Good leopard news from China

This 2016 video says about itself:

First ever video footage of snow leopards and common leopards using the exact same location. Filmed in Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve, China.

Footage by Shan Shui Conservation Center, Panthera, Snow Leopard Trust, Government of Zadoi County, Qinghai, and SEE Foundation.

From the University of Copenhagen in Denmark:

Surprised researchers: Number of leopards in northern China on the rise

October 26, 2020

Most of the world’s leopards are endangered and generally, the number of these shy and stunning cats is decreasing. However, according to a recent study, leopard populations in northern China are on the mend.

Leopards are fascinating animals. In addition to being sublime hunters that will eat nearly anything and can survive in varied habitats from forests to deserts, they are able to withstand temperatures ranging from minus 40 degrees Celsius during winter to plus 40 degrees in summer.

Despite their resilience, the majority of leopard species are endangered. Poaching and the clearing of forest habitat for human activities are among the reasons for their global decline.

But in northern China — and specifically upon the Loess Plateau — something fantastic is occurring.

Numbers of a leopard subspecies called the North Chinese leopard have increased according to a new study conducted by researchers from the University of Copenhagen and their colleagues in Beijing.

“We were quite surprised that the number of leopards has increased, because their populations are declining in many other places. We knew that there were leopards in this area, but we had no idea how many,” says Bing Xie, a PhD student at UCPH’s Department of Biology and one of the researchers behind the study.

Together with researchers at Beijing Normal University, she covered 800 square kilometers of the Loess Plateau between 2016 and 2017.

The just-completed count reports that the number of leopards increased from 88 in 2016 to 110 in 2017 — a 25 percent increase. The researchers suspect that their numbers have continued to increase in the years since.

This is the first time that an estimate has been made for the status of local population in North Chinese leopards.

Five-year reforestation plan has worked

The reason for this spotted golden giant’s rebound likely reflects the 13’th five-year plan that the Chinese government, in consultation with a range of scientific researchers, implemented in 2015 to restore biodiversity in the area.

“About 20 years ago, much of the Loess Plateau’s forest habitat was transformed into agricultural land. Human activity scared away wild boars, toads, frogs and deer — making it impossible for leopards to find food. Now that much of the forest has been restored, prey have returned, along with the leopards,” explains Bing Xie, adding:

“Many locals had no idea there were leopards in the area, so they were wildly enthused and surprised. And, it was a success for the government, which had hoped for greater biodiversity in the area. Suddenly, they could ‘house’ these big cats on a far greater scale than they had dreamed of.”

Leopards are nearly invisible in nature

The research team deployed camera equipment to map how many leopards were in this area of northern China. But even though the footage captured more cats than expected on film, none of the researchers saw any of the big stealthy felines with their own eyes:

“Leopards are extremely shy of humans and sneak about silently. That’s why it’s not at all uncommon to study them for 10 years without physically observing one,” she explains.

Even though Bing Xie has never seen leopards in the wild, she will continue to fight for their survival.

“That 98 percent of leopard habitat has been lost over the years makes me so sad. I have a great love for these gorgeous cats and I will continue to research on how best to protect them,” she concludes.

Vegan food on the rise in China

This 5 June 2020 video says about itself:

Not Impossible: China’s Vegan Meat Culture Goes Back 1,000 Years

Vegan meat is all the rage these days. Brands like Beyond Meat and Impossible all have their version of a fake beef patty. But did you know plant-based meat has been part of Chinese cuisine for over a thousand years?

We went to Lily’s Vegan Pantry, which has been selling traditional Chinese mock meat for 25 years, to learn more about veganism in Chinese cuisine. We also talked to the founder of a Chinese company that specializes in faux pork products to understand how the Asian market differs from the West.

From Reuters news agency, 15 September 2020:

Chinese firms bet on plant-based meat as COVID-19 fuels healthy eating trend

BEIJING: A small but growing coterie of Chinese companies are betting on a bright future for plant-based meat products as consumers take their health more seriously in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though still a niche business compared to China’s giant meat supply chain, vegetarian alternatives to meat are gaining ground following health scares like COVID-19 and African swine fever, analysts and industry insiders said.

