Wild Neighbors, Shared Spaces: The Urgent Need to Coexist with Nature

[Frontline Narration]

Protect our shared home with wild animals

Narrator: Qi Xinzhang, Qinghai Province Nature Education Volunteer and Deputy Director of Xining Wildlife Park

Speaking of Xining Wildlife Park (hereinafter referred to as “Xiye”), what animals do you think of? Is it the rabbit cat, the Tibetan fox, or the “king of the snow mountains” the snow leopard?

They are all “star animals” in Nishino, attracting tourists from all over the country. But Nishino more than ten years ago was not the “Internet celebrity zoo” it is now. Apart from the snow leopard, little is known about other animals. Due to its remote location, Nishino’s operating conditions were unsatisfactory.

How can the zoo’s visibility be increased? My colleagues and I discussed many times and decided to use the native animals of the Tibetan Plateau as a breakthrough point to create “animal stars”.

In 2010, Xiye established the Qinghai Wildlife Rescue and Breeding Center and assumed the function of wildlife rescue in Qinghai Province. On the one hand, the team works hard to help qualified wild animals return to nature; on the other hand, some old and weak individuals who are not suitable for release are kept in the zoo and raised well. Through exhibitions, more people can understand and pay attention to this species.

In 2017, we launched a super topic “Snow Leopard Rescue” on social platforms, which has received more than 240 million views so far. This topic has not only become an important window for the public to understand the status of snow leopard conservation, but has also made a large number of snow leopard stars “Ling Zhe”, “Ling Shuang” and “Ling Bufu” popular.

The more people pay attention and the greater the influence, the more protection resources a species can obtain and the more help it can help protect wild populations. Desert cat protection is a typical case.

The desert cat is a national first-level protected wild animal and a cat endemic to China. In October 2020, we rescued a desert cat, performed amputation surgery on it, named it “Lao Huang”, and published the entire rescue process online. Since the conditions for release were not met, “Lao Huang” was exhibited in the West Wilderness in February 2021, becoming the only desert cat in captivity in the world at that time. Countless people got to know desert cats and took the initiative to save desert cats. In the year from April 2021 to April 2022 alone, we rescued more than twice the number of desert cats than in the past ten years.

With these experiences, we have a starting point for our work to protect animals. In the future, we will continue to introduce more types of rare plateau animals in a format that everyone likes to see and hear, so that more people can get close to them and love them. We hope that through our joint efforts with all sectors of society, more and more people will understand the native species of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, care about the ecological environment protection of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and jointly protect our homeland.

(Interviewed and compiled by Guangming Daily reporters Wang Wenjing and Wan Maga)

“Guangming Daily” (October 30, 2024, Page 05)

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责编：王蕾 ]