Chinese Sturgeon Museum

The Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute set up the museum in 1993. This institute aims to preserve the rare species of Chinese sturgeon that includes 27 species still exist in the world. Chinese sturgeon, also known as Green Sturgeon, is a kind of migration fish. Having lived on the earth for about 140 million years, the Chinese sturgeon is one of the oldest vertebrate lying between chondrichthian and bony fish. They are called the “living fossil”. Chinese sturgeon is the king of the freshwater fish for it is the largest and lives the longest. In China, Chinese sturgeons are mainly distributed over the trunk stream of 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 river estuary, will lay eggs in their residing place.

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 female one, can lay about 0.3 million to 1.3 million eggs once. Unfortunately, more than 90 percent of these eggs will become the meal of other fish, such as the bronze gudgeon and the yellow catfish. Therefore, the considerable reduction of the number of this specie makes it a highly prized variety of Chinese sturgeon.

During your trip to the Chinese Sturgeon Museum, you will have the chance to enjoy seeing not only Chinese sturgeon but also Russia sturgeon, American paddlefish, Amur sturgeon, Hybrid sturgeon etc. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to see the Chinese alligator, also called Yangtze alligator, in the Alligator Museum, as well as giant salamander and mullet.