Yangzi Evening News Network, October 30 (reporter Xu Sheng) Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo has nearly 3,000 "hair children", giant pandas, koalas, giraffes, elephants... But have you ever thought that there are many wild animals living around us? In recent years, Hongshan Zoo has carried out the investigation of "Biodiversity Conservation and Public Education in Little Red Mountain", purchased infrared cameras, carried out investigation operations throughout the park, and monitored wild animals such as weasels, raccoons and badgers. According to statistics, from January to August 2021, 24 infrared cameras deployed in the park have monitored 29 species of wild animals, including 20 species of birds and 9 species of mammals.
Porcupines captured by infrared cameras
Xiaohongshan area is an important ecological green island in the north of Nanjing, with an area of more than 80 hectares, including the surrounding green space and woodland in the Hongshan Zoo park and outside the park, with a regional green coverage rate of 95%, which is a migratory bird migration channel (Purple Mountain - Xuanwu Lake - Xiaohongshan) in Nanjing, and is also a hot spot for urban biodiversity in Nanjing.
At a night firefly study in 2018, two infrared cameras placed in the zoo detected two wild weasel badgers. This led the zoo to think: in addition to these animals raised in the garden, as a "survival station" for urban wildlife, how many animals are not raised in the garden? What kind of biodiversity is there in the city? Bai Yali, director of the Publicity and Education Department of the Hongshan Forest Zoo, said that the investigation of "Biodiversity Conservation and Public Education in Xiaohongshan Mountain" was launched, on the one hand, he wanted to know more about how many wild animals there are in the Xiaohongshan area, what the living conditions are, and which resources in the environment they mainly rely on for survival. On the other hand, it is also possible to further explore how people and wildlife live in harmony.
According to the plan, the project will last for three years. The project team will investigate and sort out the problems facing the sustainable development of species, carry out environmental restoration, and promote public participation in the protection of native species.
According to reports, the distribution range of these infrared cameras covers the Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo Park, as well as the surrounding green space and woodland outside the park. Cameras are mainly deployed in animal paths, water sources, and places with little human activity and animal traces. Through the infrared camera, people found that whenever night fell, the dark grass was sisoted, and the weasels, raccoons, and badgers that came out of the day and night came out one after another... According to statistics, from January to August 2021, 24 infrared cameras deployed in the park have monitored 29 species of wild animals, including 20 species of birds and 9 species of mammals. Raccoons, badgers, mustela badgers, weasels, hedgehogs, small house mice, red-bellied squirrels and other little guys have often appeared in the Little Red Mountain area over the years. Hill sandpipers, Far Eastern, purple howling plovers, black-tailed wax-billed finches, red-throated singing plovers, crested eagles and pheasants are new bird records added to infrared cameras at this stage.
"In May this year, we found a special figure in the "Black Wind Outlet" area near the Little Red Mountain Wildlife Rescue Center in the infrared camera - a porcupine. Maybe it accidentally left the zoo's pet park two years ago, and we've seen it in an infrared camera more than once, and we've magically found it to be doing well in the zoo, even stronger than individuals in captivity. According to the staff of the Red Mountain Zoo, the porcupine inhabits the forest and open fields, is a large rodent, nocturnal animal, hiding in the cave during the day to sleep, and coming out at night to forage. Porcupines were once distributed in the native mountain forests of Nanjing, and they were cautious and afraid to approach people.
Interestingly, the infrared camera also captured a porcupine thorn on the head of a dog badger, possibly a conflict between the porcupine and the badger. In the previous infrared camera data study, the staff also found that the activity area of this porcupine was distributed in the Big Red Mountain, Little Red Mountain and Herding Cow Mountain, and the activity time was concentrated from 18:00 to 5:00 the next day. As a result, the nursery staff agreed that the captive porcupine could also survive in a wider environment, so they let it continue to move freely in the Red Mountains, and did not take other actions.
Infrared cameras also captured a porcupine thorn on the head of a badger
At the same time, the nurses of the rescue center and the native species conservation area also made an important decision after careful consideration: to release a porcupine named "Chrysanthemum Tree" in captivity in the native species conservation area to Xiaohongshan.
A porcupine named "Chrysanthemum Tree" is kept in captivity in a native species conservation area
This time the wild release is experimental, the garden knows that there is a porcupine living in the Red Mountain, so can this forest support a porcupine family? Will it even be possible to carry an entire porcupine population in the future? The staff hopes that through this release, the porcupine will be reintroduced into the local hilly ecosystem of Nanjing, which will enrich the biodiversity while also making our ecosystem more complete, stable and balanced. A month after the release of the "chrysanthemum tree", the zoo staff saw the picture in the infrared camera that the two porcupines had met and got along well.
Proofread Su Yun
Source: Yangtze Evening News Network
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