As Beijing’s ecological environment continues to improve, the number of species and quantity of wild animals in Beijing also continues to increase. As of now, the number of wildlife species in Beijing has reached 600, the majority of which are birds.
On June 2nd, the “Caring for Wildlife and Creating a Beautiful Homeland” event was officially launched in Beijing. At the event, two teenagers successfully released two mandarin ducks under the guidance of the Beijing Wildlife Conservation Society.
According to reports, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau confiscated these two mandarin ducks in 2015. They were later taken care of by the Beijing Wildlife Rescue Center for three years. Now, they have finally recovered their ability to survive in the wild. On the day of the event, they successfully spread their wings and flew away.
The growth in the number of wild animal populations in Beijing relies on the construction and improvement of the local ecological environment. Over the past five years, the capital’s landscaping and eco-environment construction have yielded fruitful results. The city has newly added 1.34 million mu of afforestation area and 4,022 hectares of green land. Its forest coverage rate has reached 43%, with 17.48 million cubic meters of forest reserves. Its urban green coverage rate has reached 48.2%, with 16.2 square meters per capita of green areas in parks.
Beijing’s constantly improving ecological environment has created better habitats for wildlife. In the last five years, Beijing has resumed its construction of more than 8,000 hectares of wetlands, forming ten wetland parks and ten wetland conservation communities.
To better monitor the living conditions of wild animals, Beijing has also set up 89 monitoring stations for wildlife disease epidemics. According to its monitoring efforts, the number of bird species in Beijing has continuously increased. Up until now, 600 species of wild animals exist in Beijing. A few rare wild animal species have also been successively discovered.
Beijing citizens have exhibited a growing awareness of wildlife protection. The harlequin ducks in Yuan Dadu Archaeological Site Park, Beijing swifts in the Summer Palace, squawk ducks in Beihai Park, and rare wild birds in Fangshan District, such as reed parrotbills, have been successively discovered and become the focus of public concern and protection.
Information from dzwww.com: https://www.dzwww.com/xinwen/guoneixinwen/201806/t20180602_17443432.htm
Photo of mandarin ducks from ZOL.BBS.COM.CN: http://bbs.zol.com.cn/dcbbs/d22_6977.html
Photo of harlequin duck from Birding Beijing: https://birdingbeijing.com/2017/03/14/volunteers-protect-beijings-harlequin-duck/
Translated by Sherry Yao and edited by Riley Peng @ Animal Dialogue
