PHNOM PENH, March 12 (Xinhua) -- Another newborn Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphin has been sighted, raising the number of newborn dolphin calves in Cambodia to five so far this year, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) said in a news release on Wednesday.
The new calf, about two-day old, was spotted on Tuesday at the Kampi dolphin pool in Kratie province's Chetr Borei district by a team of researchers from the Fisheries Administration and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).
"This newborn dolphin was seen swimming alongside a pod of three adult dolphins," the news release said. "It is the fifth dolphin calf born in 2025."
The Mekong River Irrawaddy dolphins have been listed since 2004 as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s Red List of Threatened Species.
In 2024, the Southeast Asian country recorded a total of nine newborn dolphin calves, with four deaths, according to the news release.
The MAFF estimates that to date, there are 109 Irrawaddy dolphins living along a 180-km main channel of the Mekong River in northeast Stung Treng and Kratie provinces. ■
