On April 18, a public welfare event was held at the Shanghai Zoo to discourage the feeding of animals.
According to the staff of Shanghai Zoo, over the years, the phenomenon of tourists feeding animals has been repeatedly prohibited, and in the animal exhibition area, the primate exhibition area and Swan Lake are the hardest hit areas.
In 2001, a 6-year-old female deer died unnaturally in the park, and a 3.5 kg plastic bag was found in her stomach.
The red orangutan "Sentai", which has now reached its old age, has long been plagued by basic metabolic diseases such as hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and high blood sugar, because of the crazy feeding of tourists.
Primates and Swan Lake are the hardest hit areas
Primate keeper Zhang Jiawei said that primates are very smart, some see the tourists carrying bags or bags will stretch out their hands, chimpanzees see that tourists do not respond, but also clap their hands to remind, these begging behaviors of animals are learned from humans, initially in the wild, it is impossible for anyone to feed them, but once animals develop the habit of begging behavior, like the sweet food given to them by humans, they will not like to eat the food provided by the keepers, which may cause nutritional imbalance over time.
At the same time, eating food fed by humans will also affect health, such as gastroenteritis and diarrhea the next day, and may also suffer from chronic diseases such as diabetes, and death. In addition, some animals will fight for a small biscuit or potato chip given by tourists, and young or weak will be injured.
Xiao Zhang, another breeder in the bird area of the hard-hit area, also came to "complain," the water platform by the Swan Lake is to feed the hard-hit area, and there are always tourists who bring their own bread, biscuits and other food to attract the cygnets and geese and ducks to come and eat, but the cygnets and geese and ducks will eat these in the wild! They eat the leaves, buds, stems and seeds of plants, and sometimes eat animal foods such as mollusks and aquatic insects. Bread and biscuits are high-calorie carbohydrates, and birds eating too much can easily lead to indigestion. ”
Speaking of feeding, Xiao Geng, a herbivorous keeper, is also very bitter in his heart, "Herbivores do not refuse to feed food, even plastic bags may eat, which is very serious for compound gastrointestinal animals, because these debris basically cannot be excreted from the body, and over time may be intestinal obstruction." ”
Compared with some open exhibition areas, the amphibian and reptile museum is difficult to feed because most of them are fully enclosed glass cages, but it is also inevitable to "hit the trick".
According to the keepers, once in the tortoise open sunbathing field last year, a Sulcata tortoise accidentally ate the mineral water bottle wrapping paper thrown by tourists, the digestive system was damaged, and the keepers tried to stimulate the gastrointestinal peristalsis of the tortoise by feeding high-fiber pasture, fortunately, a few days later, it was excreted through defecation and eaten plastic paper and plastic fragments.
There are many tragedies caused by feeding, the most tragic of which is the tragic death of the giraffe "seashore" more than 20 years ago due to plastic consumption and unbearable abdominal pain.
In May 2015, three deer died after months of suffering. The autopsy found that 3 deer had intestinal obstruction, and the total weight of foreign bodies such as plastic bags and small towels in the stomach was 19 kg.
For example, after the 2017 National Day holiday, the chimpanzees "Lele", "Yueyue", several Arabian baboons, squirrel monkeys, macaques and black spider monkeys, as well as Malay bears and brown bears have been diluted because they have eaten too much food fed by tourists.
Li Yaping, a zoo dissuaded feeding volunteer, told reporters that in the work, they found that there are relatively few children who take the initiative to feed animals, because perhaps the school has received relevant education, but many adults have been fed, "Some young parents can be corrected in time after persuasion, but some elderly people do not listen to dissuasion, some laugh and giggle to continue feeding and taking pictures, and some will even get angry and think that what they have done is not wrong." ”
Some cages are more difficult to feed, and tourists try their best. (Infographic)
Animals are well fed and "feeding" is unnecessary
Tourists feed the animals, some out of amusement, to see the funny expressions or movements of the animals eating food, and some think that there is nothing good to eat in the zoo, they will starve. In fact, the zoo provides a lot of food for animals.
