Chapter 678: Little Birds in the Rice Fields

The two cubs hopped along the path where the sunlight poured down, joyfully bouncing around!

Hong Dou quickly followed them, fulfilling her motherly duties.

Otherwise, if the little ones played happily and ran too far, they would start looking for their mother, and upon realizing she was gone, they would start crying.

Fang Ye watched the little ones play for a while with a smile, then stood up, greeted Li Zi, and left the panda exhibit.

"Let's go, let's take a walk around the native exhibit area!"

The viewers were reluctant to leave: "Oh, the panda cubs are so adorable!"

"Pandas are one of those rare animals that stay cute from childhood to old age! That's why pandas are treasures from heaven."

"By the way, when will the giant pandas have babies? I want to see giant panda cubs drinking from a bowl!"

Fang Ye glanced at the comments and laughed: "We just celebrated Yun Duo and Zhuang Zhuang's birthdays during the summer break. They just turned five, which is the age when they can start mating. We'll try to introduce them next spring and see if they can spark some love. If we're lucky, we'll have cubs to see."

"Wow, I'm excited!"

"I heard that giant pandas can't mate until they're 7 years old?"

"Why don't you let them meet earlier? Shouldn't they start building a relationship early?"

Fang Ye explained: "Captive giant pandas reach sexual maturity a bit earlier than those in the wild!

As for why we don't let them meet, first of all, adult giant pandas start living alone. If they stay together outside of the mating season, they might fight.

And as the saying goes, 'Absence makes the heart grow fonder,' which is also true for giant pandas!

If they see each other all the time, there won't be much attraction when it matters. If they haven't seen each other for a long time, they will suddenly burst with intense passion.

Of course, the peak mating period for giant pandas only lasts a few days, so it's not like we don't prepare at all before putting them together. During the early stages of their estrus, we swap their enclosures so that they can sniff each other's feces and get familiar with each other's scent.

We also play the female's mating call for the male panda to ignite his inner fire, and show him videos of pandas mating, so he knows what to do before we put them together."

"Hahaha, is it that fun?"

"Do pandas really need to watch videos?"

"I've never heard of something so interesting!"

Fang Ye said: "This idea of showing videos to pandas is my own concept and hasn't been put into practice yet! Because breeding giant pandas in the wild is relatively easy, but it's more difficult in captivity. I thought maybe they need some learning models."

"The director has some great ideas!"

Chatting with the viewers, Fang Ye reached the native exhibit area.

At the entrance of the native exhibit area, a patch of lush green rice was growing vigorously. Under the sunlight, it appeared to have a faint yellow hue, resembling jade, looking vibrant and full of life.

A stream flowed quietly along a stone channel, shimmering like broken gold.

A small squirrel climbed down from a tree and burrowed into the dense bushes.

Quack quack~

A dozen or so gray-brown ducks leisurely swam among the green rice plants, sometimes gathering together, sometimes spreading out.

Chirp chirp chirp~

A gentle breeze blew, causing the rice leaves to sway lightly. Accompanied by the melodious and lingering bird songs from the rice fields, it unknowingly relaxed one's mind.

The viewers, looking at the scene in front of them, exclaimed in amazement: "Wow, there's farming in the zoo!"

"They planted a field just to create a native exhibit area, that's hardcore."

"The rice was planted earlier this year! It's specifically for children to experience farming. I suspect the director created a native exhibit area just for this field."

"It's so beautiful! Perfectly matches my ideal rural scenery, away from the city's hustle and bustle. I want to live here!"

Fang Ye walked past the rice field, admiring the beautiful scenery. Suddenly, he paused, showing a look of surprise.

"Huh?"

He beckoned Lan Li over, signaling her to turn the camera.

"What's the director discovered?"

"I don't see anything?"

The viewers were puzzled.

A breeze blew, causing the rice leaves to sway, revealing a bent rice stalk with a small bird perched on it.

Its head and back were yellowish-brown, somewhat resembling a sparrow, but its chest was yellow.

The melodious song was coming from this bird.

Fang Ye said: "Do you see that bird? Does anyone recognize it?"

"Nope!"

"It looks like a sparrow!"

"I recognize it, it's a Yellow-breasted Bunting!"

Fang Ye said: "This is a Yellow-breasted Bunting, a very famous bird! In Guangdong, it's called 'Hehua Sparrow,' in the capital, it's called 'Yellow Gall,' and it has various other names.

Although it's not related to sparrows, it used to be the most widespread and numerous bird species on the Eurasian continent, with an estimated population of millions or even more.

From Finland, Russia's Far East to Japan, they could be found everywhere. Every autumn, they would follow the cold air, migrating south from the north, passing through China to their wintering grounds in several southern provinces."

A viewer keenly noticed Fang Ye's wording: "Used to be?"

"That's right, in just a few decades, the population of Yellow-breasted Buntings has declined by 95%, jumping five levels on the endangered species red list, from Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, to Critically Endangered. Now they are a first-class protected species."

"Wow, why did their numbers drop so fast?"

Fang Ye sighed: "In the past, Yellow-breasted Buntings were a popular delicacy in some areas of Guangdong, even mentioned as such in bird-watching guidebooks, showing how deeply ingrained this impression was.

In the 1990s, you could find Yellow-breasted Buntings as a dish from street stalls to restaurant menus. Even the 'Sanshui Food Festival' used Yellow-breasted Buntings as a selling point, with tens of thousands of buntings being caught, attracting many tourists.

With such massive hunting, their numbers plummeted, and their price became increasingly expensive. It was no longer just food but a distorted status symbol.

Although the country has long banned the consumption of Yellow-breasted Buntings, some hotels still secretly sell them to chase profits.

You could say, Yellow-breasted Buntings were eaten to near extinction."

The story of the Yellow-breasted Bunting left the viewers deeply moved.

"Ah! Heartbreaking, I hope they don't become the next Passenger Pigeon!"

"As a native of Guangdong, this is the first time I'm hearing about this. How could anyone bear to eat such beautiful birds?"

"When I was a kid, they were indeed sold a lot. You could see strings of Yellow-breasted Buntings hanging at shop entrances. But I never ate them, it seemed kind of gross."

"When I was young, you could see trees full of these birds! I haven't seen them in years."

"Why do some people always want to eat wild animals! This bad habit needs to change."

"Civet cats, pangolins, Yellow-breasted Buntings, all so innocent for people's cravings!"

"Protecting them now is not too late. We all need to work together."