I have a wildlife zoo

The urban animal exhibit area and the local animal exhibit area are currently still in the conceptual stage.

But they will definitely be a reality in the future.

The two areas have similarities, but there are also differences.

The urban animal exhibit area mainly showcases the conflicts between humans and animals in urban spaces and how they can coexist harmoniously.

The local animal exhibit area, on the other hand, follows the changes in Linhai’s native animals as its theme.

What animals used to live in Linhai, what is their current status, where do they exist, how many are there, is their population decreasing or increasing, and if they have disappeared, why?

It lets visitors understand that environmental degradation and protection is happening right here on the land around them, not something far removed from their lives.

Some investigation and research into the current distribution of animals in Linhai is needed, looking through county records, or asking the elderly with their rich memories, in order to trace the sequence of changes in the animal population.

Fang Ye felt that more learning experiences were still needed and that it was not quite the right time to construct these exhibits.

The discussion moved from the common raccoon dog to wild boars.

Previously, due to the "milk tea" wild boar incident, some infrared cameras had been set up in the villages around Linhai, and the video data was handed over to Wang Yan’s team for study, which helped them to gain some understanding of the wild boar distribution.

Wild boars are relatively scarce in Linhai.

Once the distribution was clear and the town’s measures to prevent wild boar encroachment were in place, extensive publicity about the wild boars was conducted, and the preparatory work was completed, Black Whirlwind Maymay and others were also ready to be released into the wild.

Fang Ye thought of something, "I saw a news story yesterday. In Mount Huang in Anhui, the number of wild boar is growing rapidly. They are now carrying out wild boar control measures and preparing to hunt them to regulate their numbers. I guess we’ll be seeing news about wild boar pest problems from time to time in the future."

Wang Yan said, "There’s no helping it. If there aren’t any tigers to control the population of wild boars, the impact of animal disappearances never manifests immediately.

I see at the entrance of your zoo you keep a flock of pigeons and have a display about passenger pigeons, which are a classic example."

Fang Ye listened attentively; he knew about the extinction of passenger pigeons, but the specific impacts were not clear to him.

Seeing his interest, Wang Yan went on, "Passenger pigeons, weren’t they extinct in 1914? Before their extinction, the population was estimated at billions. When they flew overhead, they blanketed the sky like a dark cloud, dimming the entire sky.

The extinction of passenger pigeons initially seemed to have no impact, but it wasn’t until 84 years later that people understood what it meant.

America is home to a large number of oak trees which have ’mast’ years and ’off’ years, when the trees of an entire forest would fruit at the same time to prevent all the acorns from being eaten.

A considerable time after the extinction of the passenger pigeons, there came a mast year for the oak trees, where the ground was covered with acorns. Previously the passenger pigeons were the main consumers of acorns. Now that the passenger pigeons were gone, there was an explosion in the mouse population.

With urbanization spreading across various areas, mice were not only exploding in numbers in forests filled with oak trees, but also began to proliferate in cities.

Mice carry ticks, which if the winter is too cold, the ticks will die, unable to survive the winter.

However, as the climate warmed, the range of mice expanded and so did the distribution of ticks, so with this boom in acorns followed by a mouse explosion, Lyme disease has become a very common zoonotic disease in North America.

Lyme disease is primarily transmitted through tick bites and can cause joint pain, loss of speech, and even severe respiratory distress leading to death. This is what we call ’ecological inertia’."

Fang Ye could not help but think of a saying, "A troubled childhood requires a lifetime to heal."

In fact, it’s the same with ecosystems. Some serious damage requires a long time and enormous efforts to recover, and it may never fully heal.

Some regions are now experiencing out-of-control wild boar populations, primarily due to the absence of carnivorous animals, especially tigers.

Wolves and leopards can only hunt smaller wild boars and piglets; they are unable to completely control the population of wild boars and can only help to slow it down.

Wild boars are tigers’ favorite prey. The powerful tiger can hunt down most wild boars, except for some enormous wild boar kings.

Now, let alone tigers, even the numbers of leopards and wolves are very few.

The absence of predators may not seem significant at first, but its impact is profound.

In places where wild boar populations have exploded, human efforts to control their numbers necessitate a continuous investment of manpower and financial resources, and it is difficult to achieve the effect of natural balance through predator hunting. There is also the ongoing need to compensate for the damage wild boars cause to farmland.

If the goal were to completely exterminate them, it could certainly be done, but the extinction of wild boars would have a huge impact on the ecosystem.

It’s like a chain of dominoes; once one falls, they all start to topple.

Restoring predators like the tiger is much more difficult than eradicating wild boars.

The tigers in zoos and those in the wild might as well be considered two different species. Where to find prey and water, what things are edible, techniques for hunting various animals, and awareness to avoid humans—these are not lessons parents can pass on, nor can they be learned anywhere else.

Besides, the public has not yet developed the awareness of sharing a home with animals, nor do they understand the proper way to interact with them. If people are terrified by just a wild boar, imagine their reaction to tigers or leopards.

Fang Ye’s thoughts were many as he sighed, "To repair the ecology, we must first repair the human heart."

Wang Yan laughed, "Isn’t that exactly what you guys at Linhai Zoo are doing?"

Fang Ye grinned.

When he first played "Planet Zoo" and came through, he still had the mindset of playing a game.

His enjoyment derived more from getting close to animals and designing beautiful enclosures to witness animals expressing their natural beauty within them.

The delighted cheers of the visitors filled him with pleasure and a sense of accomplishment.

Through the process of managing the zoo, he had also continuously learned and progressed, becoming more responsible and ambitious.

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Although Black Whirlwind and Maymay had been rescued by the zoo almost half a year ago and even had a litter of piglets, the staff always maintained a distance, so they still remained wary of humans. Exhibiting avoidance behaviors, they satisfied the conditions for release back into the wild.

Thus, a spot was chosen in the deep mountains, an area devoid of wild boar, as the release site.

Fang Ye had followed the entire process of rescuing the snow leopard, gaining a wealth of experience.

In collaboration with Wang Yan and the School of Life Sciences, they custom-made a GPS harness specifically for wild boars, so that after their release, their movement patterns could be studied.

After anesthetizing the wild boars, the GPS harness was attached.

While they were still under the influence of the anesthesia, they were loaded into transport cages and taken to the predetermined release site.