Critically Endangered
Kaluga
Huso dauricus
The Kaluga (Sinosturio dauricus), also known as the Kaluga sturgeon, river beluga sturgeon, is a large predatory sturgeon found in the Amur River basin from Russia to China and near Hokkaido in Japan.
Appearance
Its body is an elongated fusiform body with five rows of bony scutes: a dorsal row with 10–16 elements (the first is largest), two lateral (32–46 scutes), and two ventral (8–12 scutes) between rows of small bony scutes grains and rarely more large plate. Lateral scutes are smaller than the dorsal and ventral scutes. The mouth takes up the entire lower surface of the snout. It is lateral, crescent-shaped, and extremely large.
The inner two barbels are more anterior than the outer ones, but they are similar in length. With a maximum size of at least 1,000 kg (2,205 lb) and 5.6 m (18 ft), the Kaluga is one of the biggest of the sturgeon family.
Range and habitat
Kalugas are one of the four species of sturgeons to exist in the Amur, that is one of the largest rivers in East Asia and for part of its length forms the border between China and Russia. There are two populations of Kaluga that exist in this river. One group of Kalugas spawn in the main stem of the river, while others spawn downstream and work their way to the middle of the river.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
Kaluga spends at least part of its life in salt water and returns to rivers to breed. The Kaluga Sturgeon spawns in lower reaches of the Amur River in strong-current habitats in the mainstream of the river on gravel or sandy-gravel bottom at water temperatures of 12–20 °C (54–68 °F) in depths of 2–3 m (7–10 ft).
Spawning peaks from the end of May to July. Adults spawn many times during their life cycle.
In crisis
The Kaluga (Sinosturio dauricus), also known as the Kaluga sturgeon, river beluga sturgeon, is a large predatory sturgeon found in the Amur River basin from Russia to China and near Hokkaido in Japan. The Kaluga has been hunted to near extinction for its valuable roe. Despite constant anti-poaching patrols, poachers still continue to catch the fish.
Ever since the 1900s, they have been poached at an alarming rate. This market cuts down on the Kaluga population and only hastens the process of their extinction.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Kaluga is Critically Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Kaluga, Wikidata item Q201177. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
