From summer to autumn solstice, in the central woodland of Fengxian New Town, the largest urban forest in Shanghai, there are hundreds of small animals that don't look cute and even make people scream - toads, caterpillars, clams, snakes... Of course, such a statement is somewhat unprofessional in the eyes of nature lovers such as Jiang Long. They should be called Chinese toads, lepidoptera insect larvae, weavers, chichi snakes, and so on.
For nature lovers, they are all spirits of the night, gifts from the Creator to the natural world. For a city, their habitat, or return, is undoubtedly the most intuitive indicator of the ecological environment.
In recent years, people have found that wild animals such as fireflies, badgers, raccoons, hedgehogs and other wild animals have appeared in the urban areas of Shanghai, which is considered to be a symptom of urban ecological restoration, but it also exposes the confusion of humans and nature. Urban development and ecological protection, seemingly a pair of contradictions, in the final analysis is the game and symbiosis between man and nature, can we find a reasonable way out? Shanghai is exploring.
People have found that fireflies, badgers, raccoons, hedgehogs and other wild animals have appeared in the urban area of Shanghai. Pictured above is a hedgehog. Source: Figureworm Creative
(1) The "sharer" of the city at night
At 7 p.m., on the side of the road next to the central woodland, a dozen nature lovers gradually gathered. The first one is Jiang Long, who has been in contact with wild bird protection since more than a decade ago, and he has long become a senior wildlife conservation person in the circle. Every week, Jiang Long recruits a group of like-minded people on WeChat to visit the natural habitat of Shanghai's wild animals to visit their living conditions.
In autumn, many of the small animals in the central woodland seem to be less active. But Jiang Long has a number in mind, the entire 4.78 square kilometers of forest, there are at least more than 500 species of wild animals and plants, nature is their protective color. People stooped down, holding flashlights that emitted shimmering light, carefully searched the grass and among the bushes for the little ones. When you stumble upon a praying mantis or frog, you will call on friends and invite people to watch it together. And the animals seemed to be trying to cooperate, motionless, allowing humans to stare curiously.
An adult moth.
There are always unexpected discoveries in the grass.
This woodland has been formed in recent years. Eight years ago, a village called Qixian Village in Fengxian District was moved one after another, and has not been developed for many years since. The seeds brought by the wild birds gradually developed on the ruins until they grew into contiguous forests. On a rainy night in the summer of 2017, Jiang Long walked into the ruins of the village for the first time and was stunned by what he saw: the yellow-veined winged fireflies (a type of firefly) "flashed" into a "light fog" among the dark groves — he had never seen such a dense firefly wedding flight (male insects flying around in search of a mate) in Shanghai.
For humans, fireflies are not only of great ornamental value, but also an important environmental indicator species - their reproduction and survival have very high requirements for the ecological environment, and light, exhaust, air pollution, etc. may make them disappear en masse. "But in this forest, we recorded at most 3,000 fireflies flying in a group, which is probably the most densely populated place in Shanghai."
Source: Figureworm Creative
Fengxian citizen Ginger photographed the flight route of the fireflies.
Jiang Long also found that the woodland was not only inhabited by fireflies. After the retreat of humans, it is now the last "reserve" for local wildlife. He even found some exotic creatures in the jungle, such as the northern narrow-mouthed frog, "At that time, the northern narrow-mouthed frog that was courting was disturbed by the flashlight light, and immediately stopped its chirping, and its stomach and lower sac were still holding its breath." "The northern narrow-cut frog has a very limited distribution record in Shanghai, and the population in each place is not large, and many animal lovers are excited to find its tracks again.
Jiang Long found the northern narrow-mouthed frog in a puddle of less than 0.5 square meters.
Under the infrared trigger camera lens of Wang Fang, a researcher at Fudan University's School of Life Sciences, the relationship between wild animals and humans seems to be more intimate. Every night, raccoons will run out and forage in human communities, parks, factories, and roadside green belts, like a group of urban "night visitors", freely enjoying the urban space built by humans.
