China's biodiversity conservation efforts forge a thriving ecosystem
Ecns.cn
October 9, 2021
From five to over 50,000, the population of an endangered plant species
endemic to southwest China has risen within two decades thanks to the
country's efforts in rescuing living organisms.
Acer yangbiense, a critically endangered maple tree confined to Yangbi
County in Yunnan Province, was included in a rescue program as part of
efforts to protect the most threatened species in China, focusing on "plant
species with extremely small populations."
Rescue at Full Tilt
Sun Weibang, a researcher with the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, said that the so-called "species with extremely small
populations" have four major characteristics -- immensely small population,
narrow or discontinuous habitat, being seriously disturbed by human
activities, and on the verge of extinction at any time.
In 2010, the Yunnan provincial government approved an outline of a 10-year
plan for rescue and protection of such species in the province, listing out
62 plants and 50 animals. It was followed by a five-year national program
beginning in 2011 to rescue plant species with extremely small populations.
The rare maple Acer yangbiense was discovered by accident, when Chen
Yousheng, a PhD student from the botany institute saw maple samples in
2001. He found that a specimen, marked as Acer gongshanensis, collected
from Yangbi County was different from other samples marked the same.
In April 2012, he went to Yangbi for an on-the-spot investigation and found
such plant species, spotting only five in the wild. Later, the species was
named Acer yangbiense.
"It has furry leaves, like a fat palm. The fruit has a pair of wing-like
appendages, similar to dragonfly wings," Chen said, noting that the habitat
of such maple species has distinctly degraded and suffered due to human
activities.
Pollination and seed germination were two huge obstacles for scientists to
breed the endangered maple.
Since the plants were far apart, few seeds were produced due to low
pollination efficiency. Researchers tried grafting but failed.
Later, Zhang Guoshu, a local villager in Yangbi, came up with a traditional
method -- cutting off the blooming branches from one tree and tied them to
another tree. This technique induced successful pollination.
In the autumn of 2008, a batch of seeds from the pollinated maple tree was
harvested.
In the natural habitat, the germination rate of seeds of this species is
quite low. The local forestry department sowed more than 50,000 seeds, and
only five seedlings were obtained.
But, the team led by Sun Weibang broke the predicament and mastered the key
technology of seed germination, breeding more than 1,600 seedlings.
So far, more than 50 seedlings of the maple species have been planted in
the Kunming Botanical Garden. Over 4,600 seedlings grew in their original
habitat in Yangbi County, while some 38,000 are about to root in the wild.
"The species is now out of danger of extinction," Sun said.
"Humanity stands at a crossroads with regard to the legacy it leaves to
future generations. Biodiversity is declining at an unprecedented rate, and
the pressures driving this decline are intensifying," stated The Global
Biodiversity Outlook 5, a flagship publication of the Convention on
Biological Diversity.
According to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, among the 4,357
vertebrates registered in China, 932 are in critically endangered,
endangered, or vulnerable conditions.
Experts also found that 3,879 higher plants, out of 35,784 registered ones
in China, are threatened.
Decades-Long Efforts
The Asian elephant is another species with an extremely small population --
around 300 in Yunnan while no more than 200 existed in the 1980s.
The mammals were lately in the global spotlight when a herd of 15 wandered
in Yunnan migrating northward.
Neither the herd nor residents along its migrating route came in harm's
way, which is unsurprising considering the decades-long efforts made by the
government and locals in protecting the species.
In August 2015, an abandoned newborn elephant with umbilical cord infection
was found by an elderly woman in her woodshed in the city of Pu'er. She fed
the baby elephant some water and called up the wildlife rescue station.
Soon after, the calf was sent to the Asian elephant breeding and rescue
center in the neighboring Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
The veterinary staff performed debridement to treat its inflammation and
ingested nutrition. As elephant milk could not be arranged, the
veterinarians decided to feed the baby elephant with goat's milk, and hence
it was named "Yang Niu" -- the two words meaning "goat" and "girl" in
Chinese, respectively.
The first person Yang Niu saw after regaining consciousness was Chen
Jiming. Chen had spent six years studying the domestication and breeding of
wild elephants before he was recruited by the Asian elephant breeding and
rescue center.
To help Yang Niu grow, the staff at the center arranged two female
elephants as "temporary mothers" for the baby.
But at the outset, the two just drove Yang Niu away. It was most likely
that the elephant calf had the smell of goat. The staff came up with an
idea and smeared Yang Niu's body with the dung of the two female elephants.
It worked, and the two female elephants began to nurture the calf.
After six years at the reserve, Yang Niu, once at death's door, has revived
to vitality, now 170 cm in height and 1,300 kg in weight.
The elephant has become a social media sensation. The staff started an
account on the popular Chinese video-sharing app Douyin, the Chinese
version of Tik Tok, to share with the public Yang Niu's daily life. The
videos have garnered nearly 10 million likes.
To date, the center where Yang Niu grew up has rescued more than 20 wild
elephants.
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