Wild animals frequently "out of place" to share the city with wild animals Are we ready?

Beijing, 5 July (CCTV) -- Since the beginning of this year, a Siberian tiger "Wandashan No. 1" has appeared in the Jixi area of Heilongjiang; the elephant herd has traveled thousands of miles from north to south and is currently moving in a southwestern direction; a wild raccoon population in Shanghai's Songjiang District has spread to many local communities; in the past few days, a number of raccoons have appeared in a small area in the DongxiHu District of Wuhan, Hubei Province, and there is speculation that they have spread from the suburbs to the city.

In human settlements, especially in cities, wild animals frequently appear, pushing the topic of "man and nature" to a climax again. An ecological researcher observed the "urbanization" of wild raccoons in Shanghai and concluded that such changes in raccoons are the result of a combination of two factors: the improvement of the urban environment and the active adaptation of wild animals. When wild animals become "neighbors" in cities, how should ordinary people and city managers face them correctly?

The latest news of wild animals entering the city occurred in the county town of Shiqu, Ganzi, Sichuan, and surveillance video showed that at more than 4 a.m. on July 3, a large brown bear ran in the county town, and the traffic police brigade compound and residential quarters left its traces. By 8 a.m., the brown bear left the county seat.

In Wuhan, Hubei Province, these two days the small canine raccoon has become the focus. A neighborhood in the East and West Lakes districts saw the emergence of a "family of raccoons", where the mother settled down with her newborn cubs. In an interview with the media, a resident said that he had already seen the group of small animals on June 27, "On June 27, I found a group of unknown small animals, and I remembered that I saw four or five, two large, about two small, and one very small, it felt like it had just grown hair." This location often has some wild dogs, kittens to make their home here, in our community, especially on cloudy and rainy days, earthworms are often found, I learned online that raccoons also eat earthworms. ”

Raccoons not only "broke into" Wuhan, but also many in Shanghai and Nanjing. Ecological researcher Wang Putin introduced in his popular science article that the research team of Fudan University tried to track wild raccoons in Shanghai through infrared trigger cameras, GPS tracking and positioning collars, and infrared thermal imaging survey instruments; after nearly two years of visits, monitoring and research, researchers found that at least more than 150 Shanghai communities have the distribution of raccoons, and the number of raccoons in Shanghai alone is likely to be more than 5,000. Over the past decade, the species has increased rapidly in various regions of Shanghai.

There are many more wildlife that "master" urban life skills. Ding Jingjing, an associate researcher at the Jiangsu Academy of Forestry, said in an interview with the Voice of China that in 2011, the Jiangsu Academy of Forestry began to carry out biodiversity monitoring and protection work throughout the province. "We have been monitoring and protecting biodiversity since 2011, when it mainly included the monitoring of key species and the monitoring of biodiversity in areas of important areas. The white-crowned long-tailed pheasant, a national first-class key protected bird in Jiangsu Province, was monitored, including elk, which is also a national first-class (protected animal) species, including some monitoring of wild boar populations in Jiangsu. Since 2016, we have successively deployed infrared cameras in Jiangsu Province, more than 280 infrared cameras, of which Nanjing has been widely deployed with infrared cameras since 2019, as of now we have deployed 142 infrared cameras together with Nanjing Forestry Station, and by last month (June 2021) 55 species (wild animals) have been monitored. She said.

In a report a few days ago, by October 2020, the 142 infrared cameras in Nanjing had captured only 47 kinds of wildlife figures. Ding Jingjing said: "Around us, there are indeed many wild animals living with us. Take Nanjing, such as raccoons, weasels, and many birds that are not afraid of people, of course, Nanjing also has wild boars that everyone pays more attention to. We did not do special monitoring of wild animals in the city, but we also paid more attention to the wild animals in and around the city, and intuitively felt that there were more wild animals around us. ”

From May to June this year, wild boars appeared in many colleges and universities in Nanjing. There is also a "escape secret" sent to teachers and students by a university in Nanjing on the Internet, prompting everyone: wild boars are afraid of humans from a distance, so don't get too close to them.

In Wang Fang's view, the "urbanization" of the wild raccoon in Shanghai is the result of the combination of two factors: the improvement of the urban environment and the active adaptation of wild animals.

Ding Jingjing also believes that we have observed more and more wild animals, more and more wild animals visiting cities and "taking root" in cities, for many reasons: "There are reasons for the expansion of urban space, and it is also related to the increase in everyone's attention to the surrounding wild animals, and there are also reasons for the continuous improvement of monitoring methods." At the same time, our overall ecological environment has also become better in recent years, and many cities have paid more attention to the construction of parks and green spaces in the construction process, including the construction of some ecological corridors, and the corresponding wild animals have more habitats. Like some animals, it may also find some new ways to get along with people, for example, some animals, they may hide their nests in the sewers around the building, and may choose the evening or night when people are less active to come out to forage, which is also their adaptation to this urbanization. ”

In addition, the country's emphasis on ecological construction and the strengthening of wildlife protection have also made some natural populations grow faster, and they may need more living space, so they will naturally spread outward.

A new question and challenge ensues: How exactly do humans in cities be good neighbors with wildlife?

Yan Yan, an engineer at the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Education Center and the project director of Nanjing Crescent Lake Nature School, has tried to continuously carry out nature science popularization and nature education through this socialized public nature education platform. "Like from 2019 to 2020, for a year, we observed 39 species of birds in Crescent Lake," she said. Of course, this is only a small range of observation, our starting point is to hope that in the process of education, when facing the public, we have a scientific expression, through such a natural education can let everyone pay attention to the changes in the surrounding ecological environment, and then establish their own green lifestyle. ”

Ding Jingjing suggested that from an individual point of view, once wild animals mistakenly enter the city, there will be a more tense state, everyone should pay attention to maintaining a distance, do not disturb, do not provoke, do not drive, do not watch; for city managers, strengthen the monitoring of these new "urbanization residents", leave them living space, and protect biodiversity, it is particularly important: "For city managers, we must reserve the prevention knowledge of wild animals and carry out some publicity for the surrounding people. Minimize unnecessary losses and injuries; for wildlife management, wildlife monitoring should be strengthened, as it is through monitoring that the population status of urban wildlife can be better understood. Whether you are a species conservation in the later stage, or a population regulation, all these management actions must be based on scientific monitoring and effective arguments; for urban planners, we recommend that when planning a nature reserve or urban park planning, consider the construction of wildlife habitats to leave a certain living space for wild animals. ”