According to the park, although affected by the epidemic in 2020, the annual number of visitors to the zoo was reduced by more than 50% compared with the same period in 2019, and the income of the zoo was therefore greatly reduced, but following the principle of ensuring the supply of animal rations, animal feed expenditure not only did not decrease, but increased by 3% compared with previous years.
At the Animal Feed Distribution Center, staff feeds nearly 6,000 animals (only) in the park every day according to the feed list. Usually, the breeder will issue a "feed list" for the animal situation of the post, encounter seasonal changes, such as increasing the number of meals in autumn and winter, during animal breeding, whether it is pregnancy, pregnancy, or breastfeeding, or in the special situations such as the treatment period of illness and recovery, the "feed list" will be adjusted accordingly to ensure that the diet structure of the animal is balanced.
In the zoo's feed distribution center, the variety of ingredients is comparable to a small farmer's market, not only rich in vegetables and fruits, green champs, plum fish, multi-spring fish, sardines, goldfish, small striped fish, sea shrimp, beef, veal, mutton, rabbit, pork, chilled chicken, guinea pigs, suckling rats and other meat dishes are also quite abundant, some animal concentrates are also very exquisite, different proportions of coarse grains such as barley, wheat, corn, soybean meal, bran and other raw materials are mixed and processed into pellets specially supplied to herbivores and birds. There are also proportional mixtures that are processed into nest heads; various forages such as alfalfa grass, pasture grass, sheep grass, etc. satisfy the appetite of herbivores in different seasons, and the staff will also grow rye grass and sudan grass in the zoo to supplement fresh green feed for herbivores.
Both the Gorilla Pavilion and the Panda Pavilion have transparent kitchens that show visitors animal feed, such as the 9 raw materials needed to make a giant panda's nest. In order to ensure that the animals living in the group can eat food, the keepers will also scatter the food in several places to avoid animals from being injured in fights for food.
Gorilla kitchen, plenty of food.
The park has actively introduced various measures to deal with the phenomenon of "indiscriminate feeding"
In the face of repeated prohibitions on feeding phenomenon, for many years, Shanghai Zoo has been sparing no effort to carry out "no feeding" dissuasion and publicity, in addition to breeders, security and other staff to strengthen the inspection and discourage feeding, college student volunteers, elderly volunteers and other social volunteer forces have also joined the ranks of publicizing civilized garden tours; "no feeding" logos and science popularization exhibition boards throughout the park; every year will also make publicity leaflets introducing the harm of feeding, timely distribution. This afternoon, a special campaign was held to prohibit feeding.
The park said that from the technical point of view, it is also possible to limit feeding by modifying the cage, such as building an iron cage, erecting a barrier belt, and building more closed exhibition areas, however, this practice is not conducive to the healthy growth of animals, widening the distance between humans and animals, contrary to the original intention of the zoo, "In the past, closed iron cages, glass cages and other activities have small space, poor ventilation and breathability, which is not conducive to the healthy growth of animals, and most of the animal cages in recent years have been transformed into cages that simulate the ecological environment of their original distribution. Some are open cages. Therefore, go back to the past and change the cages to a closed method to eliminate unrealistic and unscientific feeding. ”
The park said that with the general improvement of the quality of citizens and tourists, the feeding phenomenon has decreased compared with previous years, but it still exists, so there is still a long way to go to truly eliminate feeding, and I hope that tourists will actively cooperate, for the health of animals, in order to set up the concept and example of protecting animals in the minds of children, adults should actively set an example, and everyone should work together.
Over the years, there have been incidents of injury to animals caused by tourist feeding
● In 2001, the orangutan "Sentai" became diabetic because he ate too much food fed by tourists.
● In 2001, three precious white deer accidentally ate foreign bodies and died. One of the plastic bags in the stomach weighed 2.5 kg.
In 2001, a 6-year-old female deer died unnaturally, and a 3.5-kilogram plastic bag was found in her stomach.
● In 2005, a black and white colobus monkey ate a kebab thrown by tourists, and a bamboo skewer poked through its mouth to cause inflammation.
● In 2011, two morning exercisers picked maran heads in a herbivorous area, causing a zebra to be frightened and killed by hitting a barbed wire fence in panic.
Source | 021 video, thoughtful APP reporter Yu Wenyan
Source: Morning News