12 August is the 11th World Elephant Day. In order to further enhance the public's awareness of wildlife conservation, Chimelong Wildlife World invites parent-child families to the park to create opportunities to observe elephants up close. Big and small children incarnated as "elephant experience officers", visited the daily cleaning, physical examination, hoof repair and other work of elephants, learned about the history and achievements of elephant conservation in Chimelong, and jointly called on people to pay attention to the survival status and habitat protection of elephant populations.
Interesting science popularization has aroused the attention of elephant conservation
In recent years, climate change has led to dramatic changes in the living environment and rampant poaching for the purpose of retrieving ivory, leaving elephants facing a huge population crisis. The data shows that the world's elephant species have gone from more than 400 species 26 million years ago to only two genera and three species left today: Asian elephants, African savannah elephants, and African forest elephants. Among them, wild Asian elephants in China are currently only left in the Xishuangbanna area of Yunnan To find their footprints.
Elephant hoofing
In order to establish the awareness of elephant protection and realize edutainment, on World Elephant Day, a theme activity with elephants as the protagonist "Elephant Elephant" was launched at the Chimelong Wildlife World Elephant Performance Field, where children visited the daily cleaning of elephants, elephant physical examinations, elephant hoof repairs and other work under the leadership of animal conservation experts, and let the children get close to the elephants through close observation and experience. At the scene, children competed with elephants to compete. I saw more than a dozen children and parents standing on the weighing platform, only more than 600 kilograms, only one-fifth of the weight of a young Asian elephant.
Children and parents stand on the weighing platform with elephant proportions
Subsequently, in the Asian Elephant Garden, the science popularizer gave the children a unique science popularization lesson. In the classroom, the teacher explained in detail the difference between Asian elephants and African elephants for the children, and the children learned about elephants through multi-dimensional content such as sounds and pictures.
It is reported that every year, Elephant Day Chimelong will hold relevant activities to call on the majority of people to pay attention to the protection of elephants and habitat protection.
Guarding the "giants of the land", Chimelong is committed to the conservation of rare animals
At present, the world's existing Asian elephants and African elephants have been recognized as endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and for many years, Chimelong has been committed to the protection and breeding of rare animals, with the hard work of scientific research teams and conservationists, from the initial introduction of 14 to 29 today.
Chimelong is also the largest breeding base for Asian elephant populations in China. On weekdays, in order to make the Asian elephants live more comfortable and natural, the nursery staff also laid a thick "mattress" on the floor of the "elephant house". In order to provide a more favorable environment for asian elephants who love beauty in the summer, Chimelong also specially prepared a yellow mud water "bath" to let them moisturize the skin at any time. It can be seen that there are many facilities for elephants to play in the park, in addition to the yellow mud pit that can keep the elephant's skin moist, there are sand baths and canoe bridges, so that they can enjoy the wild fun of nature.
Written by: Nandu reporter Xu Xiaolei Photo: Chen Zhigang