A Dream for a Better World

Chinese monal pheasant, a kind of large fowl, is also the national bird in Japan. Body length of the Chinese monal pheasant ranges from 58cm to 82cm with weight from 692kg to 1400kg. At the top part of head and parts of face as well as ears of male Chinese monal pheasant, people could see green light. At the back and back part of neck, the color is red copper. Copper color can be found at the middle part of back as well as shoulders. Feathers are white around the lower back and waist. Lower body part of male Chinese monal pheasant is black. We can see that the animal is quite colorful from the description mentioned above. Under the sunshine, feathers of Chinese monal pheasants’ upper part look like rainbow after heavy rain.
Chinese monal pheasants mainly live in mountainous meadow, shrubs as well as naked rock areas with altitude ranging from 3000m to 5000m and they especially prefer cliffs, mountainous shrubs and meadow. As winter comes, they often move to shrubs at the border of forest with altitude around 3000m. Chinese monal pheasant is the typical bird living on plants and it mainly depends on fruits, seeds and berry of various plants. Chinese monal pheasants often dig roots and stems of plants in mountainous areas by mouth instead of claws as food. Therefore, the mouth of Chinese monal pheasant is quite sharp and hard. The bird also eats gravel as well as charcoal. In winter, the snow is very thick so it can just eat charcoal. Chinese monal pheasants like going out during daytime in groups and they rest on low tree branches at night. The bird is rather alert. Once it feels danger, it would rush into shrubs. Chinese monal pheasants have strong legs so they are good at running.
Chinese monal pheasant is the unique species in Japan and it can also be traced in China. In the past years, the bird was quite common. Since the 21st century, it has become rare. In China, people have found the animal in west part of Sichuan, northwest part of Yunnan, east part of Tibet, southeast part of Qinhai as well as south part of Gansu province. In some parts of Sichuan province, the distribution density of Chinese monal pheasants ranges from 0.01 to 0.1 per hectare. There are no more than 200 Chinese monal pheasants in Gansu and less than 100 in Tibet. According to some statistics, since 1980s, the quantity of Chinese monal pheasants in Baoxing, Sichuan decreased half. At present, as the grazing area of yak is increasing, more and more habitats of Chinese monal pheasants are being destroyed. Apart from habitat destruction, illegal hunting of the bird has also resulted in the decreasing of Chinese monal pheasant. In the local region, people often hunt the animal as delicious food. Nowadays, Chinese monal pheasant has been considered as an endangered animal in the world. In China, the bird has also been categorized as the protected animal at the national level one.

Spotted linsang belongs to Viverridae, formally called prionodon pardicolor. Spotted linsang is small with body length ranging from 37cm to 38cm and weight of 400g to 600g. The face part of spotted linsang is relatively long and narrow. Spotted linsang has soft, thick and short hairs in yellow brown color on the body. The color on the back is darker compared with other parts of the whole body. Two black stripes as well as many brown spots can be found on the back. The tail length of spotted linsang in cylindrical shape, is as long as that of the body. Toes of spotted linsang are well developed and they can extend freely.
Spotted linsang is a kind of animal which likes wet and hot living environment so its habitats mainly concentrate in rainforest, shrubs at the borderline of forest, shrubs in subtropical forest and tall grass of broad-leaved forest with altitude no more than 2000m. As for the specific distribution area of spotted linsang, they have been traced in Southeast Asia including southwest part of China. The animal often makes nests on the ground or tree holes by tree branches and leaves. Spotted linsangs are rarely found stay in groups. In stead, they often appear alone. Spotted linsangs mainly come out in the morning, at dusk or at night. As a kind of animal living with plants, spotted linsangs are good at climbing trees. It is found that spotted linsangs live on frogs, small birds, mice as well as insects and 30% to 50% food of the animal is mouse. Occasionally, they often go to some villages nearby to hunt poultry as food. In May and June every year, spotted linsangs start to produce babies.
Spotted linsang has eye-catching spots on the body as well as soft fur which is the high quality material for making coats. Therefore, the animal ever suffered from great misfortune in the past because people have hunted and killed them in a large number. Nowadays, the quantity of spotted linsang is quite small and people are forbidden to hunt and kill them rampantly. In fact, decreasing of spotted linsangs can be attributed to the following factors. First, as mentioned previously, a large number of spotted linsangs have been hunted and killed. Second, as vast original forest has been developed as farmland, most habitats of the animal have been seriously destroyed. Thus spotted linsangs are encountering great threat for survival. Third, air pollution has also made spotted linsangs live a hard life. In addition, spotted linsangs in a small quantity do not have great reproductive capacity. Currently, spotted linsang has been listed as the endangered animal. In China, it has also been considered as the protected animal and natural reserves for spotted lisangs protection in Tibet and Yunnan province have been set up. In addition, people also try their best to feed the animal in artificial environment. In such case, people responsible for feeding spotted linsangs have to pay much attention to food arrangement as well as changes of the animal.

