Following the northward migration of wild elephants, several recent news related to whales and dolphins have broken into the public eye.
"XiaoBu" visited Dapeng Bay, and there were two stranding accidents that made people feel sad
At the end of June, a juvenile Bushi whale with a body length of about 8 meters began to appear in the waters of Dapeng Bay in Shenzhen, and in the pictures taken by people, a whale with a black body surface leisurely "walking around" in Dapeng Bay, rushing out of the sea from time to time with its mouth open to prey on fish, and circling around the seabirds.
It is estimated that the whale "Xiaobu" will eat 180 kilograms of fish in a day, and is affectionately called "the king of dry rice" by netizens. The Brinell whale has a unique way of predation, its open mouth can be almost at a 90-degree angle, its mouth is under the water, the small fish will flow into the mouth along the seawater, at this time, the mouth is closed, the seawater is filtered out, and the fish is swallowed by it.
Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Luo Qiaoqiao
Chen Mo, a cetacean research expert and associate researcher of the Guangxi Academy of Social Sciences, introduced that the Bushi whale is a large baleen whale mainly distributed in tropical and subtropical waters, and is a national first-class protected animal. In recent years, The Brinell whale off the coast of China has been mainly concentrated in the waters of the Beibu Gulf of Guangxi. Baleen whales were also widely distributed in the waters around Shenzhen in the 1950s and 1970s, but after the 1980s, the number of whales in the area has decreased.
Well-known popular science blogger Meow Naruga engaged in cetacean conservation work, she said that in recent years in China's waters to see large cetaceans such as Brinell whales, minke whales, large village whales, sperm whales, large-winged whales, gray whales, etc., recently only Brinell whales have regularly appeared in China's offshore waters to prey on records, other large cetaceans are mostly accidental passing, "Small Cloth" also brought for China for the first time large cetacean diving and predation in the wild and other behavior data.
As for the reason why "Xiaobu" stayed in Dapeng Bay, some experts believe that it may be accidental sexual behavior, which may be related to the recent suspension of the surrounding waterways. In addition, according to previous records, there have been Bryde whale groups in the waters off Hong Kong, the South China Sea began to ban fishing on May 1, and the increase in fish in Shenzhen's coastal waters, it is not excluded that the whale is the Hong Kong Bridg whale group due to the pursuit of fish stocks and fell into Dapeng Bay.
Another news about whales is a bit heart-wrenching.
On July 6, local villagers found 12 melon head whales stranded on the Beiyang Dam beach in the waters off the waters of Toumen Port in Linhai City, Taizhou City, Zhejiang Province, and such large-scale stranding is relatively rare. Rescuers arrived and found that 3 of them had died, 2 were released to the sea that night, the remaining 7 were sent to the local aquarium and marine farms for observation and treatment, so far a total of 6 have been released to the sea, 5 dead, and 1 continues to stay in the temporary care point for treatment due to poor health.
Zhang Peijun, an associate researcher at the Institute of Deep-sea Sciences and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that around the world, stranded cetacean rescue is very difficult, the success rate is low, and it is not easy to release 6 heads.
Compared with The Brucess whale, the melon head whale is much smaller, they are about 2.5 meters long, they are extremely social animals, the community relationship is complex, and it belongs to the national second-level protected animals.
To restore strength to the frail whale, the rescue team continued to infuse the whale's tail. Shangguan News Photo by Dong Tianye
Coincidentally, on July 9, two national grade II protected animals, the rough-toothed dolphin, were found stranded in Ninghai County, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, and released after more than five hours of rescue.
The two recent cases of cetacean stranding refer to the phenomenon in which individual or group cetaceans swim to shallow waters, are trapped by the low tide, and cannot swim back into the water on their own. The reasons for this are also more complex, such as the abnormal behavior of the leading cetacean and dolphin with a large force, or the influence of disease, geomagnetism, underwater noise interference, water pollution and other factors. Later, the cause of the two strandings could be determined by analyzing the sound recordings of cetaceans and detecting blood, as well as investigating water quality and noise disturbances in the surrounding waters.
"Humpback Whale Song"
The story of humans and whales, the behemoth of the ocean, has been going on for thousands of years. Canadian national treasure author Farley Moart's book The Wreckage of the Whale provides an overview of the history of human whaling.
Humans began hunting Biscayne right whales off the coast of Portugal, and possibly the now-extinct Atlantic gray whale, as early as two thousand years BC. At that time, human-whale fights often seemed long and cruel, human weapons were only bony pointed harpoons with barbs, and small boats sank in the sound of trumpets. Whaling groups can kill two or three whales a year, which is enough for several families to eat for a long time.
It wasn't until the 13th and 14th centuries that things began to change qualitatively. Europeans built large ships that could stay at sea for a long time, and Basque harpooners standing at the bow of the boats threw a heavy wrought-iron javelin at a slow-moving, low-vigilance gray whale or right whale, and the javelin was firmly fixed to the boat by a curved hook, making it difficult for the whale to break free. What's more, people no longer kill whales for food. Instead, they peel off layers of baleam, cut off baleen, and then flip the giant whale body into the water and let it drift out into the sea. In increasingly urbanized European societies, whale oil was used for illumination, and whale baleen was made into "horned" windows and utensils. In this way, the whale became a commodity, and human beings were no longer insignificant to the whale tribe, but became a natural enemy of death.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, new weapons invented by the Norwegians made giant whale species such as blue whales that swim fast and have little buoyancy no longer rivals to humans. By 1912, all the large whales, including blue whales, two right whales, fin whales, sperm whales and humpback whales, had almost disappeared from the North Atlantic; gray whales in the North Pacific were no longer found.
