Chapter 648: Enhancing the Local Exhibit

The first live call between the gibbons was a resounding success!

However, expecting the female cousin to migrate several kilometers following the love songs wasn't something that could be achieved with just one call.

It's akin to online dating for humans; it takes at least a few months from online chatting to meeting in person. You can't expect them to fly over after just one conversation.

The next plan was to let the two gibbons continue their calls gradually, developing their relationship over time.

Meanwhile, Fang Ye was busy with other tasks.

August 22 was Yun Duo's birthday!

They planned to throw a birthday party for the panda. Zhuang Zhuang's birthday was in September, and celebrating them separately would be too troublesome, so they decided to celebrate both together.

After all, animals don't understand what birthdays are; as long as there's food, they're happy.

Zhuang Zhuang: ?????

For other animals' birthdays, a simple birthday cake usually suffices. For instance, when celebrating Jiao Jiao's birthday, Fang Ye gave her a meat cake made of pork rolls and chicken legs.

As a national treasure and flagship species, pandas attract special attention, so their birthdays are celebrated with extra care.

Of course, it's not just about celebrating the birthday. Like other zoo festivals, it attracts visitors to the zoo and provides an opportunity for related educational activities. Visitors can learn while having fun, increasing their awareness of conservation.

With school starting in September, it's a last chance for kids to have fun at the zoo before heading back to school.

At the zoo entrance and plaza, panda balloons were set up to create a festive atmosphere.

The panda's cake was made from bamboo, with bamboo tubes arranged in the shape of a cake, forming three layers for a grand appearance.

Fresh bamboo leaves were inserted in the bamboo tubes, along with fruits like watermelon and apples, making it a delicious and luxurious cake.

They also prepared a cream cake for humans. After happily singing the birthday song, everyone could enjoy the cake together with the pandas, doubling the joy.

There would also be a knowledge quiz with prizes, a regular activity at Linhai Zoo festivals. This time, the questions were about pandas, and the prizes included panda-themed plush toys, stickers, shirts, and badges.

Panda memorabilia is usually very popular and sells out quickly, so this activity was sure to see enthusiastic participation!

The grand prize was a giant panda plush toy, standing 2 meters tall. Winning it would let someone experience what it's like to hug a panda while sleeping.

They considered having the panda exhibit guides wear panda costumes for added fun for the kids but decided against it.

Answering the kids' curious questions was tiring enough, and wearing a panda costume would be too exhausting.

Aside from the panda birthday party, there was also the construction of the local exhibit area.

Fang Ye pondered how to make the local exhibit area look more natural and authentic.

He decided to create a farmhouse courtyard as the exhibit's core.

The courtyard's backdrop featured a traditional rural stove!

A large stove with a round wooden lid, with space underneath for adding firewood.

A bamboo sieve hung on the wall, and the corners were filled with props like old brooms, pickle jars, and chipped bowls. The walls, blackened by smoke, had a picture of the Kitchen God, evoking memories of rural life.

In this environment, they could house a black-browed rat snake, a common non-venomous snake.

It might hide by the stove or between the pickle jar and the wall, requiring some effort to find.

Stoves often attract mice due to food remnants, and the warmth from the firewood aids the snake's metabolism, making black-browed rat snakes a common sight in rural woodpiles, where they warm themselves.

Housing a black-browed rat snake in such an environment would enhance the rustic atmosphere!

The goal was to create a lifelike setting that could dispel visitors' fear of snakes and provoke thought.

How should humans and animals coexist in the same space? Should we be afraid of snakes? What is the correct way to handle them—certainly not by killing them on sight?

The front featured large farmlands, followed by the farmhouse courtyard, with a corridor draped in vines and various vegetables like eggplants hanging down. Visitors might catch a glimpse of a porcupine carrying food.

In the back, there was a grain storage warehouse with neatly stacked bundles of straw, seemingly ready to feed cattle and sheep.

Foxes peeked around the granary, playing and chasing each other, occasionally jumping onto the high walls and disappearing in a flash.

Next was a small forest on the hillside with wild boars rolling in the mud, covered in dirt, and otters playing by the creek and pond.

This setup integrated the entire exhibit, expanding from the rural courtyard to the surrounding forests and streams.

Another focus was the otter exhibit.

To make the exterior of the exhibit look natural, visitors had to walk through an underground tunnel to see the underwater scenery.

China has three otter species: the small-clawed otter, the Eurasian otter, and the smooth-coated otter!

Otters once had a widespread distribution in China, found wherever there was water.

However, in the 1950s, they suffered massive commercial hunting, with tens of thousands of otter pelts exported annually, leading to their near extinction. Now, they are rarely seen.

Even after the establishment of the Wildlife Protection Law, which listed otters as second-class protected animals, their populations continued to decline.

The smooth-coated otter hasn't been seen in decades and may be extinct.

The Eurasian otter has disappeared from many provinces, with only a few remaining in parts of eastern and southern China, where populations have declined by 80%-90%, nearing extinction. The small-clawed otter is only recorded in protected areas like Yunnan.

Previously, infrared cameras set up in the wild captured images of Eurasian otters.

However, the otter exhibit featured small-clawed otters.

Eurasian otters are mostly solitary and highly nocturnal, only active at night and hiding during the day, making them unsuitable for display.

Most zoos in China house small-clawed otters, which are social animals and move in groups, making them more visually appealing. Eurasian otters are rarely kept in zoos.

Substitute animals are acceptable, like how zoos keep blue peacocks while introducing green peacocks.

This part of the local exhibit needs to explain everything clearly to visitors.

Are there really wild otters in Linhai? What species are they? Where do they live, how many are there, are their populations increasing or decreasing, or have they disappeared? Since we have Eurasian otters here, why are we housing small-clawed otters?

Visitors need to understand the history and current status of local animals, and their future is in our hands. This way, the local animal narrative is complete.