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"Another incident of wild sika deer being bitten by a stray dog and then nibbling." On February 6, a wild sika deer was bitten by a stray dog and was badly injured, but it did not survive despite the best efforts of volunteers and pet hospital doctors to treat it.
Upstream News (e-mail: [email protected]) reporter learned that since the end of December 2021, about 10 sika deer have been killed in the mouth of stray dogs, and dog infestation has brought great threats to the survival of local sika deer. With spring and breeding season approaching, more and more newborn fawns will have to face the threat from stray dogs.
▲Dalian wild sika deer was attacked and injured by stray dogs. Image credits/video screenshots of respondents
Wild pregnant sika deer were besieged and killed by stray dogs
According to Wang Dapeng, head of the Dalian WildLand Nature Conservation Center, at about 20:00 on the evening of February 6, he received a call from the police and the street: Near Bayi Street in Dalian, a sika deer was bitten by a stray dog, and the injury was serious and urgently needed help.
Volunteers rushed to the scene. According to nearby residents, at about 19:00 that night, the fawn was attacked by stray dogs in the mountain forest. Since the sika deer is good at climbing steep slopes, and the dogs do not have the corresponding ability, in order to avoid the stray dogs constantly chasing bites, the sika deer will go to the edge of the cliff rock and accidentally fall from the 10-meter-high mountain.
The sika deer fell near the patron community, and several stray dogs still chased after the sika deer and continued to chase and bite the sika deer. Residents hurriedly beckoned neighbors to drive the stray dogs away, and the sika deer was already dying.
Wang Dapeng introduced that the injured was a pregnant doe, and there was a large pool of blood on the ground of the scene of the incident. Volunteers quickly sent the fawn to a designated pet hospital for treatment.
"After examination, the sika deer had multiple bites on its body, the abdominal cavity was torn and penetrated, and a large amount of blood was lost." The volunteer said. Although the doctors operated on the sika deer and struggled to rescue it after several hours, the sika deer was still unable to save it due to serious injuries. The next day, Wang Dapeng and volunteers buried the dead sika deer.
▲Dalian wild sika deer was attacked and injured by stray dogs, and volunteers began to eat after being sent to the hospital for treatment. Image credits/video screenshots of respondents
More than 10 sika deer were killed in two months
Volunteers who are still in grief told reporters that in recent years, sika deer have been bitten and eaten to death by stray dogs, which is not an isolated case in the local area.
Recently, on the mountain near Dalian Lotus Mountain, a number of stray dogs have begun to besiege the sika deer in groups, and there have been many incidents of biting and biting the sika deer. Some people have seen sika deer being chased by several stray dogs, and they have fallen into the mountains or the sea in a panic, which has affected the breeding of wild sika deer in Dalian.
The upstream news reporter interviewed and learned that the location of the incident was relatively scattered, and most of them occurred in the area of the Corniche Road and near Lotus Mountain. This is because the sika deer will run around the mountains when they are frightened when they encounter danger, "the deer we saved are basically frightened." Wang Dapeng said.
According to Wang Dapeng statistics, since the end of December 2021, there have been about 14 local incidents of sika deer being bitten by stray dogs. The herds of stray dogs even "dug dry and dug out" the doe's belly and internal organs, and the scene was very bloody and miserable. The only thing volunteers can do is to drive these stray dogs and bring the injured sika deer back for treatment, but the chance of successful rescue is low.
▲ Wild sika deer were attacked by stray dogs, died of their injuries, and volunteers buried them nearby. Image credits/video screenshots of respondents
According to reports, on December 28 and 29, 2021, two consecutive days of sika deer being chased and bitten by stray dogs occurred, which occurred near No. 2 Yingchun Road, Nanshidao Street, Dalian, and Baiyun Yanshui Park. Injured on December 29 was an about one-year-old male deer, which was chased by four stray dogs and forced to run to the lake of Baiyun Yanshui Park when nearby residents found it. When the residents found out, they drove the stray dogs away and immediately called the police, which saved the fawn at the first time. Volunteers arrived and took him to a pet hospital for treatment. Rescue continued until the early hours of the morning, and fortunately, after the operation ended in the early morning of December 30, the fawn was rescued and woken up. On the afternoon of December 30, the rescued fawns began to feed.
