Chapter 625: Designing the Native Habitat Exhibit

The zoo's rescue center sometimes houses animals with severe injuries that cannot be released back into the wild. These animals can be placed in the native habitat exhibit.

However, the rescue center hasn't encountered such cases yet!

Either the injuries are too severe and the animals don't survive, or the remaining ones are actively being treated and rehabilitated.

Recently, Fang Ye came across some news about another zoo that had rescued a snow leopard. Despite the snow leopard being healthy, the zoo planned to exhibit it instead of releasing it back into the wild.

They shamelessly claimed, "Our zoo simulates the snow leopard's natural habitat. We even installed air conditioning to mimic the snowy, rocky environment, greatly enhancing the snow leopard's welfare."

The snow leopard was doing perfectly fine in the wild, with the vast snowy mountains as its territory. It didn't need air conditioning or the fake snow mountain backdrop they had created.

Fortunately, vigilant netizens reported the situation, and the forestry bureau investigated. Within a few days, the zoo had no choice but to release the snow leopard back into the wild.

Such behavior is truly despicable.

A genuine zoo: Combines entertainment, breeding, rescue, research, and conservation education, allowing visitors to relax and have fun while raising awareness about environmental and animal protection, contributing to a better world.

A fake zoo: Uses the guise of animal protection to do business, capturing rare wild animals.

But let's get back on track.

The native habitat exhibit should be grounded and relatable, so having overly precious animals wouldn't be suitable.

For example, including a tiger might not resonate with visitors, even though tigers once roamed widely and left traces in Linhai long ago. But since they have been absent for so long, they wouldn't fit the theme of the native habitat exhibit.

During previous investigations of wild boars, infrared cameras were set up in various nearby villages. Wang Yan and his team organized the data, identifying the animals that frequent the area.

These animals could be selected for the exhibit.

Fang Ye had given it a lot of thought and quickly decided on wild boars, red foxes, raccoon dogs, porcupines, and otters, with plans to expand the exhibit later.

Starting with a small farm, the native habitat exhibit would be built, utilizing the nearby vacant land.

The exhibit should include a pond. The small pond next to the experimental field is too small, so a larger pond with extensive reed beds around the edges would be perfect. This not only creates a native atmosphere but also attracts more local bird species.

In addition to the pond and reeds, planting native trees like hackberry and crops like peanuts, corn, and sweet potatoes would enrich the landscape. These crops are also favorite foods of wild boars and porcupines!

Having these crops helps visitors understand why these native animals live here and how large-scale farming and land development have reduced and fragmented their habitats, affecting their lives.

The native habitat exhibit should not only showcase native animals but also educate visitors about their past and present, how humans interact with them, and why these changes have occurred. This way, the exhibit truly reflects its theme, differentiating it from other animal exhibits.

With a rough idea in mind, Fang Ye began designing the otter exhibit.

Initially, he considered housing otters with gibbons, but the gibbon exhibit is adjacent to the ring-tailed lemur exhibit, sharing a section of the moat. This could lead to otters escaping.

So, he decided to place them in the native habitat exhibit. Otters are charming animals and deserve special attention!

The otter exhibit must have a clean water environment!

The exhibit would feature a pond and a stream with a pebble-covered bottom.

In addition to the stream, varied ground cover is essential, including dry sandy areas, humus soil, wood chips, leaves, rocks, and tree branches. Large logs and rocks enrich the environment and provide shelter for otters, while hollow logs offer sleeping spots.

Complex tree branches allow otters to hide, rest, scratch, and play.

A small island in the pond would be connected by large logs and small branches.

Otters can swim ashore or walk across the logs.

Otters' underwater behavior is fascinating!

The exhibit would be designed with glass walls, like the hippo exhibit, allowing visitors to observe otters swimming and playing underwater.

There would be both shallow and deep water areas, giving otters the freedom to choose.

A rich environment allows animals to express a wider range of behaviors.

Visitors can observe otters' different activities in shallow and deep water areas.

For the wild boar exhibit, wild boars prefer living under forest cover, using trees and shrubs for shelter. Besides shrubs, boars love wallowing in mud, covering themselves in mud as a natural barrier against UV rays and insect bites.

Despite their love for mud, wild boars are actually very clean animals!

During their stay at the zoo's rescue center, Black Whirlwind and the others always used a specific corner of the pen as their toilet.

So, the wild boar exhibit should include various trees, a mud wallow for playing, and a stream for cleaning their bodies and food.

Wild boars forage by rooting in the ground, so the exhibit's ground should be soft soil.

Visitors would need a shaded area to view the exhibit, protecting them from the sun.

A shade structure resembling a farmhouse with climbing plants like gourds or morning glories would provide shade, creating a green, rustic atmosphere and enhancing the immersive experience for visitors.

Fang Ye spent half a day designing!

He was not entirely satisfied, feeling the exhibit environment wasn't natural enough.

But there was no rush; he could adjust the details gradually.

It's like a chef cooking a dish. Making complex dishes with many ingredients and long cooking times is one thing, but the real test of skill is in simple dishes like stir-fried shredded potatoes.

Cutting the potatoes into fine shreds, controlling the heat and timing, requires solid culinary skills.

The panda exhibit's yin-yang design is impressive and high-end, easily earning unanimous praise.

The native habitat exhibit, with its simple theme, requires a delicate touch. It should subtly evoke a sense of exploring the countryside with friends and unexpectedly encountering the animals living there.