Under the vast grasslands, between the light and shadow of the forest, in the ice and snow, in the high sky, every ordinary daily life we spend may be a miracle that happens continuously.
March 3 is the eighth World Wildlife Day. Human beings live on the earth, with animals as neighbors, with plants as friends, and nature as their home.
Nature is friendly and every life deserves to be treated equally, and on the occasion of World Wildlife Day, let's take a look at the only animals and plants that are left.
◆ Only one white giraffe remains
In early 2020, the skeletons of two white giraffes were found in a nature reserve in Ijara, northeastern Kenya, Africa. At this time, it has only been 3 years since they first met humans.
In 2017, a villager in northeastern Kenya saw these two special giraffes while grazing. They are snow-white and are regarded by local villagers as "nature conservation gods". After being discovered, videos of two white giraffes were uploaded to the video website. In the video, the little white giraffe and its mother wander among the bushes, chewing leaves at random, and the white tail flicking leisurely behind the white ass. The film's filmmakers said they spent about 20 minutes with the white giraffes and took precious close-up photos and videos of them. "My mother paced back and forth a few meters in front of us, signaling the little giraffe to hide behind the bushes."
A Kenyan foundation's 2019 Wildlife Conservation Status Report mentioned that the original two white giraffes have grown into a family of three, and a small giraffe was born in 2019. You know, the gestation period of giraffes is 13 to 15 months.
Indeed, this "nature protector" could not protect himself at all. According to the Ishakbini Wildlife Conservation Society, which found their remains, they were likely killed by poachers in northeastern Kenya as early as late 2019, and the two giraffes killed were a mother and son. The smaller white giraffe was only 7 months old.
In addition, a white giraffe has also been found in Tanzania, Kenya's neighbor, and we have no way of knowing its whereabouts. News of it never appeared in the media again, perhaps it had fallen under the gun of hunters, or perhaps it was still wandering on the prairie. Hopefully the latter.
After the death of the white giraffe mother and son, the Kenyan Ishakbini Wildlife Conservation Society claimed that the only one left in the Kenyan white giraffe "family of three" was the last known white giraffe in the world. It is said that it was another son of a female giraffe who was hunted and was known as the "loneliest animal". The Conservation Society has finally installed GPS for it. The GPS tracking device, mounted on its left skin bone corner, gives hourly feedback on its position, allowing rangers to monitor its movements on a daily basis and "protect this unique animal from poachers."
In the video comments section of the white giraffes, someone said "they're beautiful, but it would be better if no one knew about them". In fact, human greed has long been exposed. In 2016, giraffes, mammals with the same number of cervical vertebrae (7 sections) as humans, have changed from "non-endangered species" to "vulnerable species". According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), there were 150,000 giraffes worldwide in 1985, and only 68,000 are left, and the number is still decreasing.
In the past 30 years, about 40% of the giraffe population has disappeared. On the one hand, they often become the food of lions, wild dogs, and crocodiles, and more than half of the cubs die before they are 6 months old. On the other hand, they cannot escape the fate of being hunted by humans in adulthood and eventually become part of human cuisine or luxury.
◆ Only one wild Putuo goose ear tree remains
Putuo goose ear maple is a deciduous tree of the genus Thrush in the family Birchaceae, which is endemic to Chinese species. It is only distributed on Putuoshan Island in Zhejiang Province, and was discovered by botanist Professor Zhong Guanguan in 1930 and named by forester Professor Zheng Wanjun in 1932. In the late 1950s, due to large-scale deforestation and reclamation, the number of this tree species decreased dramatically, and only a native mother tree survived on the west side of Huiji Temple on Foding Mountain, which is more than 200 years old. Because the tree species has not been found throughout the country, as well as in Myanmar, the source of the legendary tree species, this Putuo goose-eared tree is therefore known as the "only son of the earth". The IUCN classifies Putuo goose-eared fir as "critically endangered". In 1999, Putuo goose-eared maple was listed as a national first-level key protected wild plant.
This ancient putuo goose-eared tree grows on the slope of the hill at an altitude of 216 meters, the height of the tree is about 14 meters, the main trunk chest diameter is 63.7 cm, the side stem is 32.4 cm, the crown width is 12 meters, the coverage area is 72 square meters, and the age of the tree is about 200 years. The male and female trees are connected to the root and grow side by side from the surface.
