3,000 Chinese sturgeons released into Yangtze River

A Chinese sturgeon to be released to the Yangtze River swims in water at Yanzhi Park in Yichang, central China's Hubei Province, April 12, 2015. A total of 3,000 Chinese sturgeons, a top-level protected species in China which lived at the same time as dinosaurs, were released by the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute (CSRI) under the China Three Gorges Corporation on Sunday here. Chinese sturgeons, nicknamed "aquatic pandas", are listed as a wild creature under state protection. Researchers with CSRI succeeded in artificially inseminating and spawning of cultured Chinese sturgeons in 2009. Since then fish have been released into the river every year to save the species from extinction. (Xinhua/Xiao Yijiu)