You've heard of CityWalk, but have you heard of ZooWalk, a trend that's now blowing up among young people? Before the rise of ZooWalk, Nanjing Red Mountain Forest Zoo has been out of the circle. Here, there is no similar pavilion, there is no animal show, all animal-centered, with a unique persona of the animal stars a lot of "powder". In the past two years, the red mountain forest zoo network heat continues to increase, the reception of record high, become a continuing hot net red card place.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English) In the eyes of many young people, Hongshan Forest Zoo is a "treasure". From Nanjing University student visitors Li Huo said, the Red Mountain Forest Zoo refreshed the original impression of the zoo, this is the first time guests, but also to do repeat business.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English) Right now, the Red Mountain Forest Zoo has been a business card of Nanjing's cultural tourism, attracting more than 6 million visitors from all over the world every year. 2023 traffic has more than doubled compared to 2019, and compared to 2008, it has grown nearly 10 times, with more than 70% visitors coming from outside of Nanjing, and young people under the age of 30 accounting for more than 70% of all visitors.This year's May Day and Dragon Boat Festival vacation, the zoo's single-day peak traffic close to 80,000 limited flow, and hit a new high.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English) What's going on at the Red Mountain Forest Zoo? Why is a city zoo so desirable to young people? What stories are hidden behind it?
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Let the critters get a little wilder.
○ In 2008, when Shen Zhijun walked into the Nanjing Red Mountain Forest Zoo as the director, various wild animals were still living in cement houses and wire cages, and the zoo was running without difficulties for the time being by relying on animal performances and paid feeding.
○ But faced with more than 260 species of rare wild animals from all over the world, totaling more than 3,000 animals, the zoo should go, Shen Zhijun inner apprehension, and even bewildered.
A decade or so ago, city zoos were mostly uniform concrete floors, barbed wire fences, and thick glass, with birds and animals confined in small spaces. Looking at the bored, helpless and hopeless eyes of the animals, the word "Feng Rong" would immediately flash.Abundance is a zoo term that refers to a general term for a series of measures taken to enrich the life interest of animals, satisfy their physiological and psychological needs, and promote the display of more natural behaviors under captive conditions.
○ Where should we start with animal enrichment in Hongshan Forest Zoo? After in-depth thinking, the team decided to start with the visible and tangible optimization of the living environment of animals.Since 2009, Hongshan Forest Zoo has successively remodeled 24 venues such as the Chinese Cat Museum, Orangutan Museum, Tiger Area, etc., and changed the wildlife accommodation from standard rooms to villas.
Marco is the head of the construction department at the Red Mountain Forest Zoo and a designer who has led and participated in the design and remodeling of most of the Red Mountain Forest Zoo's venues.
○ The venue is the most intuitive standard for evaluating the zoo, and also the stage for the animals to enrich their appearance, how to make the animals as close as possible to the wild state in the cramped space, and improve their happiness index is not simple. Marco confessed thatWhile transforming the old venues, it is necessary to constantly overturn old perceptions, and it is only in the non-stop attempts and iterative upgrades that a path of development favorable to animals is groped for.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English) When designing, team members imagine themselves as animals and think in terms of their habits and physiological needs.The Wolf Pavilion has planted a large number of plants that match the wild environment. By increasing the slope of the mountain, collecting and forming a variety of gently sloping and staggered mountain rocks, the Wolf Pavilion creates three-level activity areas of high, medium, and low, for the wolves to look at from afar, to rest, and to hide, and it presents a sense of artistry that is sculpted by nature.
○Wolf Museum visit channel, many young people lying in the observation window, staring at the undulating jungle carefully, from time to time exclaimed: "In this, in this, hiding can be really good, see half a day did not see."The tourists' visiting path has also been carefully designed, in addition to being able to observe the wolf's life scene from a flat or elevated view, it also relies on the cave-like visiting passage to realize the change of scenery, which brings an immersive visiting experience for the tourists under the premise of reducing the impact on the daily activities of the wolves.
Walking through the Red Mountain Forest Zoo, orangutans, gibbons, squirrel monkeys and other primates jumping between the jungle, roe deer chewing grass and leaves in the wetland where it belongs, wild boars arching in their padded nests of fallen leaves. ...... Watching and looking at the wildlife, you will coldly find a wild animal in front of your eyes; walking and suddenly realize that a tiger above your head is Staring at you, very exciting.
○ Keeping is also an important part of improving animal welfare. Sun Yanxia, a northeastern girl who is in charge of the entire primate section, has been working as a keeper at Red Mountain Zoo for 10 years. In the past, she thought the keeper's job was just shoveling shit and feeding the animals, but after practice she realized thatThe keepers play the roles of colleagues, friends, teachers and parents of the animals, giving them love and respect in terms of physiology, environment, hygiene, behavior and psychology.
○ At the Hongshan Forest Zoo, the entire Asian primate area relies on the connection of parallel distribution channels, and the interconnection between 30 functional areas, including 13 bedrooms, 8 external exercise yards, 3 greenhouse exhibition halls, and 6 non-exhibit exercise yards, forms a maze paradise that allows the animals to take a trip on the go.
○ Through the glass curtain wall, gibbons and golden monkeys jumped lightly among the branches, sometimes grooming their mates, sometimes busy mediating the conflicts of monkey children, and occasionally let out a chirping sound.
○ In each functional area, keepers will select, cultivate and arrange green plants according to the original habitat of the animal species. For example, Sichuan snub nosed monkeys mainly live in the jungles of Sichuan, Shaanxi and other mountainous areas, and the venue mainly plants subtropical and temperate plants such as acacia trees, peach trees and bamboo. In the final analysis, it is to make their home more cozy and their life more pleasant.
