gorilla usually reaching 113.29 kgs (249.76 lbs)
- Pacific white-sided dolphin usually reaching 109.85 kgs (242.18 lbs)
- Barbary sheep usually reaching 93.7 kgs (206.57 lbs)
- Rough-toothed dolphin usually reaching 130 kgs (286.6 lbs)
- Schomburgk’s deer usually reaching 107.63 kgs (237.28 lbs)
- Dall’s porpoise usually reaching 106.03 kgs (233.76 lbs)
Animals with the same size as a Baiji
Also reaching around 1.7 meter (5′ 8″) in size do these animals:
- Grant’s gazelle gets as big as 1.53 meter (5′ 1″)
- Cougar gets as big as 1.4 meter (4′ 8″)
- Sloth bear gets as big as 1.6 meter (5′ 3″)
- Sambar deer gets as big as 2.04 meter (6′ 9″)
- Grant’s gazelle gets as big as 1.53 meter (5′ 1″)
- California sea lion gets as big as 2.02 meter (6′ 8″)
- Australian sea lion gets as big as 1.8 meter (5′ 11″)
- Brown fur seal gets as big as 1.91 meter (6′ 3″)
- Caspian seal gets as big as 1.41 meter (4′ 8″)
- Anoa gets as big as 1.73 meter (5′ 9″)