Chinese river dolphin. [File Photo: Guancha.cn]

Animal-protection volunteers claim they have spotted a Baiji dolphin, or Chinese river dolphin in east China's Anhui province. The dolphin was declared 'functionally extinct' due to the small size of the population unable to reproduce.

According to Anhui Television, a nongovernmental expedition of 20 animal-protection volunteers used fishing boats in search of the Baiji dolphin in the Yangtze River for the last couple of weeks. The volunteers reported they saw an animal which looked like the Baiji dolphin in the Yangtze River in Wuhu of Anhui province on Tuesday morning. A grey-white animal with a long snout leapt from the water three times only 200 to 300 meters away from the boat. The volunteers failed to photograph but reported the findings to the China Academy of Sciences, and experts have joined in the search for the dolphin.

The Baiji dolphin, nicknamed the "Goddess of the Yangtze" is formerly found only in the Yangtze River in China. It is one of the four known river dolphins in the world. The dolphin first migrated from the Pacific Ocean to the Yangtze River around 20 million years ago. The Baiji dolphin was declared functionally extinct in 2007, understood that the population was too small for species' reproduction.