kanaloa

White Flag Dolphin

White Flag Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer)
Although a member of the once widely distributed family that includes the Amazon River Dolphin, or Bouto  the Chinese White Flag Dolphin today is restricted to the fresh-water Tung Ting Lake in Hunan Province, China, some 600i miles up the Yangtze River.
Fishermen seem reluctant to capture this dolphin, chiefly because of their belief that it is a descendant of a princess who flung herself into the lake. If one of the animals is accidentally killed, however, the Chinese will utilize it. They use the blubber to treat colds and other ailments, both externally and internally.
The White Flag Dolphin grows to 7 feet 6 inches and weighs about 300 pounds. It is gray or bluish gray on the upper parts and white on the underparts. The beak is curved upward and is fully a foot in length.
The animal feeds on fish which it finds in the mud on the bottom of the lake. But for its beak, peculiarly adapted for probing about in the mud, the creature might experience some difficulty in finding food, since it is blind or nearly so.

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