Return of the wild
Many species that had not been seen for years have made a comeback thanks to successful conservation efforts
On May 4, a group of Shenzhen University researchers were abuzz with excitement on spotting an aquatic bird with a yellow beak and feet, green legs and covered with white feathers all over the body at the city’s Mangrove Bay.
“Yellow-billed egret,” they whispered with joy. The egret, which is listed as a second-class species under State protection, has appeared in Shenzhen again having not been seen for a number of years.
And the egret is not an isolated case. Residents in one province after another have seen long-time-no-see wildlife come back in recent years, some of which had disappeared for decades.
Wetland barometer
In 2020, rasse, Eurasian otter and Indian scops owl, three other protected species were also spotted in the Mangrove Ecological Park in Shenzhen city, South China’s Guangdong province.
Among the three, the otter as a top predator in the fresh water ecological system is highly sensitive to pollution and damage to its natural habitat, and it is known as the “barometer of wetland quality”. Prior to 2020, the Eurasian otter had last been seen in 1998.
And rasse, a first-class species under State protection had never been seen in the urban areas of Shenzhen before.
Lucky couples
Mandarin ducks are a symbol of love in traditional Chinese culture because they always appear in pairs. As birds of passage, they generally breed in northern and northeastern provinces, and spend the winter in the south.
The species had long been categorized as “near threatened” in the domestic list of endangered species, and wild ones were rarely seen in southern provinces where they used to appear in large numbers.
Yet in March, a group of 36 wild mandarin ducks were seen in a village in Jiaxing, a city beside the Taihu Lake in Jiangsu province. “That’s a good sign that the ecology is improving,” said Sun Hushan, a life sciences professor at Ludong University.
Liu Hongzhi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Society for Environmental Sciences (CSES), spoke highly of the city. “The Taihu Lake region has long been famous for its fish, but there was a time when the fish were considered nothing but fishing resources. Now they are viewed as an indispensable part of nature, which means the fishing should be balanced with the protection of nature.”
Lake predator
A 10-year ban on fishing has been implemented in key parts of the Yangtze River since Jan 1, 2021.
According to Wei Qiwei, a researcher on aquatic production of the Yangtze River at the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, before the ban was implemented the river had almost exhausted its fish resources.
Wang Zhiquan, a businessperson who ran shipping businesses in the Yangtze River, said that so many fish were no longer seen in the river that the river 10 years ago was almost incomparable to the one in his memory from the 1980s.
Yet in 2022, many species that had not been seen for a long time reappeared. A good example is Ochetobius elongates which was seen in Poyang Lake. A top predator in the Yangtze River, it was listed as an endangered species in 2016 having not been seen for years.
Shoals of finless porpoise, another species that had been seen only rarely in recent times, has appeared again since 2019. On April 21, a shoal of 10 to 12 finless porpoise were photographed in the Yangtze River water near Caidian District, Wuhan, the biggest shoal on record.
A local elephant monitoring staff member even said that increasingly more elephants dared to collect food from agricultural farms because they sensed the friendliness of the local residents.
Parade of peacocks
Green peacocks are another endangered species. There are about 600 nationwide, about half that number inhabit Chuxiong prefecture in Southwest China’s Yunnan province.
Since 2016, the local government has strengthened protection of green peacocks by closing hydropower stations in the natural protection area and shifting improper power lines from it, which made it possible for the population of green peacocks to grow. Increasingly the monitoring cameras inside the protection area have captured images of green peacocks playing in groups or with other animals.
Zhao Tongrong, a 49-year-old local villager as well as green peacock protection staff member, said that during his childhood he often saw green peacocks eating grain in the fields, but they had disappeared for decades. In recent years, however, he has often seen green peacocks walking on the stony beaches during his inspection tours.
March of the elephants
Sometimes animals make headlines. One typical example is the march of a group of Asian elephants travelling northward from Xishuangbanna Natural Reserve in March 2021. The elephant group travelled for almost 10 months, gave birth to a baby on the way, and did not reach their traditional inhabitant zone in Pu’er city until November.
For many years, even most locals in Southwest China’s Yunnan province had never seen elephants in the wild. The march of the elephants attracted attention from not only local residents, but also media outlets from all over the world, which followed their journey.
There has been much speculation about the reason for the elephants’ march. Fan Zhiyong, former chief expert of World Wildlife Fund, said that it might have been due to inadequate herbage plants in their habitant zones, while local researchers in Xishuangbanna guessed that it might have been triggered by climate change.
Whatever the reason, the locals have shown a very high sense of wildlife protection in the process. According to reports, in their eight months’ travel, the elephants destroyed many crops, even some houses, but no one tried to assault the elephants. A local elephant monitoring staff member even said that increasingly more elephants dared to collect food from agricultural farms because they sensed the friendliness of the local residents.
Nationwide efforts
Behind all these heartwarming stories are the efforts rendered by the whole nation. According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, large numbers of rare species have come back or grown in numbers again since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012. A total of 206 rare plants are thriving again in the wild, while the number of Asian elephants in the wild has grown to 300 in number and the population of giant pandas has grown to 1,864. Platts wild horses had once completely disappeared in the wild, but there are now 700 of them bred by humans.
Liu from the CSES said that the comeback of many endangered species is an achievement made by many parties. “The protection of the ecology is never the job of researchers or conservation staff alone,” she told China Daily. “Local governments have contributed by strictly enforcing the regulations, the fishermen have played their part by only fishing in permitted zones, while the media have raised awareness of the importance of ecological protection.”
“There are too many species that have disappeared. Thanks to efforts of all, some have come back,” she said. “Let’s hope more will follow in the future, and enrich the biodiversity of the world as a whole.”