Talk:Chinese River Dolphin/Archive 1

Archive 1

Comments from 2003

There is some news about them here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5122074.stm

All 13 are wild? None in zoo or sanctuary? --Menchi 17:09 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

I think there is a single captive animal. I'll go check and update the article either way. --Dante Alighieri 20:09 15 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Apparently he died last year around this time. :-( --Menchi 22:33 16 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Good source, but all-Chinese (Simplified Chinese): 中国白鱀豚网 (Baiji Dolphin Net of China). It's got some GIGANTIC pictures I dare not download. --Menchi 22:33 16 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Good work on that research! I imagine researching Baiji is easier if you can read Chinese. :) I read somewhere else that the "nickname" for the Baiji translated to "Giant Panda of the Yangtze River". Is that more or less appropriate than the translation given in the article? --Dante Alighieri 23:47 16 Jul 2003 (UTC)

That translator got it all wrong, there's no mistake about that. "Giant Panda" have totally different and unmistakable Chinese characters from "Goddess". In all the pages I read, it's always nüshen (女神). Nü (女) always means "female", and shen (神) always means somebody superhuman, almost always a god. It's that straightforward: "female god". So "Great Panda" is an impossible translation, even as a mistranslation. I think the person is just comparing the rarity of Baiji to the Panda. However, that comparison of a rapid slippery swimmer and a slow furry climber is not used in China often, if at all. To me, I feel the comparison insults the Baiji somehow! Not sure how exactly, but yeah... not a really good comparison! :-) --Menchi 00:05 17 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Aha! After some more snooping around I found out the problem. There is a "Giant panda of the rivers", it's just not the Baiji, but the paddlefish. Apparently, someone just got the two animals mixed up. Check this out. [1] --Dante Alighieri 00:42 17 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Unbelievable fish! 30-year-old & 150 kilograms! How giant does it have to be?!

So I did a bit of Chinese-Yahooing and found the Chinese article, guess what, the Dolphin is called "Baiji" (White Ji) and this paddlefish is called "Baixun" (White Xun)! Chinese paddlefish is also a nationally protected animal. --Menchi 02:25 17 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Intentional typos

A popular Chinese "typo". The character jì (鱀) is a virtual impossibility to type or find due its outmost rarity in usage -- which besides Baijin dolphin is next to none. Most input programs don't include this character and basically all dictionaries don't have this character. So instead, people type 暨 (a rare surname), which is pronounced the same, and the physique differs only by the buttom half (魚 and 旦, the former being the radical, and the latter has 日 as its radical). An alternative replacement is 鳍 or 鰭, which is pronounced qí and is actually the name of another species of fish, more common. --Menchi 22:33 16 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Three Gorges Dam

I added that. Stargoat 15:30 17 Feb 2004 (UTC)

More foreign language than necessary? Comments requested

This article contains a lot of Chinese characters. I've noticed they don't display well on some computer/web browser combinations, and the result (with lots of square boxes) can look quite ugly. In cetacean articles we often give the local name if a species is endemic to a particular country or area. We should definitely do that here. However I was wondering if we should consider culling the other names (listed below). I would particularly like your input on this Menchi.

Erya (the biological encyclopedia) - 《爾雅》

Freshwater Dolphin Research Centre - 淡水海豚研究中心)

Wuhan Institute of Hydrobiology - 武汉水生生物研究所

Qiqi - 淇淇

Baiji Dolphin Aquarium - 白鱀豚水族馆

Eastern Lake - 东湖

Baiji Dolphin Sanctuary - 石首半自然白鱀豚保护区

Chongming Island - 崇明岛

Baiji Dolphin Preservation Foundation of Wuhan (武汉白鱀豚保护基金

Thanks. Pcb21| Pete 22:41, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

If the proper noun has an article of its own right, the Chinese name should be, and only be, on that (linked) article. And I've created a buncha new sub-stubbies for such possible proper nouns just now. The rest, like "Baiji Dolphin Aquarium" don't seem to be able to be standalone articles for now, as there simply isn't enough info about them online. So I've let those ones stay in the articles, until somebody can create individual articles for those. Then the Chinese names can be moved from here to there. See Wikipedia:Manual of Style (China-related articles)#Insertion of Chinese characters. --Menchi 23:59, 27 Nov 2004 (UTC)

What is happening?

What is happening to all of the dolphins? Are they being hunted or are they dying out? If these dolphins are being hunted it should be against the law if it's not already! Are all the dolphins in zoos or in the wild? I think they should be in the Zoo!!!!! — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.69.138.10 (talk • contribs)

Ahahahaha... Sam Spade 19:46, 30 May 2005 (UTC)

Stamps

Are these stamp picks fair use? Either way, they could be mentioned in the article. Sam Spade 19:46, 30 May 2005 (UTC)