An exhibition about wildlife in Shanghai opens.
An exhibition displaying the city's wildlife has kicked off at the Shanghai Natural History Museum.
The exhibition, running through November 28, introduces the city’s insects, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds, allowing people to savor the city’s natural charm and giving food for thought about how to make space for wildlife in urban areas.
Chirping insects, croaking frogs and singing birds are among the wildlife species nearest to human beings,while few people are aware of the threats of urbanization to them.
Not only endangered species such as the panda and tiger, but also small creatures around us need protection, according to He Xin from the museum.
Amphibians are among the species most affected by urban sprawl. Of nearly 7,000 amphibians in the world, nearly one-third are facing extinction, and numbers of many more are reducing. In Shanghai, there were 11 frog species in the 1980s; that number decreased to eight in the 1990s and only six at present.
Reptiles, however, face a worse plight, according to He.
Reptiles prefer warm places, and Shanghai is not an ideal place for them. As modern structures are quickly springing up and covering the city’s landscape, the habitat for reptiles is shrinking.
A boy looks at a model of Shanghai's wetlands.
Luckily, birds are more welcomed. Shanghai now has 504 bird species, accounting for one-third of the country’s total, thanks to years of effort in restoring wetlands, zoning natural reserves and building parks and green lands, He said.
In March 2018, a rarely seen black-throated loon was spotted on the lake in Pudong's Century Park. Instead of the coast, the bird from the Arctic Circle chose to moult in downtown Shanghai.
However, there's still a long way to create a friendly environment for birds, He said, giving an example of a tragedy in September 2019. A fairy pita was found dead on a road in Changning District. An autopsy suggested that it died after flying into a building.
The museum launched a WeChat mini program called Tingjianwanwu, literally "hearing everything," in August last year, inviting people to record sounds from nature when they walk around in neighborhoods or parks and share with experts.
So far, there have been over 30,000 users and 433 of them have left nearly 3,000 useful pieces of information. Some of their achievements are displayed in the exhibition.
“The participation of the public will help us make a great leap forward,” He said. “It helps us better understand the living environment of wildlife and finally build a database of the city's wildlife.”
A fairy pita that was believed to have died after colliding with a building is displayed as a specimen.