Recently, the northward migration of Asian elephants in Yunnan has aroused wide attention of the international community. Why the elephants moving to the north? Should we stop them? In this regard, Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, vice president and Secretary General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), has recently interviewed by the Beijing News reporter, to analyze and answer the above questions, from the perspective of human habitat and biodiversity conservation.
Reporter: What do you think is the reason for the elephant migration this time?
Dr. Zhou Jinfeng: The typical migration, from one place to another, is regular, including season, route, time and other factors. However, the northward migration of elephants for this time is not a typical migration. It is an accidental event.
I think it should be attributed to two reasons, which are internal and external reasons. The first reason is external. There are problems in the traditional habitat of elephants, which can be divided into three situations: firstly, there may be problems in the food supply of the habitat. Secondly, the problem of habitat space is whether it can accommodate large animals such as elephants and tigers. If the density is too high, these large animals need to be scattered. Another possible reason is environmental change. For example, climate change may cause regional environmental change, such as too dry, too wet or too hot. However, we still need to conduct further investigation and research to find out which of the three situations is the cause, or there is a superposition effect.
The first reason is internal. When evolving, nature has written down two important concepts into almost all life genes: one is static, and the other is dynamic. The static requires adapting to the local environment, forming the characteristics of the local environment, and being able to survive in the local. In the evolution of elephants, their skin, body, nose and so on are all designed to adapt to local environment. This is because of the survival of the fittest. Only by surviving can they have offspring and further adapt to local environment.
Another is the dynamic. Plants cannot migrate, so once the (environment of) plants change, such as the invasion of fungus or climate change, this plant will be extinct. However, sometimes plants achieve the migration by being eaten by animals and migrate with the animals. What are the migration genes of plants? Their fruits need to move, just like dandelion. Why does dandelion seed bring a small umbrella? This is the dynamic factor that nature writes in the dandelion gene. Therefore, the diversity of habitats is preserved by nature to make the species multiply and survive, and is the history written in genes through billions of years of evolution. For all creatures, including elephants, it's written in their genes that they need to migrate to keep their species going.
Just like East Africans have traveled all over the world on foot, only migrating people, migrating creatures, can survive. This is biological diversity. We say that biodiversity is difference, including habitat differences and the most extensive migration, rather than a large quantity.
Some people wonder, why did it migrate today? We all know that genes have dominant genes and recessive genes. Different people at different times begin to migrate because their dominant genes are dominant. In conclusion, from the macro logic, migration is caused by internal and external factors.
Reporter: Elephants have caused attack damage to people and economic losses to the villagers along the way. In this case, how should we deal with it?
Dr. Zhou Jinfeng: On this issue, scientists have reached an authoritative consensus based on years of research that biodiversity is the basic condition of the human survival. Biodiversity includes genetic diversity, so not only the genes of elephants, but also the genes of other creatures need to be preserved.
Currently, due to the accelerated loss of biodiversity, the earth has entered the sixth mass extinction. There have been five mass extinctions on the earth. Dinosaurs died out precisely in the Cretaceous 65 million years ago. Although dinosaurs were at the top of the food chain and no animals can beat them, they were still extinct because of the habitat extinction led by the loss of biodiversity. Therefore, it is an urgent and arduous task to protect biodiversity.
Protecting biodiversity is also to protect human habitat. The protection of elephants is also an aspect of biodiversity protection. It seems that elephants do some harm to our farms, people and property, but compared with those serious consequences caused by the loss of human habitat that there is no way for human beings to survive on the earth, we should look at these problems from a macro perspective. We should protect elephants.
Elephants have several functions for humans. First, the elephant is the "cultivator" of the tropical rain forest. The diet and walks of the elephant have an impact on the tropical rain forest. Some plant seeds are excreted with its feces. Elephants are an important part of the ecosystem and an important force of carbon neutralization.
Our habitat and ecosystem is a complex and irreplaceable living system that evolved by the earth over billions of years. While, one of the important reasons for elephants entering human villages is that humans have entered the elephant habitats. The traditional habitat of elephants is much larger than it is now. However, their homes are occupied, so they migrate, leading to some human animal conflicts. In the face of these conflicts, we should manage with scientific methods and views.
In response to this event, CBCGDF reacted quickly and established a working group of elephant experts as soon as possible. On 7th June, the working group had a communication with scientists from Kenya, Africa. During the discussion, international experts strongly agreed with our approaches. For biodiversity conservation, elephants are first-class protected animals in our country and also the endangered species in the world, so our tolerance and care for them is very correct.
Translator/Holly
Original Chinese article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/F3TkWfYiNP-7lHmmG4Rpcw