Netizens give rare finless porpoise a name

China's first artificially bred second generation finless porpoise was named Hanbao in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Monday, which was Yangtze Finless Porpoise Protection Day and International Day of Freshwater Porpoises.

Hanbao means little baby, or treasure, in Chinese. It also indicates that the porpoise was born in Wuhan.

The Wuhan city government, Wuhan Baiji Conservation Foundation, Jiangxi protection and rescue center of aquatic organisms jointly sought the name worldwide for the 28-month-old finless porpoise on Oct 13. A total of 1,211 name suggestions were received.

More than 42 percent of netizens chose the name Hanbao in a name solicitation campaign that was used to raise people's awareness of the need to protect the finless porpoises and promote scientific research and technological development at the breeding center for the endangered species, authorities said.

Hanbao was born on June 3, 2020.

Tao Tao, Hanbao's father, born on July 5, 2005, was the first finless porpoise in the world to have been successfully bred naturally in an artificial breeding environment.

The Yangtze finless porpoise is the only freshwater subspecies in the finless porpoise family. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as critically endangered. It is found only in parts of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Nearly half the species' population lives in Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province.