Exhibition showcases diverse ecosystem of Yangtze River
The skull of a Tibetan antelope is on display at an exhibition at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum.
A model of a Chinese paddlefish, a giant fish species which was pronounced extinct in 2019.
An exhibition showcasing the diverse ecosystem of the Yangtze River and aimed at raising public awareness about environmental protection opened at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum on Tuesday.
The Yangtze River, the world's third longest, runs for 6,418 kilometers from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the East China Sea with estuary in Shanghai. The Yangtze River Basin covers 1.8 million square kilometers, about one fifth of the country's total area, and is home to nearly 450 million people, about 35 percent of the country's total population.
The basin boasts some of the highest levels of biodiversity in the world as the river runs through mountains, forests and plains.
The exhibition displays 42 specimens of endangered animals living in the basin, including giant panda, golden monkey and Tibetan antelope, as well as 58 agricultural samples, such as ginkgo, cherry and wax berry.
Water samples collected from 11 places through which the Yangtze River runs are hung like beautiful decorations.
The exhibition displays 42 specimens of endangered animals living in the Yangtze River basin.
Among the highlights are models of two giant fish native to the river – one of the Chinese sturgeon, a critically endangered species, and the other of the Chinese paddlefish, an extinct species.
A Chinese sturgeon can grow to up to five meters long, weighing more than 500 kilograms. Before the Gezhou Dam was built about half a century ago in Yichang, Hubei Province, there were more than 10 spawning grounds of the Chinese sturgeon. Once it was completed, the dam subsequently blocked the channel for adult sturgeon migrating to spawning grounds upstream. From the 1980s to 2017, the number of Chinese sturgeons plunged from 1,495 to about 20.
Though compared with the Chinese paddlefish it is lucky. For the same reason, the number of Chinese paddlefish, which can grow up to seven meters long and 900 kilograms, has gradually slumped. The latest living Chinese paddlefish was spotted in 2003. And the species was pronounced extinct in 2019.
Besides, the exhibition displays 42 water samples collected from 11 places through which the Yangtze runs, including Shanghai's Chongming District, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, and Wuhan, capital of Hubei.
The exhibition will run through May 2022 on the B1 floor of the museum at 2000 Century Avenue in the Pudong New Area.