The deer rescued on December 28 were not so lucky, and they could not be rescued due to serious injuries.
According to the volunteers, there are currently only 3 sika deer that have been successfully rescued and released in the wild. Whether the rescued sika deer continues to survive in the wild, they cannot track.
Wang Dapeng believes that the probability of survival of the sika deer released is relatively small. On the one hand, the sika deer is weaker after injury and is more vulnerable to dog attacks in the wild. On the other hand, according to the habits of sika deer, after injury, they will find a hidden corner, lie in a bush or ravine, and then die naturally. Since the volunteers did not have tracking and monitoring equipment, the follow-up situation was not known. Upstream news reporters inquired about public reports and found that in the past few winters, local sika deer in Dalian have been bitten and eaten to death by stray dogs, but this year is very intensive. Wang Dapeng introduced that part of the reason is that stray dogs develop a habit once they eat venison, and stray dogs will become more and more skilled in hunting methods for sika deer.
Stray dogs attack sika deer, why do they mostly occur in winter? According to reports, in the case of hot or extremely cold weather, stray dogs are extremely irritable and more aggressive. In the winter, some food is frozen, stray dogs lack food, and foraging in the wild can be difficult. Stray dogs in such a state have many adverse aspects of the impact on the human environment, and the public should try not to get close to stray dogs when they see them.
▲Dalian wild sika deer was attacked and injured by stray dogs, and volunteers sent to the hospital for treatment. Image credits/video screenshots of respondents
Dalian's "city elves" are facing a racial multiplication crisis
Sika deer is a small and medium-sized deer, with a body length of 125 to 145 cm and a weight of 70 to 100 kg, which is a national first-class protected animal and is listed in the endangered list of the Red Book of Endangered Animals of China.
In recent years, in Dalian, wild sika deer have not only set up camps and multiplied in the mountains of the city, but also frequently and mischievously visit downtown areas, which some people call "city spirits". It is reported that this group of sika deer that appears in Dalian is a northeast subspecies, which has been widely distributed in the three eastern provinces before, and there have been many fossil excavations of sika deer in Dalian, the earliest of which was 4 million years ago. Until the 1920s, due to habitat destruction and hunting, the distribution was islanded, and the number decreased sharply, and no wild sika deer was found in the Dalian area from 1980 to 2000.
After 2000, sika deer appeared in the area of Dalian Binhai Road. Statistics show that in the spring of 2004, Dalian city for the first time to census the urban sika deer, a total of 37 in different areas of the city found a total of 37, and at the end of 2016 census has found nearly 70. In 2020, there are about 200 according to incomplete statistics.
There are different theories about the origin of these sika deer, and according to relevant investigations, it is suspected that they escaped from the deer farm. Now it has been more than 20 years, and may have multiplied to five or six generations, becoming a wild deer herd, often haunting places such as Binhai Road, Lotus Mountain, Baiyun Mountain, and around the cross-sea bridge.
According to the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, Dalian is the only city in China with a wild sika deer population. The sika deer has become the "ecological business card" of Dalian, a coastal city.
In Dalian's Binhai Road and other sections of wildlife activities, Dalian traffic police deliberately added 6 signs to remind passing vehicles to pay attention to lookout, control speed, do not honk the horn to disturb animals, and call on citizens and tourists to live in harmony with wild animals such as sika deer.
Wang Dapeng believes that the sika deer has an important ecological role in the plants of the East Asian mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests, and several cities in China have also tried artificial rewilding to restore the local wild sika deer population, and Dalian spontaneously formed a population, which is gratifying and congratulatory.