In Qingpu District, Wang Fang once spent a "wonderful" time with a raccoon. The raccoon probably thought he was a good companion, sitting at his feet several times, crunching and tickling in the middle of the night in a daze. There are more than raccoons. Previously, Wang Fang had used the camera in the city to capture bats hidden on the ceilings of residents' homes, hedgehogs walking leisurely on the grass, weasels focusing on foraging in the bushes, etc.
Wang Fang said that the current general view is that China's urban ecological restoration construction has been carried out for decades, and the emergence of wild animals in cities is an inevitable trend. "I just didn't expect that wild animals 'coming into town' would be so fast." Just this year, raccoons suddenly exploded in the urban area of Shanghai.
According to wang fang's team, there are traces of raccoons in at least 140 communities in Shanghai, including forest parks, university campuses, factories, suburbs and other spaces. At the same time, the number of raccoons has increased rapidly from the previous density of 1-2 per hectare to 3-5 times. "In an 8-hectare residential complex, we found nearly 50 raccoons."
Raccoons in the jungle. Source: Figureworm Creative
(ii) The first "intimate contact"
Why are wild animals abundant in cities? Is the original living space squeezed? Or has the urban environment improved significantly? The reason behind it cannot be said in a word.
Wang Fang found that the raccoon's entry into the city was closely related to the raccoon's own characteristics. "The raccoon took the initiative to enter the city. Even in order to enter the city, the species made many biological adaptations, such as smaller body size, less aggressiveness, and a change of eating habits to omnivorous. "These shifts in biological traits, combined with the raccoon's own extremely strong external adaptability, have made it possible to live close to humans.
Coupled with the significant changes in urban ecology in recent years, not to mention the increase in the area of urban green spaces and parks, many communities have also lush vegetation and ponds, giving raccoons, squirrels, roe deer and other creatures the possibility of becoming "citizens". "Especially the outbreak this year has given the raccoons a chance to reproduce in large quantities." Wang Fang said that this year's wintering environment is good, coupled with the high incidence of the epidemic is coinciding with the courtship period and breeding period of the raccoon, there are no people and cars on the streets, making the raccoon's behavior in the city more undisturbed.
Badgers appeared in many parts of Shanghai.
When the human behavior bound by the epidemic was unsealed, people and the number of raccoons that surged officially began to share the living space, which made the two sides who had no previous experience of getting along inevitably hostile. Wang Fang said that this year, the 12345 citizen hotline received hundreds of complaints about "raccoons", and "feeding" was the main reason for conflicts and even personal attacks. "Human-friendly feeding is a negative inducement to the raccoon, which makes it dependent and stops foraging."
At the end of July this year, more than 60 raccoons appeared in the Milano Guidu community in Songjiang District, they fought with each other and fought against humans, but when humans stopped feeding for about a week, these little guys with super adaptability to the external environment immediately changed back to the original cautious, careful, and far away from human "instigation" look.
During the day on July 28, at a raccoon nest behind a substation in a residential area in Shanghai, many raccoons were still very active in and out.
This undoubtedly gives human beings a wake-up call, and it is probably not feasible to treat wild animals with the logic of appreciation and domestication, such as raccoons, birds and frogs, and fireflies.
Two years ago, due to media exposure, more and more people in the city came to see the fireflies. Coupled with the development of surrounding plots and the implementation of "lighting" projects, light pollution is becoming more and more serious. The number of fireflies affected by courtship was once sharply reduced to only a few dozen.
"The biggest crisis in firefly habitat was last year." Jiang Long said that one day he learned that there was an excavator working on the firefly breeding ground. By the time they got closer, the fireflies' habitat had been dug up by tens of square meters. The person in charge of the site said that this was because the environmental inspector sent a rectification notice, and there was construction waste on the wasteland that needed to be cleaned up. But people don't know that such a seemingly unsightly ruin is exactly the necessary living environment for fireflies larvae to eat tobacco pipe snails.
