Mentions of the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise in ancient Chinese poetry have revealed missing information about the habitat of the world’s only freshwater porpoise

Learn more about the Yangtze finless porpoise and how researchers used ancient poems to map out it's habitat decline.

Over the last 1,400 years, populations of the Yangtze finless porpoise have dramatically declined in China. But intensive surveys of its range only span the last couple of decades, leaving lots of gaps in scientists’ knowledge of the species.