○ In order to keep these primates healthy, keepers rack their brains on the food supply. Ensuring a balanced and healthy diet for the little guys requires a balanced mix of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and insects. Keepers also think of ways to hide food and make it artificially difficult to forage as a way to prolong foraging time, keep them healthy, and add interest to their lives.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English) Walking through the 68-hectare Red Mountain Forest Zoo, there is a bursting, clamoring life in front of your eyes and ears. There are no animal shows to be seen here, and if you're lucky, you can listen to gibbons singing love songs or watch giant pandas rubbing against the railing and scratching. Animals are at ease with their nature, each living in their natural environment and connecting with everything around them.
○ The function of a modern zoo is no longer simply to satisfy the ornamental needs of visitors; it is more like a Noah's Ark that preserves the genes of wild animals, and realizes the continuation of species by continuously improving the welfare of animals and stimulating their wildness.
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Conserving biodiversity in cities
○"Biodiversity is an important foundation for human survival and development, and protecting biodiversity is to enhance human well-being. For the Red Mountain Forest Zoo, the first priority is species protection, we do not seek to be large and comprehensive, the pursuit of all kinds of rare species here to continue, the formation of populations." In Shen Zhijun's view.The role of zoos is not only to keep wild animals well housed and well fed, but also to continuously improve the technical standard of species conservation as well as the conceptual attitude of conservationists.
○ At the Hongshan Forest Zoo, species conservation efforts are directed not only at improving the comfort of the animals, but more importantly, at realizing the breeding of species and promoting the healthy growth of each individual.
In 2010, the Hongshan Forest Zoo introduced three chimpanzees named Xiaotong, Xiaoyu and Xiaoshan. When Xiaodong's "first wife", Xiaoyu, gave birth to black beans, the group was still harmonious. The turning point came when Xiao Shan gave birth to Wudou, because her own mother, Xiao Shan, did not have a high status in the group, Xiao Yu snatched Wudou but didn't take it with her, and Xiao Shan didn't dare to take Wudou back to bring it up herself, so the keepers had no choice but to raise Wudou artificially.
○ It took five years of continuous attempts to bring Udou back to the group. For example, in order to help WuDou learn to grasp, the keepers put on thick black sweaters and mimicked the mother's every move; in order to create an environment that was closer to the original family, the keepers even brought WuDou to live next door to the chimpanzee's dormitory. After more than a dozen attempts to return to the group, although unsuccessful, it has given us a lot of experience in carrying out species breeding work.
○ In 2019, Udo's brother Bean was born, and the same encounter as Udo's happened again.However, with the concerted efforts of the keepers, Bean has successfully returned to the group, achieving a zero breakthrough in the "chimpanzee return" study. Currently, the number of chimpanzees in the park has increased to seven.
The golden-headed marmoset is a miniature, delicate-looking marmoset from South America. Due to the threat of illegal smuggling and deforestation, the golden-headed marmoset was on the verge of extinction in the 1970s.
○ "Compared to general primates, the miniature-sized marmosets are much more difficult to raise, and require a higher degree of meticulousness, precision, and rigor in feeding; food varieties and feeding quantities must be precisely controlled, and the weight change of each individual must be monitored on a weekly basis. Over the years, the Red Mountain Forest Zoo has bred a total of 16 golden-headed lion-faced marmoset cubs." Liu Yuanyuan, deputy head of the Red Mountain Forest Zoo's Animal Feeding and Breeding Department, said that in order to promote biodiversity conservation, the park has also set up a Science and Technology Business Department, which translates a large amount of foreign-language research materials and information around the protective development of animals to provide guidance for scientific breeding.
character used in Taiwan as a substitute for a real name (like "X" in English) As an observation window of ecological civilization, zoos should not and cannot be the last home of endangered animals. It is necessary to protect and develop more animals through scientific and technological innovations, technical innovations and methodological innovations, and at the same time guide more visitors to join the animal protection team.
The Animal Rescue Center, located in the southwest corner of Hongshan Forest Zoo, undertakes wildlife sheltering and rescue work at the Jiangsu Province and Nanjing City levels. Covering an area of more than 1,000 square meters, diagnostic and treatment rooms, laboratory, veterinary feeding area, two reptile feeding area, bird feeding area and so on lined up in order, more than 700 rescued wild animals are here to heal.
○ The spotted owl is a small owl, which belongs to the second class of national protected wildlife. The Red Mountain Forest Zoo rescues about 1,000 wild animals (heads) each year, of which the spotted owl reaches about 70.
○ To one's surprise, the spotted owl's main area of activity is within the busy shopping district area of Nanjing Xinjiekou. Chen Yuelong, supervisor of the rescue center, said that spotted owls are usually active at night, so they are difficult to be observed. Spotted owls are mostly injured because they are stuck by sticky mouse boards, mistakenly hit by glass reflections, and obstructed by urban drainage barriers, etc. Improvements can be made to optimize and reduce the probability of injury to the animals. The rescue center is summarizing and summarizing the data of animal injuries, and the next step will be to form recommendations, opinions, and call for urban development to leave more space for wildlife.
○ How to balance the expanding city boundaries and the need to protect wildlife? Yali Bai, deputy director of the Red Mountain Forest Zoo, believes that theEcological civilization and biodiversity should be taken into account in urban planning, and on the basis of biological surveys, the areas with the richest biodiversity within the city should be preserved, and ecological corridors should be kept between these areas for animal migration. The purpose of development cannot be only for human beings themselves; every life deserves to be respected.
