Chuanguan news reporter Wang Daiqiang
Grassland rat infestation is a worldwide problem, and rats (including plateau pikas, plateau shrews, alpine rats, jade dragon velvet rats, Qinghai voles, Himalayan marmots, etc.) eat grass roots, destroy vegetation, and cause land degradation. "The grassland rat infestation in our province mainly occurs in the alpine meadow area in the north of northwest Sichuan." According to the relevant person in charge of the Provincial Grassland Work Station, after years of continuous efforts, the grassland rat infestation in our province has been better controlled, the number of rats in the pilot prevention and control area has decreased significantly, and the ecology and vegetation have been well restored. Recently, this reporter walked into the northwest sichuan plateau to see practice and find countermeasures.
The main rat species that cause prairie rat infestation
harm:
Rats burrowed mounds, causing land degradation
"Got it!" Guo Zhanfa called everyone to come and see the results of rat hunting. "The opening of the cave is smooth, surrounded by herbivorous marks, and there are mostly rats underneath." Guo Zhanfa and Pang Wuyan, a technician of the special cooperative, talked about their experience in catching rats while practicing demonstrations. Representatives of forestry and grassland departments, enterprises, and mass representatives in Ganzi Prefecture and Aba Prefecture conscientiously observed and studied.
Not long ago, a seminar on the prevention and control technology of grassland rat pests in the Yellow River Basin of Sichuan was held on the grassland of Zheer Dam in Ruoerge County, Aba Prefecture, and the Special Cooperative of Rat Breeding and Grass Farmers in Tiger Mountain, Linxia County, Gansu Province, conducted a demonstration of bow and arrow rat extermination technology, and Guo Zhanfa was the person in charge of the special cooperative.
Zhou Guo, vice president of the Sichuan Academy of Forestry Sciences, introduced that the weasel has two peak periods of activity a year, mating from March to May, and storing grain from September to October, so this is both the peak period of rat burrowing and mounding, and the peak period of rat pest control.
Harm of rodents to grasslands
The plateau pika and weasel in the alpine meadow area in the northern part of northwest Sichuan are frequently active, and if the number exceeds the local carrying capacity, it will form a grassland rat infestation. In the high-altitude grasslands such as Ruoerge, Red Plains, and Stone Canals, the reporter saw rats, rat holes, and mounds built around the cave entrance. "These mounds are built by the highland mole rats in the process of punching holes." According to the technical staff of the Provincial Grassland Work Station, the rats on the grassland feed on the grass, and the rhizomes, leaves and flowers will eat, destroying the moisture (referring to the water content in the soil of the crop tillage layer), affecting the emergence and growth of vegetation, and even causing desertification of the land. Rats can also spread a variety of diseases such as plague and echinococcosis to humans and livestock through fleas and contact.
Plateau pika breeds 1-1.5 litters per year, with an average of 3-8 per litter, and the next generation can participate in breeding the following year. Studies have shown that if the control effect of grassland rat infestation is not 90% in that year, it will return to the original level of harm after at most three years. The rat-infested area of the northwest Sichuan Plateau is an ecologically fragile area, and it is more difficult to repair once it is damaged by rat infestation.
govern:
From rat control to rat control, the concept technology has been upgraded
At the Gehr Dam, the reporter saw that from time to time in the sky, eagles hovered over, and some stayed on shelves similar to electric poles. "It's called the eagle fight, and the eagle is the natural enemy of rats." Technical staff of the Ruoerge County Forestry and Grassland Bureau said.
Eagles catching rats will generally stand on a high place to observe, and then swoop down. In open areas such as grassland flat dams, experts install an eagle rack every 500-1000 meters, 5 to 8 meters high, and eagles settle on the shelf to observe and even nest. In the rat pest control area in northwest Sichuan, foxes and weasels have also been attracted or released to catch rats, and the control range of a fox can reach 20,000 mu. This indirect method of rat control is both safe and environmentally friendly.
Rats infest caves
"In the 1950s and 1960s, it was mainly chemical drugs to kill rats, and the effect was obvious, but the side effects were also large. At the same time, the rat is also extinguished by its natural enemies and surrounding animals, and there are residues of chemicals, which are easy to cause secondary poisoning and environmental pollution. Zhou said that later changed the concept, from rat extermination to rat control, because rats are also a part of the ecological chain, exceeding the amount of environmental capacity to become a pest.
Previously, the former Ministry of Agriculture organized the implementation of the national grassland "rat-free demonstration area" construction project, the goal is "rats are harmless". Our province has chosen to build more than 8 million mu of demonstration areas in 8 places such as Yajiang and Daofu, focusing on prevention and control from the perspective of biodiversity conservation and ecosystem restoration.
In the past, rats ate chemical poisons are very uncomfortable, will immediately send a signal to their companions, and now, advocate the use of anticoagulant drugs, biological rodenticide, rats just eat it will not react immediately, will not cause secondary poisoning, safer for other animals; previously, with rat traps, rats will immediately warn their companions, and now, rats are installed at the mouth of the hole to let the rats automatically "hook". "These rat control methods have been promoted and applied in many areas in northwest Sichuan, and the effect is better." The relevant person in charge of the provincial grassland work station said.
plan:
Continue to increase investment and implement comprehensive prevention and control
On a grassland in Yalong Township, Seda County, Ganzi Prefecture, the reporter saw that the grass planted a few years ago had grown to knee-high, and the good ability to solidify soil and retain water made it impossible for rats to stand. On the other side of the unplanned ground, there are still rats moving.
"This shows that the restoration and management of the surrounding ecosystem is the fundamental strategy for the prevention and control of rat infestation." Zhou Said that nowadays, the grassland in northwest Sichuan has moved from a single method of rat eradication to comprehensive prevention and control, "Rat pest control is a systematic project and a continuous project, and it is necessary to continue to increase support." ”
Grassland rat insidious in Seda County, photo by Wang Daiqiang
At present, there are bottlenecks in the prevention and control of grassland rat pests, such as lack of funds, lack of standards and norms, lack of control systems, and lack of control agents. The information network for monitoring and reporting and prevention of grassland rat infestation is not perfect enough, and it is not possible to grasp the dynamics of rat infestation in time, and the monitoring accuracy also needs to be improved.
The survey found that in the case of a better vegetation environment, the density of rats is relatively small, and there is a certain synergistic mechanism of "grass retreating into the rats" between grass and rats. Yang Kong, professor of Southwest University for Nationalities, and other experts suggested that the overall planning of grassland rat pest control, ecological restoration and governance, and local development should be carried out, the publicity of rat pest control knowledge should be strengthened, the funding of relevant projects should be increased, the support for relevant scientific research projects should be strengthened, and the monitoring and early warning and prevention and control system should be established and improved as soon as possible, so as to promote the formation of a normalization mechanism of mass prevention and group governance and joint prevention and control. (The images in this article are provided by the interviewee in addition to the signature)