Ancient Chinese poems provided insights into the decline of the critically endangered Yangtze River's finless porpoise. A team of scientists analyzed over 700 poems dating back to 618 CE to trace how the habitat range of the porpoise changed over the past 1,

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

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.