Yu Ciying, a professor-level senior engineer of Zhoushan Academy of Forestry, has been engaged in the research of Putuo goose ear for many years. According to her, the reason why this tree species remained in the late 1950s was both due to human reasons and the very weak natural reproductive ability of the tree species, as well as the influence of the climate. The results of many years of research have shown that large-scale human deforestation, resulting in a sharp decline in the size of this tree species group and drastic changes in wild habitats, is the direct cause of the endangerment.
In 2000, the Zhoushan Institute of Forestry (the predecessor of the Zhoushan Academy of Forestry) undertook the project of "Research on Conservation Technology of Key Protected Wild Plants". Through observation and research, it was found that Putuo Thrush is a hermaphrodite, the inflorescence is a unique spike-like inflorescence of wind-borne plants, the male flowers bloom in early to mid-April, the female flowers bloom in late April, the grantable period meets only 6 days, and the male inflorescence is evenly distributed in the canopy, middle and lower parts, and the female inflorescence is mainly in the upper part of the canopy, so the flowering characteristics of pollination are greatly affected.
In addition, the Zhoushan Islands have a subtropical monsoon climate, and Putuo Thrush often encounters rain and winds and the alkaline dust that comes with it during the flowering period, which seriously affects the pollination of male flowers and female flowers, resulting in low seed yield and poor quality.
While cracking the endangerment mechanism, researchers have also been overcoming the breeding difficulties of Putuo goose ear maple.
Artificial breeding of Putuo goose ear maple can be described as difficult, according to Yu Ciying, Putuo goose ear seed not only has a small yield, the fullness is only 2%-4%, that is, only 2-4 of the 100 seeds are full, and after the full seed is sown and raised, the probability of emergence is only 20%.
From the 1980s to 2000, Hangzhou Botanical Garden, Zhejiang Forestry College, Zhejiang Academy of Forestry, Zhoushan Institute of Forestry, Putuoshan Forest farm and other units adopted various methods to successfully breed more than 300 offspring seedlings, which initially alleviated the endangered state of Putuo gerbilberry. Today, there are more than 10,000 artificially bred Seedlings of the Putuo Goose-eared Zizi generation.
Species conservation is a long and rigorous process. Sexual reproduction barriers are still not effectively cracked, and the population cannot be self-renewed and maintained, and it is impossible to completely lift the endangered state of Putuo goose ear.
◆ Tenmu Temu, known as the "only child of the earth"
According to current reports, there is only one tree left in China, in addition to putuo goose ear maple, there is also Tianmu ironwood that grows in The West Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang. This tree is about 310 years old, with a height of 14 meters, a bust of 249 cm, and an average crown width of 10 meters, and is known as the "only child of the earth".
Celestial Ironwood is a deciduous tree of the genus Ironwood in the family Birch. Professor Qin Renchang, a famous botanist in China, worked in Nanjing during the period of the Natural History Museum of Southeast University and Nanjing Academia Sinica, and collected a large number of specimens from all over Zhejiang between 1921 and 1927, of which the ironwood specimen collected from the West Tianmu Mountain was used as a model specimen, which was identified as a new species by Professor Chen Huanyong, a famous botanist in China, and named in the 8th issue of arnold Arboretum magazine in the United States in 1927. Its scientific name is Ostrya rehderiana Chun, which is a seed addition to the personal name rehderiana in honor of the American botanist Alfred Render, because the type specimen was collected from Tianmu Mountain, and the Chinese named "Tianmu Ironwood".
Tianmu Ironwood, also known as Small-leaf Tamarind Elm, Rui's Ironwood, and Zhejiang West Ironwood, is a deciduous tree of the genus Ironwood in the birch family. The Temulethi family consists of 4 members. They are small deciduous trees distributed in the western, central and northern parts of china.
"The scarcity of plants, the weak ability to reproduce, and the serious damage to the environment are the main reasons why it is endangered." Zhou Xiaoli, deputy secretary-general of the Zhejiang Wildlife Conservation Association, said, "In order for this 'only child' to reproduce, it is necessary to cultivate more seedlings, so ex situ conservation is crucial." ”
One day in the first half of 1963, Song Yongzeng, director of the Tianmu Mountain Nature Reserve Management Office, saw a large tree at the foot of West Tianmu Mountain that had never been seen before, and asked experts to identify it as "Tianmu Ironwood". Through self-study and consulting experts, he learned that Tianmu Ironwood is a hermaphroditic plant, self-pollinating infertility, the seed fruiting rate is very low, the germination rate is only one percent, and it is impossible to germinate seedlings, which is difficult to renew naturally. Song Yongzeng thought that even if there was only one in ten thousand hopes, he would turn this possibility into reality. He collected tree seeds for experiments and searched under the trees for seedlings to cultivate, but neither succeeded. He experimented with cuttings with branches, but without success. So he wanted to use the "pressed strip" experiment instead, bending the young branches of the ironwood to the ground and covering them with fertilizer to fix them firmly. But this tree is tens of meters high, and the young branches cannot be pressed to the ground.
