Indian Journal of Animal Research

  • Chief EditorK.M.L. Pathak

  • Print ISSN 0367-6722

  • Online ISSN 0976-0555

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Indian Journal of Animal Research, volume 55 issue 12 (december 2021) : 1515-1520

Population Viability Analysis of Yangtze Finless Porpoise in the Yangtze Main Steam Suggesting that a Total Ban on Productive Fishing could be Decisive

Wu Bin, Xu Jingen, Wang Jianmin, Cao Lie, Wang Weiping, Zhang Song
1Fisheries Research Institute of Jiujiang City, 332000, Jiujiang, China.
Cite article:- Bin Wu, Jingen Xu, Jianmin Wang, Lie Cao, Weiping Wang, Song Zhang (2021). Population Viability Analysis of Yangtze Finless Porpoise in the Yangtze Main Steam Suggesting that a Total Ban on Productive Fishing could be Decisive. Indian Journal of Animal Research. 55(12): 1515-1520. doi: 10.18805/IJAR.B-1353.
Background: China is paying more attention to ecological systems within the Yangtze River has provided great opportunities to the conservation of the Yangtze finless porpoise (YFP). The rapid population decline of YFP in the main steam appears to have slowed, but the infrequent movement of porpoises represents a considerable threat to the long-term viability of this species in this region. We studied the population viability of YFP in the Yangtze main steam, based on published ecological and genetic information.
Methods: Vortex model was used to analyze the population viability of the YFP. The simulations were started from the year 2017 when the initial population size was 445 animals in baseline scenario. We examined the population viability for the species under demographic fluctuations and conservation scenarios.
Result: Baseline model showed the probability of extinction was 0.245; deterministic growth rate was -0.023; stochastic growth rate was -0.036. Sensitivity analysis showed differences in population trends between the baseline and each alternative scenario and the most sensitive parameters were the percentage of females breeding and mortality rates. Under different conservation scenarios, the population of the YFP in the main stream will increase by 11.0%-181.2% in 100 years.
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