When people get along with nature, it is inevitable that they will not fight and do not know each other again and again. Fortunately, after the communication between the nature lovers and the local government, Qi Xian Village sent someone to the scene that night to check. Soon after, fences and protective signage were erected around the core area of the firefly breeding grounds. In June this year, Qixian Village further dug two ring ditches around the firefly breeding grounds, which not only improved the breeding and habitat environment for wild frogs and snakes, but also effectively isolated human interference from fireflies.
Fengxian Qixian Village erected fences and protective signs around the core area of the firefly breeding grounds.
But Jiang Long also had hidden worries. "The ultimate fate of urban plots must be development, and if conservation measures are not considered according to local conditions at the planning stage, subsequent construction may still bring disaster to the local wildlife living here."
(3) Can wild animals truly become "citizens"?
Shanghai has increased its investment in natural environmental protection year by year, and the overall landscape pattern is also expanding. However, in Wang Fang's view, in each small-scale ecological space, problems such as air pollution, water pollution, light pollution, and the conflict between the concept of urban landscape construction and the protection of natural ecological environment still exist, "which will cause different degrees of harm to different biological species." ”
Jiang Long has conducted in-depth research on Qingpu District, the most abundant natural freshwater lake resource in Shanghai, and found that the hardening of barges and the excessive salvage of aquatic weeds in the construction of wetland landscapes are seriously eroding the homes of waterbirds. "Many of the local lake shores have been completely hardened, hindering the exchange of wildlife between land and water and destroying the original ecosystem."
In addition, there are certain misunderstandings in the water environment governance in many areas, and it is believed that only by salvaging all the aquatic plants on the water surface is it truly clean. However, it is overlooked that aquatic grass itself has the function of helping water bodies to purify themselves, and it is indispensable for the breeding and foraging of many wetland wild animals. Take the wild water birds that breed in Shanghai in the summer such as pheasants as an example, because the floating plant communities in the waters such as lakes and forks of the river have been salvaged, they are forced to enter the artificially planted lotus ponds and lingjiao ponds to nest and reproduce, on the surface it seems that people and nature are more harmonious, but behind them there is helplessness. "Don't look at the clean surface of Dianshan Lake, but the water quality is showing a downward trend, especially the number of water birds has decreased significantly." Jiang Long said.
Nature lovers have observed black water chickens with "nests" in Lingjiao Pond.
The little life in the water catches the eye of nature lovers.
As one of the most conventional means of urban landscape construction, hardening allows humans to get closer to nature. Unexpectedly, nature has to pay a price for this. Through the transformation of riverside green space, Yangpu Binjiang is taking the lead in exploring the compensation scheme of hardening to return the biological space deprived by hardening to nature.
"The vast majority of urban landscape designs often only consider landscape effects and ignore ecological effects." As a project participant, Wang Fang told reporters that the team is currently conducting a biodiversity survey on Yangpu Riverside. "We hope to find out the bottom number of existing local animals and plants, and then find a breakthrough to improve the ecosystem step by step." At present, close to the riverbank, there are many artificial wetlands and rivers that can be used as new habitats for animals. We plan to make urban space shared by nature and make wild animals truly 'Shanghai citizens'" by changing conventional landscape green spaces to a variety of rich and diverse vegetation, such as planting aristolochia bells away from crowds and satisfying the predation of butterfly larvae."
There are abundant ponds along the Yangpu River for wildlife to inhabit. Photo by Du Chenwei
Jiang Long further suggested that it is necessary for Shanghai to conduct a unified species survey of the undeveloped plots with forests and wetlands, and fully consider the impact of the development of the plots on the surrounding residents and local wildlife populations, so as to implement targeted planning, protection and development. "As a leading city in the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, if Shanghai can take a step forward in the discussion and practice of several pairs of relationships such as urban development and ecological protection, water environment improvement and aquatic animal and plant conservation, it is expected to play a better ecological demonstration role."
Qingpu Dianshan Lake along the coast. Photo by Meng Yuhan
Column Editor-in-Chief: Zhou Nan Text Editor: Du Chenwei Title Image Source: Visual China
Source: Author: Du Chenwei