Since then, the Norwegians have discovered that there are still huge schools of whales in the Antarctic waters, and a new round of slaughter has begun, and the combination of human destructive talents and evil forces derived from technology has dyed the cold, blue waters of Antarctica a deep red.
Human weapons and equipment are becoming more and more advanced, and the number of cetaceans is also decreasing, such as the largest animal on the earth, the blue whale, which weighs more than 100 tons and cannot protect itself completely, and was once on the verge of extinction in hunting. In the era of the whaling industry, there are a large number of novels, documentary books and movies that praise the massacre, and everyone praises the bravery and manhood of the whale executioner.
Fast forward to 1967 and things seem to have changed a little. Roger Payne, an American biologist who studies animal echoes, heard a strange cry from an underwater sound collection device, confirming that it was emitted by a nearby humpback whale. He analyzed the sounds with his wife at the time, Catherine, an elephant research expert, and found that it had its own rhythm and specific themes, more like some kind of singing than a call. In 1970, Payne released the recorded whale call into an LP call called "Humpback Whale Song", which soon sold more than 100,000 copies and is still the best-selling natural sound record in the world. The following year, he also published a cover article of the same name in the journal Science, deciphering the complex songs of whales during the breeding season. Payne's idea is to save the species from their increasingly endangered situation by educating more people about their unique emotional expressions and thinking about the similarities between the species and ours. It can be said that after the 1970s, the image of whales in human popular culture has become incomparably pure and positive.
Payne's series of efforts have been very successful, famous singers have incorporated samples of whale songs into the album, and more researchers have been inspired by him to join the observation and exploration of whale migration, vocalization and other habits. In 1982, the International Whaling Commission issued a ban on commercial whaling, which came into effect in 1986. But some countries, such as Japan, have not stopped whaling, and Japan withdrew from the International Whaling Commission at the end of June 2019.
Workers on a Japanese whaling ship walk on a blood-stained deck after dismembering four endangered minke whales. Xinhua News Agency/AFP
Rare birds and beasts that have disappeared for many years are "returning"
In addition to whales, there has been more news about other wildlife recently. From the south to the north, from the inland to the seashore, the rare animals that have disappeared for many years are "returning".
Qilian Mountain Nature Reserve photographed one of the world's most mysterious cats, the desert cat, a national first-class protected animal;
Desert cat photographed at Xining Wildlife Park in Qinghai Province (file photo). Xinhua News Agency (Courtesy of Xining Wildlife Park)
In the mountain forest at an altitude of more than 2,000 meters in Yunnan, three brown-necked hornbills were photographed;
Brown-necked hornbills (March 7, 2021). Xinhua News Agency (Photo by He Haiyan)
Heilongjiang Siberian tiger into the village, Yunnan Asian elephant northward migration;
Elephant herd taken on May 28 in Eshan County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
There are also wild giant pandas, snow leopards, etc., rare and endangered wild animals frequently "appear", and canine raccoons have even been found to break into residential areas in Shanghai, Wuhan and other cities.
Although the causes are different, these phenomena do reflect to a certain extent the achievements made by China in biodiversity conservation and ecological restoration.
As wild animals encounter humans more and more frequently, how to get along with them has become a question worth thinking about.
Undoubtedly, the sound of loving and protecting animals occupies the mainstream today, and the rescuers' efforts to rescue the stranded whales in Taizhou have touched many netizens, some villagers have their hands and feet soaked white, but the watering has not stopped; there are firefighters who have been soaking in the sea for 8 consecutive hours, and their skin has been seriously sunburned.
Not disturbing is my gentleness
In the "elephant tour group" and "small cloth" popular network, people are "circled by their cuteness", more need to think calmly.
What wild animals really need is a safe and fertile habitat, a comfortable life that is not disturbed, and all the proximity and excessive entertainment in the name of love can cause harm to them.
After analyzing the behavior data of "Xiaobu", the scientific research team found that when there is ship activity within 200 meters of the surrounding area, its diving time is extended, the frequency of predation is reduced, and the duration of accompanying predation behavior is reduced. It shows that the ship activity has a negative impact on the animal behavior, increasing the animal avoidance behavior.
According to this, the scientific research team suggested that ships and other human activities in the sea where animals are infested should be strictly restricted, and the distance between ships and animals should be controlled as far as possible at more than 300 meters (ships within 300 meters should be stopped); the speed of ships outside 300 meters should be controlled within 5 knots.
Brinell's whales appear in the waters off Shenzhen. Source: Shenzhen Dapeng New District Comprehensive Office public number
Previously, there were a number of network anchors broadcasting live in the places where the yunnan elephant herd passed, and bloggers followed the elephant herd for many days and picked up their leftover pineapples to "bo eyeballs". Improper onlookers can easily frighten wild elephants and can pose a danger to both humans and herds.
The northward migration of elephant herds should be a vivid lesson in ecological civilization and wildlife protection, rather than a farce of "hunting traffic" for some Internet celebrities. After the spotlight leaves the animals, research and conservation efforts will continue.
As the famous French social anthropologist Levi Strauss once reminded, we must redefine the relationship between man and animal, human beings and heaven and earth are one, and "anthropocentrism" that separates man from heaven and earth is not advisable. In his essay Structuralism and Ecology, he argues: "We should understand that, however insignificant, plants and animals not only provide man with the food and clothing he needs, but from the very beginning they are the source of man's strongest aesthetic feelings, the first but already profound source of speculation in his intellect and morality, and thus learn to better love and respect nature and the life in it." ”
Column Editor-in-Chief: Liu Lu Text Editor: Yang Rong
Source: Author: Yang Rong