US-based Beyond Meat said last week it had signed a deal to open a production facility near Shanghai and earlier this year launched a partnership with Starbucks for its plant-based meat products to be sold by the cafe giant in China.

Beijing-based start-up Zhenmeat, whose products include plant-based meatballs, beef patty, steak, pork loin, crayfish and dumplings, is one of many small Chinese companies entering the market. Its “meatballs” are now available on a trial basis at a Beijing store of Chinese hotpot chain Hope Tree.

“Now after COVID-19 consumers are more concerned about health and restaurant brands are responding to this,” Zhenmeat founder and CEO Vince Lu told Reuters in an interview, adding that sales were “up considerably” since June.

Many curious customers at the Beijing Hope Tree restaurant said the meatballs – made from a base of pea and soy protein – tasted like tofu.

“Actually you can tell that it isn’t meat but the feel of it in your mouth is very similar to beef. And I guess that plant-based meat is a little healthier than beef,” said Audrey Jiang, 30.

China Market Research Group Director Ben Cavender said the key to the future of the plant-based meat market was the taste.

“When we interview consumers the vast majority say they’re open to trying these products once,” he said.

“But the big question is how do they like it? Do they see how they can fit it into their diet on daily basis, whether that’s cooking at home or at restaurants? But if they do like it they’ll keep buying.”

Zhenmeat’s Lu said there was a lot of competition in the market but the real competitor was the meat industry itself.

“The most important thing is that our true competitors are not those global giants who have already achieved great success such as Beyond Meat or Impossible Foods,” he said.

“Our true competitor is the whole livestock sector. It’s the animal protein industry.”

Saving Chinese crested terns

This 23 July 2020 video says about itself:

A total of 19 Chinese crested tern eggs have successfully hatched at Jiushan Islands National Nature Reserve in Xiangshan County of Ningbo City in east China’s Zhejiang Province, adding to the number of the extremely endangered bird species. Only about 100 are currently known to be alive in the entire world.

From Oregon State University in the USA:

Saving critically endangered seabird

July 21, 2020

The global population of the critically endangered Chinese crested tern has more than doubled thanks to a historic, decade-long collaboration among Oregon State University researchers and scientists and conservationists in China, Taiwan and Japan.

The project included OSU’s Dan Roby and Don Lyons and was led by Chen Shuihua of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History. When it began, fewer than 50 of the seabirds remained.

“The species is still far from being safe from extinction, but the population is now well over 100 adults and the future is much brighter than 10 years ago,” said Roby, professor emeritus in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Findings were published in Biological Conservation.

First described in 1863, the Chinese crested tern has been a largely mysterious species and is arguably the world’s most threatened seabird.

After 21 specimens were collected in 1937 along the coast of Shandong Province, China, it wasn’t until 2000 that any other sightings were confirmed: four adults and four chicks within a large colony of greater crested terns in the Matsu Islands, Taiwan.

The discovery was big news in the ornithology world, which had generally considered the Chinese crested tern to be extinct. In the years since, breeding has been confirmed in five locations: three along the Chinese coast, plus an uninhabited island off the southwestern coast of South Korea and the Penghu Islands of Taiwan.

The Chinese crested tern is among the nearly one-third of seabird species threatened with extinction because of entanglement with fishing gear, reduction in food supplies, environmental contaminants, overharvest, and predation and other disturbances by invasive species.

“Most seabirds select nesting habitat largely by social cues, whose absence may delay recovery even when there is suitable habitat,” Roby said. “Since the 1970s, new techniques have been developed and implemented to enhance seabird restoration efforts. These techniques are social attraction and chick translocation and have been used in at least 171 different seabird restoration projects conducted in 16 locations in an attempt to restore 64 seabird species.”

Social attraction was the strategy for the Chinese crested tern project, the first major conservation effort for seabirds in the People’s Republic of China.

“Terns feed their young and provide other parental care for extended periods post-fledging, suggesting that chick translocations would likely not result in fledged young that would survive to recruit into the breeding population,” Roby said.

Social attraction involves decoys, recorded bird vocalizations, mirrors, scent and artificial burrows that work in concert to lure adult seabirds to restoration sites with the goal of establishing breeding colonies.

