How can we be neighbors with wildlife

【Environmental Protection Pen Talk】

As the distance between the city and nature is getting closer, more and more wild animals have become the new "citizens" of the city.

How can we be neighbors with wildlife

Author: HE Zhen (Researcher II of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, Researcher of Institute of Environmental Law, Wuhan University)

When it comes to wild animals, people usually think of them as living in mountain forests or in the countryside. However, with the improvement of the ecological environment and the expansion of the urban scope in recent years, the area of urban green spaces and parks has been increasing, more and more small lakes in the city have been restored, and the distance between the city and nature has become closer, which has given many smaller wild animals such as squirrels, hedgehogs, weasels, badgers and other smaller wild animals the conditions to become "citizens".

As a result, more and more wild animals have entered the city to inhabit, and an interesting group has been formed - "urban wildlife". They thrive in the cracks of the human world and become new neighbors for city dwellers. During the day, they hide in the corners and crevices of the city; when night falls and the lights of the office building are extinguished, they begin to come out in groups of three or five to move and forage for food.

For the vast majority of wildlife, cities are not ideal places to live. Wild animals that inhabit cities are vulnerable to many human disturbances such as traffic accidents, noise, noise, and environmental pollution. Therefore, it is necessary to think about the question: how to get along with these animal neighbors? Should some changes be made to them?

Harmonious coexistence with nature is an important prerequisite for the sustainable development of human society, so it is necessary for us to know more about urban wildlife. In fact, wildlife has coexisted with cities for thousands of years, but urban wildlife and the "natural" side of the city seem to be unfamiliar to the public and urgently need to be understood. The author believes that we should carry out scientific popularization of urban wildlife for urban residents through the form of popular news, improve the public's awareness of wildlife protection, cultivate animal-friendly lifestyles, and strive to build our city into a warm city that treats wildlife neighbors with kindness. In 2020, the first domestic urban animal documentary "Our Animal Neighbors" was broadcast on the CCTV Documentary Channel, which is a good attempt in this regard.

As the masters of the city, we should create good living conditions for our wildlife neighbors as much as possible. Nowadays, with the development of urbanization, the living space of wild animals in cities is getting smaller and smaller: wild animals such as bats, ducks, frogs and other wild animals are becoming more and more difficult to find in cities; the light reflection of the glass curtain walls of high-rise buildings in cities makes birds crash to death due to misjudgments occur from time to time; it is not uncommon for motor vehicles to crush small animals to death... As an absolutely dominant species on the earth today, whether human beings can also give the wild animals around them a chance to survive is a yardstick for judging our ecological morality. In this regard, the practice of protecting the firefly survival base in Tokyo, Japan, is a good example. As we all know, fireflies are afraid of light, and the lights in Tokyo at night do not lose daylight, so the local area planted tall trees around the firefly base to filter the light, as far as possible to create the dark environment that the fireflies need, while the surrounding street lights to implement voice control, install special hoods, so that the light vertically hit the road without scattering around, the light pollution to the fireflies damage to the minimum.

Not only that, in order to leave a place for wild animals in the city, when we formulate urban planning, we should consider wild animals as a part of the city, try to take into account their survival needs, and reserve enough living space for them. For example, increase urban parks and green spaces as much as possible, connect them spatially with ecological corridors, optimize green landscape design schemes, change the situation that landscaping is too single, and improve urban landscape lighting to minimize the impact on wildlife.

As more and more wild animals enter urban habitats, their protection should also be standardized and normalized. On the one hand, routine testing and regular census of urban wildlife can be carried out to understand the dynamics of wild animals and population fluctuations, targeted wildlife protection and management policies, and necessary reminders and early warning information can be issued to minimize various accidental injuries; on the other hand, rescue is carried out for injured urban wildlife. It should be emphasized that this kind of rescue behavior should not be carried out by the citizens themselves, but should be implemented in a timely manner by contacting the relevant management departments or professional institutions when they find that they need to seek help.

In addition, city dwellers can love their wildlife neighbors, but not mistakenly. Even if you like wild animals, don't catch and feed them at will, let alone keep them as pets. Scientific research has repeatedly proved that there is a certain two-way risk in the close contact between humans and wild animals: wild animals may transmit unknown germs to humans, causing zoonotic diseases, especially epidemic infectious diseases, and increasing health risks; at the same time, this also violates the habits of wild animals, damages animal welfare, and threatens the survival safety of their wild populations; and may also inadvertently violate the relevant laws on wildlife protection and bear illegal responsibility. The most important thing to be kind to our wildlife neighbors is to learn how to get along with them.

Guangming Daily ( October 23, 2021 09 edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily