Talk:Chinese paddlefish

A news item involving Chinese paddlefish was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 22 July 2022.

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Photo[edit]

This photo and its accompanying article is clearly not of a paddlefish; I guess it's a Chinese Sturgeon that's been misreported or lost in translation. 82.18.231.171 (talk) 01:28, 24 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Emphasize extinction?[edit]

Should the extinction note be placed further up in the text? Just a question. I don't own this article. https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/chinese-paddlefish-in-yangtze-river-declared-extinct Ron (talk) 14:01, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

The paper that that article reference is mentioned throughout the article- this paper https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048969719362382. Also, that article, as with most others right now, has misinterpreted the paper. The paper did not declare the paddlefish extinct, as it doesn't have that ability to do so. Instead, it suggested that the IUCN update the status to "extinct" which is already mentioned in the Wiki article. I don't know if this is agreed upon in science yet, but I do know that the IUCN hasn't updated yet- they do that at planned times throughout the year. Therefore, it has yet to be declared extinct. Megraptor (talk) 17:05, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I endorse the opinion of Megraptor. Currently IUCN doesn't reevaluate it as extinct; and also, many news agencies mislead the information. The IUCN Office in China posted a statement regarding this on Sina Weibo, and it stated that IUCN hasn't declared the extinction of the Chinese Paddlefish officially. A comprehensive evaluation of all the Acipenser in Eurasia is in progress; and the result of the evaluation, as well as an updated version of the IUCN Red List, will be released in June this year. And here is the statement (In Chinese): https://weibo.com/1988277344/InL6bwd1K --Alneth (talk) 18:31, 4 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, it is officially extinct now, sadly.§ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:F0:722:CD49:AD4D:E626:A588:2CA0 (talk) 16:16, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

No, it has not. To this day, it has not been declared as extinct, just possibly. Unfortunately, the language of the article acts as if it has been listed as extinct, and uses past tense. This should probably be changed to reflect that it has yet to be listed as extinct. Megraptor (talk) 00:46, 15 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Image in infobox[edit]

Given that the taxon is almost certainly extinct and no images will ever be taken of it again, would it be worthwhile to add an actual picture of a living animal to the infobox under fair use, rather than the rather basic drawing we have right now? Hemiauchenia (talk) 07:19, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

It's not possible to justify a fair use image when we have three photos of museum specimens on Commons which would be suitable for use in the infobox. BabelStone (talk) 10:16, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

I'm suprised that these images weren't already in the article to be honest, so I've added them now. The quality of the taxidermy of these specimens is particularly good, I've seen some other taxidermied specimens online which look much worse. I'd agree that they are good substitutes for photos of the living animal, given that none of the images of the living animal I've seen surpass the quality of the stuffed specimens Hemiauchenia (talk) 19:03, 7 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 9 January 2020[edit]

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The Chinese Paddlefish is officially declared extinct.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/01/chinese-paddlefish-one-of-largest-fish-extinct/

https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/asia/chinese-paddlefish-extinct-study-intl-hnk-scli/index.html 139.173.54.12 (talk) 18:02, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not done: I understand that this is in good faith. However, this is mistaken news reporting, and why I asked the article to be semi protected. Many other users have made this change and have since been reverted. The IUCN posted on their offical Weibo account in Chinese that this not offical yet, and will probably be changed in June 2020 at the annual conference. The article makes abundantly clear that it is probably extinct, but the IUCN needs to make it offical to change it, otherwise we just engage in circular reporting. Hemiauchenia (talk) 18:12, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Authorship[edit]

The conservation section says that Prof. Wei Qiwei reported the extinction. But Qiwei isn't the first author, in fact they're the last author. Hui Zhang is listed as the primary author, thus wouldn't it be more accurate to say "Zhang and colleagues" or "Zhang et al."? Captain Eek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 19:44, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

@CaptainEek: I think there is a lot of confusion. My understanding is that the conclusions of the new paper recommended to the IUCN that the paddlefish be declared extinct, and then the news media ran with it simplifying it to be declared extinct. According to the news artices Qiwei spoke directly to the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV saying "There have been no successful cases of breeding the Chinese paddlefish in captivity," and "Hence, when it died out in the wild, the species has become completely extinct." So he's personally stating it to the news media, rather than it being a statement of the authors of the paper. Hemiauchenia (talk) 20:10, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Hemiauchenia, I've just finished reading the 2019 paper, and their research decisively concludes the fish is extinct. Of course the official update to IUCN has yet to happen, which is why its just reportedly extinct. But I guess Qiwei's speaking to the media is why theres a hubbub. Captain Eek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!}⚓ 20:50, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

CaptainEek It has been an interesting news cycle, as news stories from different outlets have tricked out over the course of the past week, meaning the attention on this article has been pretty sustained, I have removed the dubious from Qiwei as it's clear what the source is now. I've also changed the lead to reflect that the Dams were the primary cause of the extinction with overfishing as a secondary cause. Hemiauchenia (talk) 21:38, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

As far as I know, Wei Qiwei also authored the paper upon which the current IUCN assessment, and thus its CR status, is based. 95.125.197.84 (talk) 16:23, 10 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah I noticed that too. It's worth noting that the Baiji is also currently considered critically endangered by the IUCN, despite none of them being found since 2002. And there was enormous media attention about its extinction almost 15 years ago now. Hemiauchenia (talk) 17:03, 10 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected edit request on 9 January 2020[edit]

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

change to extinct Jrmhwatkins (talk) 22:18, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

See the above comments – Thjarkur (talk) 23:17, 9 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Acceptance[edit]

Its 100% dead, we can't say reportedly, we have lost another animal--Bubblesorg (talk) 04:07, 11 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Again Bubblesorg, please read the other comments on the talk page. IUCN has put out a statement saying that the official IUCN status will not be updated until at least June. It's again worth noting that also the Baiji is also still considered IUCN critically endangered, despite the massive hubub about it being extinct back in 2006. Hemiauchenia (talk) 04:53, 11 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, my response was too quick--Bubblesorg (talk) 05:08, 11 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Potential Good article review[edit]

I was considering to put this article up for good article review, as both the American paddlefish is a featured article and the Paddlefish article is GA, so having all three at GA or above would make a nice featured topic. I wanted to submit this here to Gauge interest in doing a GA review, or prehaps before that a B class article review? Hemiauchenia (talk) 07:37, 11 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Writing Workshop[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 1 September 2022 and 21 December 2022. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Sh7039 (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Neruall4 (talk) 03:12, 24 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Hi @Sh7039: and @Neruall4:. I am the person responsible for writing the article in its current state: [1]. I don't mind other people editing the article, but is it okay if you let me know what particular changes you have in mind on the talkpage first before you make them? If you aren't comfortable with having your edits scrutinized like this, you should probably pick a different article. Hemiauchenia (talk) 18:26, 23 October 2022 (UTC)[reply]