In the protection work, the Zhejiang Provincial Forest Resources Monitoring Center and other units have conducted a survey on the living conditions of "Tianmu Ironwood". The dozen or so winged fruits randomly selected by the staff under the tree were the fruits of the "Tianmu Ironwood", and after peeling them, they found that only one or two were full, and the others were dry or empty. Zhou Xiaoli believes that there are many reasons for this phenomenon, the most important of which is "inbreeding". "On Earth, it only grows in The Tianmu Mountains of Lin'an West, which shows that it has a choice for its source land, such as soil, climate, humidity and ecological environment. Therefore, when we cultivate seedlings and slowly change the phenomenon of inbreeding, we have to find a place similar to The West Tianmu Mountain and let it grow slowly. ”
In 1986, through the joint research of Zhejiang Institute of Forestry, Zhejiang Forestry College and other scientific research institutes, the use of growth stimulant soaking, the seed seedling method successfully bred, more gratifyingly, now in Hangzhou, Nanjing, Lushan Botanical Garden also have their descendants.
◆ The only one is the Kuru Rhododendron
You've seen rhododendrons roaming the mountains, but you may not have heard of rhododendrons. Rhododendron is a shrub that grows at high altitudes and prefers cool, humid climates, and its flowers are beautiful and have high horticultural value.
In September 1929, the American botanist Locke collected a rhododendron specimen in the Kulu Mountains in southwest sichuan and brought it back to the United States, with fruit and no flowers, but no name. It wasn't until 1953 that the specimen was turned over and defined as a variant of the sticky cuckoo. In 1978, American botanists re-examined it and decided it was a new species. According to the principles of the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, it was named R. adenosum and Chinese named "Rhododendron kula".
▲ Specimen of the cuckoo cuckoo collected by Locke in 1929
After that, Chinese scientists have not seen the wild live body of the dry rhododendron in the process of investigation, so it is believed that this cuckoo has become extinct in the wild. In the 2013 China Biodiversity Red List and Higher Plants Volume jointly released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of China and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Red List of Higher Plants of China published by Qin Haining and others in 2017, the Rhododendron kusuda was officially assessed as extinct in the wild. After 1929, the Chinese Digital Herbarium only recorded the specimen "Suspected Kulu Rhododendron" collected in 2008 from Luoji Mountain, Puge County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province.
In May 2020, the Comprehensive Conservation Team of Wild Plants of Extremely Small Populations at the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, conducted an investigation of Luoji Mountain in Puge County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province, and Kulu Mountain in Muli County, where the species model specimen was collected, and found that the suspected species of Luoji Mountain and the Kulu Rhododendron were at least significantly different in terms of coat, flower color and flower shape, so it was judged that the suspected species was not Kulu Rhododendron.
"On the current map, Mount Kuru no longer exists, and we consulted the relevant information and found the relevant records in a classic book." Team member Ma Yongpeng said. "kulu" means "Kangwu" in Muli County, and the only place name in Muli County that retains the key word "Kangwu" is the Kangwu Great Temple built during the Ming Dynasty, so the team conducted a 2-day investigation in the mountains around the restored Kangwu Great Temple, and when they thought that this investigation might be fruitless, they accidentally found a rhododendron with flowers. After careful comparison, we found that this rhododendron was exactly the same as the key characteristics of the type specimen collected by Locke that year and the number of flowers, color, peduncle and branch hairs described in the Flora of China, and they confirmed that it was a rhododendron. (Source: China Green Times Bai Zhaohui/Wen, Man and the Biosphere Wang Zuliang/Wen, Nature Exploration Ma Yongpeng, Liu Detuan, Yao Gang/Wen, Global Times Binggan/Wen, China Youth Daily, Zhejiang Online Lin Shangjun He Yiling/Wen)