I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 623 - 622: Pheasant Forest and Penguin Pavilion

Aside from the local species exhibit, Fang Ye also planned to introduce some new animals!

For instance, golden pheasants, Lady Amherst's pheasants, and silver pheasants – creating a pheasant forest.

The male golden pheasant boasts magnificent plumage, with a crown of golden silken feathers on its head, and deep red feathers on its breast and abdomen. The bird's feathers include the complete spectrum of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple, like a dazzling rainbow.

Its long tail feathers, like fluttering ribbons, make it a very famous ornamental bird.

A poem praises, "Atop the mountain, the pheasant wears gold as its crown, draped in vibrant colors so profound!"

The golden pheasant is also considered one of the original avian inspirations for the mythical phoenix and indeed bears a strong resemblance.

The back feathers of the Lady Amherst's pheasant are metallic green, and its tail and neck are adorned with cloud-like white feathers, edged with black patterns.

Compared to the vibrant and intense colors of the golden pheasant, the Lady Amherst's pheasant looks more dignified and elegant, with an ethereal quality of its own, each species of pheasant with its unique features.

The Crouching Dragon in the Sea of Bamboo themed exhibit area in the zoo currently only houses giant pandas and red pandas. Including the golden hair monkeys and gibbons from Primate Paradise, this is quite limited, so adding a pheasant forest would make it even more perfect.

Fang Ye had thought about bringing in a few Sichuan takins or golden takins, but takins are indeed quite rare, considered a national treasure on the same level as giant pandas and golden hair monkeys. Not many zoos have takins, and after making inquiries far and wide, none were available for transfer, so he had to sadly give up the idea.

Then he started to design the pheasant forest.

When displaying pheasant species, it's important to prevent the invasion of harmful creatures and also to prevent startling of visitors.

Since almost all pheasants are timid and shy, if they are excessively exposed to human gaze, they may suffer from stress that affects breeding or even causes death. Therefore, a pheasant exhibit needs ample greenery for coverage.

Bamboo makes for excellent cover and fits the theme of the Crouching Dragon in the Sea of Bamboo. Besides clusters of bamboos, it is necessary to have shrubbery with varying heights, and to hide feed in these bushes to provide enrichment.

Most pheasants nest on the ground, so in addition to shrubs, there must be sufficient soil area for dust-bathing. Their environmental needs are very similar to those of the green peafowl.

Pheasants generally are active on the ground during the day and at night they roost on pine trees or other tall trees in valleys or on cliff sides. As dusk falls, they take flight with a beating of their wings and settle on the branches of the tree canopy, hopping from lower branches and climbing up level by level.

Thus, planting some tall trees in the pheasant forest will offer them the chance to display this kind of behavior.

When winter comes, adding some snow with a snowmaking machine, watching golden pheasants fluttering amongst the snowflakes on tree branches will be a truly beautiful sight.

In fact, well-cared-for pheasants can make quite an impression on visitors, a pity that many zoos keep pheasants in environments that are nothing more than bare soil, looking much like poultry raised on farms, significantly detracting from the visitor experience.

Since pheasants are alert and easily startled, susceptible to injuring themselves by flying into enclosures, pheasant enclosures should not use glass walls but rather stainless steel woven mesh. This can dissipate the force of impact in case of collision, minimizing harm to the animals.

To enhance visual appeal, the color of the stainless steel mesh can be treated.

Beyond these pheasant species, there have been visitors who've expressed to Fang Ye their desire to see shoebill storks, hoping the zoo would bring them in.

Shoebill storks have risen to fame in recent years, becoming a charismatic internet sensation, a truly fascinating bird.

They have a large stature and quirky appearance, giving off a foolhardy and dopey vibe, and are known as the "derpy dogs of the bird world."

Sometimes they perform unexpected actions, like bowing their heads and presenting feathers as gifts, endearing tales that further contribute to their popularity.

However, the shoebill stork's bowing is not a sign of understanding politeness or anthropomorphic sentiment; it's an imprinting behavior. The act combined with tapping their bill is a means of communication with mates or peers. It's just that when raised by humans from a young age, they mistook humans for their own kind.

Such an interesting internet-star bird as the shoebill stork is obviously something Fang Ye would also love to have a pair of in the zoo.

He has been inquiring since the construction of the Crane Pavilion, and it has always been in the plans for the introduction. Unable to find any domestic cases for transfer, he contacted overseas zoos, and he has finally located one that is willing to transfer.

Once the whale-headed storks are transported over and go through quarantine, they can be put on exhibit!

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There's no need to specially prepare an exhibition area for the whale-headed storks, just placing them in Crane Pavilion or by Waterfowl Lake will do.

The construction of Pheasant Forest didn't cost too many green leaf coins, just a few adjustments on the basis of the bamboo forest environment were sufficient.

Now in the zoo, there are many animals that fly in the sky and run on the ground, but not so many that swim in the water.

Fang Ye was considering whether it was time to put the construction of an aquarium on the agenda.

However, constructing an aquarium would consume a great amount of green leaf coins.

The aquarium he envisioned would allow visitors to stand in front of a transparent wall tens of meters high, watching the swaying aquatic plants, soft sea anemones, and transparent jellyfish dance in the water, while schools of brightly colored clownfish, bullet fish, and flipper fish shuttle between purple and red gorgeous corals, as if they were looking at the entrance to another planet.

It wouldn't be just a fish tank of several dozen to a hundred cubic meters, filled with a bunch of small fish, switching up the fish tank every so often to keep different small fish inside—that would be far too shabby.

But such a large-scale aquarium would cost a staggering amount to build, starting at a minimum of tens of millions of green leaf coins, and possibly even several hundred million to a billion green leaf coins.

There are only a few aquariums of this scale in the world.

If an aquarium can't be built right away, perhaps some animals like seals or penguins could be kept first.

Fang Ye was preparing to introduce some African penguins, a type of penguin very common in domestic zoos!

The environment of the exhibit would be similar to the hippopotamus exhibit, with the most important feature being the glass curtain walls that allow viewing of the penguins swimming underwater.

Some stone cliffs by the water would be arranged, as penguins diving is also a very attractive behavior to observe.

African penguins belong to the temperate penguin category, and their suitable temperature is around 18 degrees Celsius. Here in Linhai, there's no fear of them feeling cold, but care must be taken to prevent overheating, so air conditioning is essential.

Once the penguins get used to the environment here, activities like penguin parades could be organized.

...

Early morning.

Fang Ye came to inspect the back area of the elephant enclosure and happened to see Kong blowing a flute to the elephants.

"Woo~ Woo~ Woo~~"

Kong, engrossed in his playing, blew the flute with each note off-key and discontinuous.

The elephants seemed not to appreciate the music, as Pingping and Bobo kept their distance, standing at the door waiting for it to open so they could go out and exercise, while Meiling picked up some sand and directly threw it onto Kong.

Stop blowing! Stop blowing! Keep it up and my head will explode!

Seeing Fang Ye coming over, Qing smiled helplessly.

Fang Ye scratched his head in frustration!

That was some wildly off-key blowing, sounding like a fire extinguisher being used.

He had originally thought that playing the flute casually would help build a bond with the elephants, but why did it seem to have the opposite effect?