“The most serious immediate threat to the survival of the species was the illegal harvest of eggs by fishermen,” Roby said. “Beyond just taking the eggs, the disturbance associated with fishermen landing on breeding islands to collect eggs or shellfish apparently caused breeding terns to abandon their nesting sites.”

The scientists believed that if Chinese crested terns could be attracted to a site with suitable nesting habitat that was continuously monitored and secured against egg harvest and other human disturbances, the species could have a chance to recover from the brink of extinction.

In 2013, a tern restoration project was launched on Tiedun Dao, an uninhabited, densely vegetated, 2.58-hectare island in the Jiushan Islands, home to a former breeding colony of Chinese crested terns that was abandoned in 2007 in the wake of illegal egg harvesting.

“It’s near the original breeding island of Jiangjunmao but was not known to have been previously occupied by breeding seabirds,” Roby said. “To improve the chances for Chinese crested tern success, we used social attraction techniques to try to establish a new breeding colony of greater crested terns because since their rediscovery, Chinese crested terns had only been found nesting in large colonies of greater crested terns.”

In 2015, Yaqueshan, a 1-hectare island in the Wuzhishan Archipelago, was chosen as a second restoration site, where social attraction would be deployed in an attempt to stabilize the breeding colony there.

Three years later, the researchers attracted a total of 77 breeding adult Chinese crested terns to the Tiedun Dao and Yaqueshan colonies — 88.5% of the known number of breeding adults in the global population for that year.

Also in 2018, 25 Chinese crested tern chicks fledged from the Tiedun Dao and Yaqueshan colonies, or 96% of the known number of Chinese crested tern fledglings produced that year.

“Consequently, we now know for the first time in history that the global population of Chinese crested terns exceeds 100,” Roby said. “The population increase from under 50 to more than 100 is a cautiously hopeful sign that this species can be brought back from the very edge of extinction. The success of this international project is a testimony to what can be accomplished when scientists from China, the U.S. and Taiwan work together toward a common conservation goal.”

Shorebird conservation, new research

This 2016 video says about itself:

Migratory Shorebirds Depend on the Yellow Sea

This marvelously photographed video produced by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology in the USA documents the amazing journeys of migratory shorebirds in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway, focusing on such charismatic species as Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Red Knot and Bar-tailed Godwit, showing their dependence on the food-rich mudflats of the Yellow Sea to be able to undertake their annual migration.

EAAFP Partners and collaborators have helped translate the video into Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Russian. We hope that the video can raise awareness of the importance of the Yellow Sea to these birds and help save these critical mudflat habitats to allow the birds to continue these journeys and for people to be able to wonder at the amazing spectacle of shorebird migration for generations to come.

From Princeton University in the USA:

Study on shorebirds suggests that when conserving species, not all land is equal

June 9, 2020

Summary: Researchers may have solved the long-standing puzzle of why migratory shorebirds around the world are plummeting several times faster than coastal ecosystems are being developed. They discovered that shorebirds overwhelmingly rely on tidal zones closest to dry land, which are most often lost to development. The findings suggest that protecting species requires a detailed understanding of how animals interact with the landscape so that preserved habitats best serve endangered species’ needs.

Princeton University researchers may have solved a long-standing mystery in conservation that could influence how natural lands are designated for the preservation of endangered species.

Around the world, the migratory shorebirds that are a conspicuous feature of coastal habitats are losing access to the tidal flats — the areas between dry land and the sea — they rely on for food as they travel and prepare to breed. But a major puzzle has been that species’ populations are plummeting several times faster than the rate at which coastal ecosystems are lost to development.

Nowhere is the loss of tidal flats and shorebird species more acute than along the East Asia-Australasian Flyway (EAAF). An estimated 5 million migratory birds from 55 species use the flyway to travel from southern Australia to northern Siberia along the rapidly developing coast of China — where tidal flats can be more than 6 miles wide — at which birds stop to rest and refuel.

Since the 1980s, the loss of tidal flats around the Yellow Sea has averaged 1.2% per year. Yet, the annual loss of the most endangered bird species has averaged between 5.1 and 7.5%, with populations of species such as the critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers (Calidris pygmaea) climbing as high as 26% each year.

