The news finally percolated up to the western media from China

The baiji is Functionally extinct. Lipotes vexilifier is the first species of cetacean – whales, dolphins and porpoises – to disappear from our globe in modern times…the first large mammal to go extinct as a result of man’s destruction of their natural habitat and resources.

Appearing in the NY Times “World Briefing” section today, Dec 14, 2006, it originally began appearing early in the month in AP articles.

It’s bad enough for a species to blink out, let alone a higher mammal. The scary thing though is not the loss of a species but the cause of the loss. Death by pollution is not species specific.

For more information you can go to www.baiji.org