I have a wildlife zoo-Chapter 630 - 629: When the Gunshot Rings Out

Fang Ye couldn't help but ask, "Why has the gibbon population declined so rapidly?"

Fan Peng said, "The main reason is still the loss and degradation of habitat, with the planting of cardamoms being a major cause of habitat degradation."

Cardamoms Fang Ye of course knew, a very common spice, usually used in braised pork, or cooking mutton to remove the gamey taste.

Fan Peng said, "Cardamom is a shade-loving plant, and to cultivate it, people clear the underbrush and vines without cutting down all the trees because if they did, the cardamoms would be scorched dead by direct sunlight during the dry season. That's why they selectively prune some of the trees.

From the outside, the forest might look unchanged, but in reality, it's left with just some big trees; young saplings are cleared before they have a chance to grow, so the forest has no opportunity to regenerate. Once the big trees die, these woods will have huge gaps, but locals won't replant."

Fang Ye got it instantly, "This is a bit similar to the problem faced by Asiatic elephants! The forest just looks green on the surface, but it's actually hollow."

In recent years, the conflict between Asiatic elephants and humans has become more intense as primary forests were replaced with cash crops like rubber, including the cultivation of cardamoms under the canopy.

Nowadays rubber might not be as lucrative as before, but the planted rubber trees haven't been cleared out; the forest can't regenerate. It's easy to destroy, but too hard to repair.

Asiatic elephants, these huge creatures, when they come into conflict with humans, whether they are killed or stomp someone to death, attract some attention. Gibbons live quietly in trees with little interaction with people; they vanish silently, without causing even a ripple.

"In order to study the impact of cardamom cultivation on the behavior of the Skywalker hoolock gibbons, we chose two gibbon-populated places for comparative studies.

The first research station we built with our own hands, brick by brick, setting up the framework ourselves, dragging bamboo rafts from the mountains to construct walls, then thatching the roofs, and even hanging up a gibbon conservation poster."

Because here in Gaoligong Mountain there's a very famous plant, the big tree cuckoo, cuckoos are usually small shrubs, but the big tree cuckoo can grow up to 28 meters tall, unique to this region, and is a world-renowned tree species.

Botanists and horticulturalists from around the world try every means to witness the grandeur of the big tree cuckoo.

A couple of kilometers from our station, there's a cluster of big tree cuckoos, attracting many visitors during the blooming season. They often stop by for a rest and some tea, so we hung a gibbon poster to educate them about gibbons."

This 𝓬ontent is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

As Fan Peng got to this point, he took a sip of rice wine, revealing a nostalgic look, but his eyes quickly became melancholic, "Unfortunately, just four months later, the group of gibbons we were studying got shot."

Raising his hand, he mimicked a "bang" of a gunshot, "Four shots, and a gibbon family was gone."

Fang Ye's heart tightened, his brow furrowed, "How could they dare!"

Perplexed, "Why hunt gibbons though? To capture them as pets?"

Fan Peng gave a wry smile, "Maybe someone in their family or a friend has epilepsy and they use gibbons to treat it. There's a legend about gibbons that since they can swing so deftly through trees without issue, perhaps they can cure epilepsy."

Fang Ye sighed, "Ai!"

Fan Peng added, "Of course, customs vary from place to place; some use gibbon bones in traditional medicine, and in some places, hunting gibbons rarely happens because locals believe that killing gibbons brings disaster."

Fang Ye nodded. The relationship between religion, folk customs, and wildlife is very close, and it's not necessarily negative.

Some "good men and women" recklessly release animals, releasing snakes into the vicinity of communities, invasive species such as red-eared sliders and common plecos into rivers and lakes. I've even heard of people releasing crocodiles recently, buying small ones from farms and setting them free in lakes.

Of course, they don't know the kind of environment these creatures need to survive, and when they're fished out a couple of days later, they're already dead, which is also a huge waste of manpower and resources.

This kind of blind animal release is not doing good but committing evil.

In places like Tibet, with sacred mountains and lakes, the principle of equality for all living things has played an excellent role in protecting the snowy environment and creatures like the snow leopard that inhabit the highlands.

Fan Peng spoke up again, "There are also people who capture gibbons to keep as pets, but only the young can be tamed.

Unlike other primates, gibbons place great importance on family and would fight to the death to protect their family members' safety.

When poachers attempt to capture a gibbon's child, its father is killed first, followed by siblings, and finally, the mother, who clings to her infant. Once the young are targeted, none of the family members will be spared.

The infants, who typically cling tightly to their mothers, may fall from tens of meters up in the treetops if the mother dies, leaving them unable to survive.

From poaching to transport, behind one pet gibbon are 239 of its kind dead. Even as pets, their chances of survival are low and they often die after a couple of years."

Li Xing shook his head and said, "Sometimes on social media, I see those owl cafes or videos of monkeys dressed up in human clothes, and there are tons of comments below praising how cute and well behaved they are, or expressing envy and the desire to have one. I can't find it amusing at all."

Fang Ye said, "When Yang Xiaochao and her crew came to the zoo to shoot a variety show, I also communicated repeatedly with the production team, hoping not to convey the wrong message to the audience."

These animals are cute and very charming, but they are not suitable to be kept as pets. Wild animals and pet 'cuteness' are two different things.

He then filled their cups again.

Li Xing said, "Zoo Director Fang is very responsible. I see some zoos use this as a selling point, like orangutans smoking or taking selfies hugging people."

Fan Peng continued, "After the gunshots, we were still holding on to a sliver of hope, wondering if the gibbons had hidden somewhere else and were too afraid to call out. We stayed in that place for another six months but never saw that gibbon family again. They probably really did perish at the hand of guns. We had no choice but to abandon that monitoring station.

Then we moved to a new monitoring station, close to the highway, which made logistics convenient. Sadly, the gibbon population here was particularly small. When surveyed, there were three, one male and one female forming a family.

This family originally had a child, but for some unknown reason, it died. Later they had another, and a few years ago they had one more, so now this family has four members.

There's also a lone female, the cousin of the male in the family."

Fang Ye raised his eyebrows, "Oh?"

"Yes, that's the one we're trying to find a mate for."