In exploring this disparity, Princeton researchers Tong Mu and David Wilcove found a possible answer — the birds don’t use all parts of the tidal flat equally. They discovered that migratory shorebirds overwhelmingly rely on the upper tidal flats closest to dry land, which are the exact locations most often lost to development.

They report in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that China’s upper tidal flats provided more than 70% of the cumulative foraging time for the species they studied at two Yellow Sea sites along the EAAF. The middle and lower flats that birds are increasingly pushed toward by human activity were less frequently foraged upon due to the tide cycle, which may be impacting species health and breeding success.

The findings stress the need for integrating upper tidal flats into conservation plans focused on migratory shorebirds, the authors reported.

“This is a new insight into Asian shorebirds, but I suspect that the upper intertidal is disproportionately important to shorebirds in other places, too, such as the East and West coasts of North America,” said Wilcove, who is a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and public affairs and the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI).

“People start at the upper zone and work their way outward, so the best spots for the birds are the first to go,” he said. “It would probably be best to extend current developments farther into the intertidal zone rather than keep building parallel to the coast, which consumes more of the upper intertidal.

“Think of it as advocating for a rectangle with the long side pointing into the sea versus a rectangle with the long side hugging the shore,” Wilcove said.

The study results also suggest that protecting species and their habitats may mean more than designating land for wildlife — it may require identifying the right land to set aside by gaining a detailed understanding of exactly how animals interact with the landscape.

“Recognizing the importance of a kind of habitat to specific species or groups of species takes time, effort and thought,” said Mu, who is the paper’s first author and a Ph.D. candidate in ecology and evolutionary biology.

“Sometimes we just don’t know what to look for, or looking requires challenging some prevalent and maybe false perceptions,” he said. “But the situation is getting better and better. People are paying more attention to environmental issues, and the advances in technology are helping us gain more and newer insight into these questions.”

Mu conducted fieldwork between September 2016 and May 2017 at two well-known stopover sites — one outside of Beijing, the other near Shanghai — for migratory shorebirds in the Yellow Sea region. He focused on 17 species of birds, noting where along the tidal flat the animals preferred to feed.

A key difference to his approach, Mu said, is that most previous research focused on the low-tide period when all the tidal flats are exposed and the full range of intertidal species can be observed.

“It makes sense from an ecological point of view. During the high tides when only a portion of the tidal flats is accessible, the relationship usually still holds for the exposed area,” Mu said. “So, there’s little incentive to look at the periods other than low tide when researchers can get a more complete picture.”

What Mu thinks was missed, however, was that the upper tidal flats provide the most amount of foraging time for birds that have places to be. Even if the lower half of a 6-mile wide mudflat is set aside for migratory birds, they’re not getting the energy they need for the trip ahead during the high tide, he said.

“The value of the tidal flats comes from not only their size, but also how much foraging time they can provide,” Mu said. “The upper tidal area is exposed for a longer period during tidal cycles, compared to the middle and lower areas, which I think permits shorebirds to forage for a longer time and thus get more energy.”

The preservation of shorebirds should be driven by how integral the animals are to the health of intertidal zones, Mu and Wilcove said. In turn, tidal flats are not only vital to other marine life, but also provide people with seafood such as clams and crabs and protection from storms and storm surges that cause coastal flooding.

“Shorebirds facilitate the energy and nutrient exchanges between land and sea,” Mu said. “Because a lot of them are long-distance migrants, they also facilitate the energy and nutrient exchanges across different ecosystems and continents, something that is usually overlooked and underappreciated.”

Wilcove and Mu cited recent research showing that more than 15%, or more than 12,000 square miles, of the world’s natural tidal flats were lost between 1984-2016.

“Some of the greatest travelers on Earth are the shorebirds that migrate from Siberia to Southeast Asia and Australia,” Wilcove said. “Now, they’re declining in response to the loss of the tidal areas, and the full range of benefits those tidal flats provide are in some way being diminished.”

Hainan gibbons fight for survival

This 29 May 2020 video says about itself:

There are only around 30 Hainan gibbon individuals left in the world, but conservationists see a potential future for this animal.

