The critically endangered Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, has been sighted in eastern China, Chinese media report.
Scientists had recently declared that the baiji was probably extinct.
An international team of researchers spent six weeks looking for the creature last year without a single sighting.
But earlier this month the baiji was spotted and filmed by a local man, and confirmed by Chinese biologists, says official Xinhua news agency.
“I never saw such a big thing in the water before so I filmed it,” Zeng Yujiang from Anhui Province told Xinhua.
“It was about 1,000 metres away and jumped out of the water several times.”
Wang Kexiong from the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said experts from the institute had confirmed the footage was of a baiji.
Wang Ding, also from the Institute of Hydrobiology and a leading authority on the species, said that the sighting could not be confirmed 100% because of the distance, but that it looked and acted like a baiji.
For the full story see the link from the BBC.