▲ Pet hospital doctors treat injured sika deer. Image credit/courtesy of the interviewee
However, due to the fact that the coastal road area where sika deer are distributed is too close to the city and is also a place where stray dogs are rampant, the infestation of dogs has become more and more serious, which has brought great threats to the survival of sika deer.
Wang Dapeng introduced that the general adult stag has antlers and has a certain degree of defense. In the past month or so, one or two of the dead and injured sika deer have been stags, and the rest are all young deer and doe that are about a year old, of which six or seven are pregnant doves.
At the same time, according to the feedback from volunteers at the observation point, the local doe has recently decreased significantly. With spring and breeding season approaching, more and more newborn fawns will have to face the threat from stray dogs.
▲ Dalian wild sika deer was attacked by stray dogs and fell into the mountains and rocks, and volunteers were rescuing them. Image credits/video screenshots of respondents
Stray dogs and cats are still a problem in urban management
To this end, the volunteers issued an appeal for all parties to work hard to shelter and manage stray dogs. At the same time, some voices believe that the threat faced by sika deer is actually a dog disease, not an existential threat in other natural worlds, and efforts should be made to control stray dogs. This view has also attracted the attention of dog lovers.
Wang Dapeng said: "We recognize respect for animal life, but at the same time we must correctly understand that the formation of stray dogs and cats is a kind of human error into nature, and it should not survive in the wild." "Dogs are nearly 10,000 years ago human hybrid domestication as a hunting tool, not a natural product, the formation of independent genetic breeds, do not have natural ecological functions, no natural enemies, no temperate hunting, after losing human control, is hunting in the wild."
In the past month, more than ten sika deer have been hunted by stray dogs, and the population loss is 10%-20%, and this process is not to eliminate the weak and leave the strong.
A paper titled "Analysis and Reflection on the Current Situation of Stray Dogs and Cats and Conflicts of Interest in Populations" pointed out that stray dogs and cats are different from wild animals in the usual sense. Wild animals refer to animals that live in wild mountains, grasslands, plateaus, swamps, wetlands and other areas, far from densely populated areas, and their survival and reproduction are basically not affected by humans. For stray dogs and cats, their living environment is closely related to human society, and their food, shelter and reproduction are closely related to the human living environment, and human liking and dislike of stray dogs and cats directly affects the survival of stray dogs and cats.
"Stray animals are products of human society, and companion animals should live in a human environment, not in the wild, otherwise the damage to nature is not insignificant." Wang Dapeng said.
In order to solve the problem of stray dogs injuring deer and even causing various social problems, in mid-January this year, volunteers drafted relevant reports and submitted them to the Dalian Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources, the Dalian Municipal Forest Public Security Bureau and other units. The volunteers also received a positive response from the above-mentioned departments, and contacted the security brigade and the dog office through the above-mentioned units.
As the Dalian dog management department, the work of the dog office is currently in a saturated state, and it cannot be sent out for adoption, and there is no other way to deal with it. Social dog farms and stray dogs abandoned after individual breeding are still increasing.
Upstream news reporters combed public reports and found that similar to the situation in Dalian, the pressure of stray dog containment in many cities is large, and some are on the verge of saturation.
"The reason why stray dogs are gradually becoming a problem in many cities is first of all related to factors such as random abandonment by dog owners, lost pets, and disorderly breeding of stray dog groups." A Pet Protection Society volunteer said. The establishment of a stray dog shelter means a lot of capital investment, and the venue, personnel, management, kennel, dog food, etc. all need to be supported by costs. "Even with financial support, the dogs in the shelter are not adopted, and the continuous breeding of stray dogs in the city is still not a long-term solution."
According to the existing system, the management of stray dogs and cats is still a difficult point. "We call on everyone to fully understand the harm caused by dog infestations and the survival status of wild sika deer, which requires all sectors of society to work together to solve and jointly seek a way to solve it." Wang Dapeng said.
Upstream journalist Zhang Ying