From Fences to the Wild
The deer went through three stages – introduction to their native country, relearning natural behavior and reintroduction to wildlife. In 1998, eight milu, escorted by people, walked out from behind the fences. This was the first step in their return to the wild, and also marked the end of a century of being raised by humans. Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve released more deer into the wild in 2002, 2003 and 2006. Now 215 milu are living wild – the biggest wild milu population in the world. Another wild group of about 200 lives in Shishou in Hubei Province. A smaller group of about 60 lives in the Dongting Lake area in Hunan Province, on the south side of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. That herd is an offshoot of 20 deer that escaped from the Shishou reserve during a big flood in 1998 and their offspring.
To prevent inbreeding and reproduction of inferior genes, scientists carried out a population control exchange project in the Dafeng reserve. They introduced four deer from the Yuanyang reserve in Henan Province in 2006, and two more from Wuxi Zoo in Jiangsu Province in 2009.
Particular Milu Culture
The milu has charted historical records from unearthed oracles to the local chronicles of the early 20th century, spanning a period of over three million years.
In the Nanhaizi Milu Park Museum, there is a special cemetery for the world’s extinct animals. Of the 100 tombstones, 99 are memorials to different birds or mammals. Stones fall to the ground like dominos, warning people to cherish life and care for animals because it is said that when a species dies out, 10 to 30 of the most closely related species will follow. The remaining stone is for humans themselves. People hunted wild animals, destroyed their habitats, and blindly introduced exotic plants and animals that destroyed the ecological balance. With the continuation of these factors, more and more species will vanish.
In 2010, the Dafeng reserve was named China’s first wetland science popularization and demonstration area by Wetlands International-China. Every year, about 300,000 students come to Dafeng to learn about ecological environment protection. Thus far, the Dafeng ecological education base has received students from 68 schools, from primary schools to colleges, and lessons on the milu have been included in primary and middle school textbooks. The Dafeng reserve has also held public promotion activities such as Asian Wetlands Week, receiving guests from Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Macao, Japan, South Korea,and the China-UK 400 youth exchange program. These activities have promoted international awareness of the milu’s plight.
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