In the 1970s, the Hainan gibbon almost went extinct on Hainan island off the southern tip of China. Habitat destruction and poaching brought populations down to a mere 7-9 individuals.

But a new gibbon couple has given hope for the rarest primate in the world. A male and female were recently heard “dueting”, which signifies their relationship is established, experts say.

Chinese wine cups in Dutch Rijksmuseum

This 3 April 2020 video from Amsterdam in the Netherlands says about itself:

Like to drink in style? Curatorial assistant Denise Campbell shows us this amazing set of twelve Chinese wine cups in a new episode of #Rijksmuseumfromhome. 🏠 Each ‘month cup’ represents the flower of the month. Cheers! 🍷

Eating cats, dogs banned in Shenzhen, China

This 2017 video from Switzerland says about itself:

First European restaurant to serve cats

This restaurant serves cats. The La table Suisse chef asks the question “Why do we eat some animals but not others?” The video has a surprise ending – keep watching!

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

The Chinese city of Shenzhen has banned the eating of dogs and cats. According to authorities, dogs and cats have a much closer relationship with humans than other animals. …

Scientists suspect that the coronavirus has been transmitted from animals to humans. The first infections were found in people at an animal market in Wuhan, where, eg, bats, snakes and civets were sold. Chinese President Xi already banned the sale and consumption of wild animals in February.

Animal rights organization Humane Society International praises Shenzhen’s decision. “Shenzhen is the first city in the world to take the lessons learned from this pandemic seriously and make the changes needed to avoid another pandemic”.

Extreme right abuses coronavirus for anti-Asian racism

This 30 March 2020 video from the USA says about itself:

Asian communities facing ‘racist aggression’ amid coronavirus pandemic

As panic escalates around the coronavirus, so do cases of aggression against the Asian community.

In recent weeks inward blame has become outward harassment across the world. Asian American studies professor Russel Jeung started tracking attacks on a new site called STOP APPI HATE. In the first eight days, the website received more than 650 reports of discrimination, largely in the Asian American community.

Sue Chen, President of the Chinese Association of West Michigan (CAWM), said these acts of racism are wrongfully targeting individuals of Asian descent, even as medical experts have found no evidence to support the virus being spread by a specific race.

“Much of this aggression is centered to the coronavirus … The Asian face makes people think this is from an Asian country. If you have a face similar like that, you will be the target,” Chen said.

By Steve Sweeney:

US senators accuse World Health Organisation of ‘peddling communist propaganda’ as they whip up anti-China hysteria

by Steve Sweeney

US REPUBLICANS have continued to stoke anti-China rhetoric over the coronavirus, as a senator demanded an investigation into the World Health Organisation over its “lies” in support of Beijing.

Republican Rick Scott demanded a Congressional inquiry, insisting that the body should be “held accountable for [its] role in promoting misinformation and helping communist China cover up a global pandemic.”

It reminds me of 1950s McCarthyist days when the extreme right in the USA accused (Republican) President Eisenhower of being a ‘Russian spy‘.

Good coronavirus news from Wuhan, China

This 15 March 2020 video is called Wuhan doctors Celebrate Closure of Last Temporary Coronavirus Hospital after Dramatic Fall in Cases in China.

At last, some good coronavirus news …

Anti-Chinese racism in the Netherlands

This 6 February 2020 video says about itself:

The coronavirus outbreak has brought increasing reports of racial abuse against Chinese communities in the UK and Europe.

Translated from Dutch NOS radio today:

A student complex at Wageningen University was daubed and smeared last night. Texts like ‘Die Chinese’, and ‘Chinese corona‘ are written in an elevator of the complex. The elevator was also smeared with faeces.

“This is more than discrimination and xenophobia. The person who does these kinds of terrible things lives with us but tries to destroy the lives of all tenants,” one of the residents writes on Facebook. According to the resident, many Chinese students live in the building.

A Chinese flag has also been torn from a room door and there has been thumping on apartment doors. It is still unclear who is behind it. The police are aware of the destruction. “My colleagues visited this morning to investigate the matter,” says a spokesperson. “In the meantime, everything has been cleaned up.”

Thousands of students affected by New Zealand’s anti-Chinese travel ban: here.