Photographer watches baby finless porpoise get its skin

By Shen Yuan, Yichang International Communication Studio

Yang He is a fan of Yichang finless porpoises. A volunteer member of a protection team, he has spent June babysitting.

In early June, Yang spotted a baby finless porpoise in the Yichang section of the Yangtze River. He knew that, on the eighth day after birth, the fish would finish developing its new skin. It occurred to him that, if he kept a close track, he could calculate the day it was born.

Every noon, with the sun blazing down, Yang went to the river with his camera to take photos of the newborn Yangtze finless porpoise.

In June, the water temperature in the Yangtze River is around 24 degrees Celsius. Yangtze finless porpoises like warm water, and the river is warm at noon. Sure enough, the baby Yangtze finless porpoise would sometimes appear in that section of the river and the faithful Yang was able to catch it on camera.

On June 17, Yang noticed that the baby Yangtze finless porpoise's skin had started to become mottled.

 

Photo by Yang He

Counting backwards, he and the other volunteers calculated that the baby finless porpoise must have been born on June 9, so they gave it the moniker “609”.

A National Class-I protected animal in China, Yangtze finless porpoises enjoy the same level of protection as the giant panda. Sometimes called smiling angels, they are an indicator of the health of the Yangtze River ecosystem.

A longtime admirer of the Yangtze finless porpoise, Yang He has taken over 100,000 photos of the endangered species in the past six years.

After a catastrophic decline, the population of finless porpoises in the Yangtze River has seen an uptick in the last five years – increasing from 1,012 to 1,249 – as protection measures have taken effect, according to an official survey released on Feb 28, 2023.