"People near [little puddles] used to say they had lived here for five or six years, and there was nothing here, only rats and snakes."
In May 2020, a Harbin girl living in Nanjing, Antelope (pseudonym), set up two infrared cameras next to a puddle in a grove of trees a kilometer from her home for a year-long observation of urban wildlife.
Nanjing girl's "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in a Small Water hole" WeChat public account "Walking Light and Shadow" (09:25)
The results overturned her previous perceptions, leaving her "surprised and delighted." Antelope told The Paper that when she first collected the data, she found that on the first day alone, 8 kinds of birds were photographed playing in small puddles, and weasels in bathing were also photographed. This made her realize people's previous ignorance of the natural world around her.
"Bathing weasels, grey magpies playing, visiting owls, strolling ring-necked pheasants and couples..." In one year, she filmed tens of thousands of footage and edited them into nearly ten minutes of short films to record the wild animal "neighbors" around people. In the cracks of the city, she recorded 34 species of birds, 3 species of mammals, 1 species of amphibians.
Recently, she posted the short film on her WeChat public account and Weibo, did not expect to be "on fire", and also on the hot search. Some netizens said that the lens of the girl antelope is like a small "secret eye" in the city, showing the animals that will be ignored and symbiotic with humans.
Antelope's short film "Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter in a Small Water hole". WeChat public account "Walking Light and Shadow"
Tens of thousands of video footage record the "small actions" of wildlife neighbors
"Gentle and free little world", "nature education classroom", "the secret eye of the city", some netizens described the antelope video. As of March 31, antelope's relevant weibo posts have exceeded 30,000 retweets.
Antelope told the surging news that she did not expect the video to "go out of the circle", causing such a big response, and did not expect to be able to photograph so many kinds of wild animals.
Antelope said the idea to photograph the four seasons of the little puddle originally came from an interest in animals and a "hedgehog drinking water" shot shared by friends. Once, she saw Zhang Dongsheng, a teacher at Shanghai Ocean University, using an infrared camera to take a shot of a hedgehog drinking water in his neighborhood. "The little hedgehog is so cute that I envy him. I thought, I can shoot hedgehogs in the metropolis of Shanghai, I don't know if we have any in Nanjing, if only I could shoot them. ”
In May 2020, Antelope found a filming location , a grove near her home. This is a native wilderness with less foot traffic. "On May 20, because of the continuous rainstorms in the spring, the rain accumulated on the ground formed a small puddle, and above the small puddle was a tall Privet (tree). The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and many birds are gradually discovering this good place. ”
The story of the four seasons of the small puddle began.
In the video, the antelope records the coming and going of small animals next to small puddles in spring, summer, autumn and winter.
Foraging and playing are brown-backed Burrow, Wong Tai Sin who bathes at night, the grey magpie family who loves to fight, the black-faced noisy storks watching the "blind date" scene, and the occasional visiting owl, South China rabbit, ring-necked pheasant couple... In the video, antelopes photograph more than thirty species of wild animals and give them personality through anthropomorphic descriptions.
Visiting owls.
Antelope said she didn't think she could get a picture at first. "The people around me who work and live also told me that they had been there for five or six years, and there was nothing but rats and snakes." But the first time I went to collect data, the results of the shooting made the antelope "surprised and delighted.". She found that on the first day, the camera captured 8 kinds of birds playing in small puddles, and also filmed weasels bathing, which also made her realize people's disregard and ignorance of the nature around them.
"Of course, at first I was just as ignorant as I didn't expect to be able to photograph these animals, thinking I could only photograph stray cats." She said.
Once the camera is set up, antelope watches the footage every other week or two, about a thousand to two thousand videos at a time. "Look at it one by one, while recording interesting animal behaviors or emerging species, such as magpies biting their tails, bead-necked dove courtship, crow feeding, black-faced noisy partridge blind dates, and so on."
