Chinese Paddlefish
From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.
| Chinese Paddlefish Conservation status: Critical | ||||||||||||||
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| Psephurus gladius (Martens, 1862) |
The Chinese Paddlefish (Simplified Chinese: 白鲟; Traditional Chinese: 白鱘; pinyin: báixún), also known as Chinese Swordfish, is among the largest freshwater fish, and one of two extant paddlefish species. It is also called "elephant fish" (象魚; xiàngyú) because its snout resembles an elephant trunk. Recorded in Classical Chinese sometimes as wěi-fish (鮪). More poetically, it is sometimes referred to as the "Giant Panda of the Rivers", not because of any physical resemblance to a panda, but because of its rarity and protected status.
The Chinese Paddlefish is the People's Republic of China's first-level protected animal. Its belly is white and back and head grey. They live mostly in the middle or lower part of the Yangtze (Chang Jiang), occasionally in large lakes. They feed on other fishes, with a small amount of crabs and crayfish. They are sexually mature at seven or eight, with a body length of 2 metre and 25 kilogram.
It is said that the zoologist Bǐng Zhì (秉志) recorded around the 1950s that some fishermen caught a paddlefish of 7-metre, although the authenticity of the story is unconfirmed.
Due to overfishing, the Chinese Paddlefish is endangered now, and officially recognized by the People's Republic in 1983 to prevent fishing of the paddlefish's young or adult. Paddlefish are also threatened by dams, which divide the population into isolated groups.
They were once given the scientific names of Polyodon gladius and Polyodon angustifolium.
External link
- 150-kilogram female caught and released (http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/InNews/riverpanda2003.htm): Yibin, China
