Chinese Sturgeon Museum is a part of the Chinese Sturgeon Garden which is located in Xiaoxita Town, in Yichang of Hubei Province. The museum was set up in 1993 by the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute. This institute aims to preserve the rare species of Chinese sturgeon that includes 27 species of them that still exist in the world.
Chinese sturgeon, also known as Green Sturgeon, is a kind of migration fish, having lived on the earth for 140 million years. It is one of the oldest vertebrate lying between chondrichthian and bony fish. In this case, Chinese sturgeon are called the 'living fossil'. As the king of the freshwater fish, it is the largest and lives the longest. An adult sturgeon can be more than 4 meters (about 13 feet) long and weigh in excess of 500 kilograms (about 1,102 pound). A mature Chinese sturgeon, over 14 years old for the female sturgeon, can lay about 0.3 million to 1.3 million eggs at one time; unfortunately, more than 90% of these eggs will become the dinner of other fish, such as the bronze gudgeon and the yellow cartfish. Therefore, the considerable reduction of the number of this specie makes it a highly prized variety of Chinese sturgeon.
In China, the sturgeon is mainly distributed over the trunk stream of the Yangtze River. Every year, from summer to autumn, a school of Chinese sturgeon, migrating to the upper reaches of Yangtze River from the shallow sea area out of the Yangtze River estuary, will lay eggs in their hometown. However, since the building of the famous Gezhouba Water Conservancy Project in the 1980's, their migration route has been obstructed by the dam. As a result, they have lost their spawning area for reproducing offspring which has also put the survival of Chinese sturgeon at risk. In 1982 the Chinese government set up a major institution to protect the precious rare species, and to research the reproduction of the rare Chinese sturgeon in order to preserve them. From 1984, 4.44 million young Chinese sturgeon have been put into the Yangtze River. Since 1988 in order to provide the species with even greater protection, the Chinese sturgeon has been upgraded and has received a state-protected animal classification.
Chinese Sturgeon Museum, Yichang Chinese Sturgeon Museum, Yichang
During your trip to the Chinese Sturgeon Museum, you will have the opportunity to enjoy seeing not only Chinese sturgeon but also Russia sturgeon, American Paddlefish, Amur sturgeon, Hybrid sturgeon and many more. What is more, you will also have the chance to see the Chinese alligator, also called Yangtze alligator, in the Alligator Museum, along with giant salamander and mullet.
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