At the suggestion of Wang Fang, a teacher at Fudan University, she also arranged a mirror near the watering hole and did a small "vertical mirror experiment" to observe how the animals saw themselves in the mirror. One morning, the gray-breasted bamboo chicken first found itself in the mirror, and in order to defend the territory, it kept making threatening chirps. Later, the squid also found itself in the mirror. "It is said that a bird can look in the mirror as a manifestation of self-awareness."
Gray-breasted bamboo chicken in the mirror
But the shooting process was not smooth, Antelope said, because of the lack of experience, the location, angle, duration, camera sensitivity of the shooting have been adjusted many times. Infrared camera requirements for the battery is very high, only the battery she changed seven or eight brands, and later also made and purchased the battery, otherwise in the low temperature and night are prone to can not start, can not shoot the situation, until last November, only formed a more mature shooting program.
"Looking at the data can be said to be the most tiring thing in the whole shooting process, two cameras will produce one or two thousand videos a week, I generally use the weekend afternoon to screen the records, watch thousands of videos at a time, often see my eyes are glazed, and my eyesight is significantly reduced." Even so, she insisted on shooting all year round. "I want to see the different natural behaviors that animals exhibit in different seasons, and I want to record how the human behavior around me affects this native wilderness."
In the meantime, Antelope also completed the editing, dubbing and writing of the video.
"Shooting for nearly a year, because this behavior does not have any pressure, nor do I think about what output, what result, is a hobby, an observation, so there is no impatience, there is time to do it." 」 Antelope said.
"Wild animals struggle to survive in the cracks of the city, hoping that more people will know about them"
"In February (this year), construction began on another building next door to the small puddle. The grove has been cut down to just one-sixth of the original..." In the video, the antelope reveals concerns about the habitat of wild animals.
In the video, there are gray-breasted bamboo chickens looking in the mirror, and at most four weasels appear at the same time. But the antelope replied to netizens that they did not know how long this land could be preserved, and now that the bamboo chicken was gone, I did not know whether it was dead, and there was only one weasel left.
The Weasel family.
Antelope said that her family lived in a relatively remote area of Nanjing before, and there were many wild fields. However, this year, with the subway about to open to traffic and other reasons, many real estate and commercial buildings have been developed around, and the field has basically disappeared.
"Animals try to adapt to the environment and try to survive, but if it's all cement, it's useless to adapt." Antelope said, "Animals have their own territory and living range, and the surrounding construction encroaches on these fields, so that the small animals originally distributed in different places can only move in a very small place, the territory crosses, and they are forced to often cross the road to find new places and food, which brings them various insecurity factors." ”
For antelope, the wildlife in these cities is a group that is often overlooked.
"When it comes to animals in the city, it is easy for everyone to think of stray cats and dogs, really wild animals are ignored, and many people will be afraid when they see it, and even ask for culling, thinking that it will be unsafe or infectious." Antelope hopes that everyone can understand the wild animals and create a living environment for them, but do not try to find and approach, especially feeding, away from not disturbing is the greatest love.
Although the four seasons video of the small water hole became popular, Antelope knew that the network hotspot was just a gust of wind, and she would not care too much about the heat and traffic this time. "It is estimated that in a few days, the small puddle will be forgotten, but I hope that after this incident, I have quietly planted the seed of attention to nature in the hearts of some readers."
Antelope said that he hopes that when building a city, not only consider human convenience, but also leave a piece of the world for these animals.
"University-related majors may add a course, or government-related institutions should add relevant positions." From a personal point of view, I hope to retain more native wilderness, and the river and lake landscape in the city should use gentle slopes as much as possible to facilitate birds and other small animals to drink water. She said.
At the end of the video, Antelope said: "We are never short of the company of life, even in the ancient metropolis of Nanjing, in the small cracks between high-rise buildings and noisy roads, I still recorded 34 species of birds, 3 species of mammals, 1 species of amphibians in one year." They are our wildlife neighbors and share this home with us. But their vitality and living space are slowly disappearing because of human behavior, and they need more understanding and care from us. ”
The Paper's reporter Zhu Xuan