Across China: East China police help finless porpoise baby find mom

It is not just missing children that the police return to their parents, but sometimes they have to do the same for a baby finless porpoise.

On Wednesday, police and fishery workers in east China's Jiangxi province helped just such a baby to find its mom.

At about 10 a.m., a worker patrolling the Poyang Lake spotted a small finless porpoise inching forward in front of their ship.

"We thought it must be lost," said Zhan Dingli with Duchang county fishery bureau, and dispatched a dinghy to approach the animal and take a picture that was sent back to base.

"We were told that it was a finless porpoise, born only about two weeks before," Zhan said. "It was too young to survive alone without its mom."

Measures were immediately taken to help.

Police and the ship's crew began the search for an adult that could be the mother of the lost infant. The dinghy remained with the baby and flags warned passing vessels to keep clear.

After one and a half hours, someone on the ship spotted two adult porpoises, and those on the dinghy splashed with their hands to lead the baby back to its mom.

"Small as it was, the porpoise appeared to be very clever," Zhan said. "It changed direction and headed for the adults."

Five minutes later, they were back together again.

There had been worries that neither of the adults were the missing animal's mom, but ten minutes later, all three reappeared, playing together.

Only around 1,000 finless porpoises, a dolphin-like freshwater mammal with an iconic "grin" on its face, live in the Yangtze River and two lakes linked to the busy waterway. The population in Poyang lake is about 450.

Zhan was relieved by the happy ending. "When we left, we wished the baby health and safety," he said. Endi