The Lunar Year of the Ox is coming, and the Shanghai Zoo's 2021 Year of the Ox Zodiac Cultural Series will soon be on the scene, spanning from February 10 to April 5, when it will provide citizens with a cultural and entertainment feast containing traditional culture and popular science education.
According to experts from Shanghai Zoo, bovines belong to the even-ungulate family, which is the most successful and progressive family of ungulates, with about 140 species in the world and about 28 species in China. In addition to the cattle family of the bovine subfamily, which is collectively called cattle, and the sheep clans of the sheep subfamily are collectively called sheep, the others are collectively called antelopes. Antelope, yak, wildebeest, impala, horned antelope and so on are all bovine animals. "So taxonomically, cattle are cattle, sheep are cattle, and antelopes are cattle."
Shanghai Zoo currently has more than 90 bovine species of 14 species, of which 12 species are exhibited in the herbivorous area, including Thar sheep, rock sheep, yak, Sichuan antelope and Qinling antelope distributed in China, as well as Mofran sheep, Indian black antelope, curved horned sword antelope, white-faced wildebeest, rotary horned antelope, Elan antelope and wildebeest from all over the world.
For example, the national first-level key protected wild animal antelope, with a strange and handsome appearance, a large and raised back ridge like a brown bear, two sloping hind legs like an African spotted hyena, short limbs like a domestic cow, a taut face like a moose, a wide and flat tail like a goat, and two horns that look like a wildebeest, so it is called "six unlike".
Rock sheep, a national second-level protected wild animal, is known as the "Spider-Man" who travels through the mountains. It is mainly distributed in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and the surrounding mountains, is an important food source for predators such as snow leopards, wolves and brown bears, and the distribution and survival status of rock sheep populations will greatly affect the survival of other rare wild animals. However, the rock sheep has also practiced the kung fu of "flying cornice walking wall" to avoid the hunting of natural enemies, and can use the limited foothold on the 70-degree slope wall to balance the body and walk freely, and is a "climbing expert" in nature.
The very large Elan antelope is the second largest antelope in the world and the slowest running antelope. Males can weigh up to 900 kg. They look very burly, almost not like "sheep" more like "cows", and have muscular breasts, necks and shoulders. The Shanghai Zoo's Elan antelope family thrives, with several baby antelope babies born here every year.
Also "thriving" are the horned antelope, which is classified as critically dangerous by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature). Living in the Sahara Desert region of Africa, so named because of the spiral twisted horns on their heads, they are now just one step away from extinction in the wild. Fortunately, the breeding of the horned antelope is relatively easy, and the Shanghai Zoo recently gave birth to a horned antelope cub. The little guy who is currently full moon is hairy and tolerant of drought but not cold. In order to let the little one have a warm winter, the keeper specially turned on the warm equipment indoors, and added straw to make a warm soft bed for it. Nowadays, the baby horned antelope who has just reached the full moon is healthy and lively, attracting many tourists to stop.
It is reported that the series of zodiac cultural activities also include the photo exhibition "Into the Wild Home of the Antelope" held in cooperation with the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve in Sichuan, the Year of the Ox - the Year of the Ox - the Year of the Ox Zodiac Cultural Exhibition, the Year of the Ox - Tourists' Independent Exploration Activities, the "Discover different Cows" Wild Fun 100 Lectures, and the "Year of the Ox Super Cute Animal Exploration Camp Parent-Child Activities".
Source: Author: Luan Yinzhi