Pig-tailed macaque is a kind of protected animal in China. The name of the animal comes into being because most hairs of the tail are short and sparse, similar with those of pig’s. male pig-tailed macaques are larger than female ones. Body length of male pig-tailed macaques ranges from 5ocm to 77cm while the body part of female ones ranges from 40cm to 57cm long. Male pig-tailed macaque weighs from 6kg to 15kg and the weight of female pig-tailed macaque is from 4kg to 11kg. Body hairs of pig-tailed macaque is yellow brown and hairs on the head are very short, like a hat from distance. Forehead of the animal is narrow and the snout is long and wide so pig-tailed macaque looks like baboon. Like other kinds of monkeys, pig-tailed macaques are fond of catching lice for each other. In fact, they are really combing hairs. Certainly, such behavior often happens between male pig-tailed macaques and female ones. Pig-tailed macaques are very cute and they often communicate with each other by raising eyebrows, squinting as well as pouting. Some research has showed that those pig-tailed macaques could speak and they even have their own accent which of course is different from that of people’s. As they encounter various danger, they can give out different scream. Pig-tailed macaques live in forest so they have to distinguish family members from others by sound and each family has its own accent which is different from that of others.
Pig-tailed macaques live in tropical and subtropical forest and they can be found in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Burma, Malaysia, India and China etc. In China, people mainly have traced the animal in southwest part including Tibet and south part of Yunnan province. Pig-tailed macaques like staying in groups and they are very good at picking coconuts. It is said that a pig-tailed macaque can pick several thousand coconuts a day. People in Thailand train pig-tailed macaques to pick coconuts. Pig-tailed macaques mainly live on fruits, leaves, insects and small birds.
In the past years, people only knew that pig-tailed macaques lived in Burma, Thailand and India. Until 1950s, people started to trace the animal in Yunnan province of China. However, the quantity of pig-tailed macaques in China is quite small. According to some survey, about 900 to 1000 pig-tailed macaques live in Yunnan province. In some part, the animal has been extinct. Shrinking habitats of pig-tailed macaques and malicious hunting made by human beings have caused rapid decreasing of the animal. In the year 1992, only about 10 pig-tailed macaques were found in Wuliang Mountain. At present, pig-tailed macaques have been extinct in the area. In other countries where pig-tailed macaques are also found, the animal is also facing the same serious threat for survival. In Yunnan province, pig-tailed macaques are found in six natural reserves. Xishuangbanna reserve is a national reserve which could provide ideal living environment for pig-tailed macaques. Nowadays, pig-tailed macaques have been well protected and we hope that the quantity could gradually increase.

Binturong is the largest viverridae animal in China as well as the second largest one among all kinds of viverridae animals in the world. Female binturongs are bigger than their male peers, similar with small bear in shape. Length of binturong’s tail is almost as long as that of its body, ranging from 70cm to 80cm. The long tail is also strong enough to wind tree branches so as to help the animal look for food. Bingturong weighs 8kg to 13kg so we can see the strength of its long and strong tail. Bingturong has long, sparse, coarse and fluffy hairs in black color, mixed with light brown. Bongturong is the only animal with plain hairs among all kinds of viverridae animals for other categories are born with stripes. The coarse and fluffy hairs on bingturong’s tail could play an role as the fifth hand because it could catch and hold things. In fact, there are only two kinds of carnivorous animals whose tails have the special function in the world. In eastern hemisphere of the earth, bingturong is the only mammal whose tail can catch and hold things. Bongturong has three kinds of subspecies of which peninsula subspecies scatter in Philippine and they are the largest subspecies. In foreign countries, people can trace bingturong in Nepal, Sikkim, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippine. In China, bingturong mainly lives in southwest part including Yunnan and Guangxi. In a word, bingturong lives in southern part of Asian tropical rainforest as well as monsoon forest with altitude no more than 800m. Although bingturong belongs to carnivorous animal, it doesn’t have sharp canine. Therefore, the animal mainly lives on fruits, birds’ eggs, small birds and animals.
In the past years, bingturong could not be widely found in China. At present, people can only find them in southwest part of Yunnan province and some border areas of south part of China. In Xishuangbanna, as the habitat has reduced, the quantity of binturong has rapidly decreased. In west part of Yunnan province, there are only about 10 bingturongs alive. It is estimated that there are less than 200 bingturongs in China and bingturong has become a kind of endangered animal. As for reasons of bingturongs’ decreasing, they are closely related with people’s unreasonable activities without any doubt. Destruction of primary tropical forest is considered as the first and major factor for bingturongs’ reduction. Since 1970s, vast original forest in southwest part of China has been destroyed rampantly. Consequently, habitats of the animal were destroyed and they faced great challenge for survival. In addition, bingturongs in China mainly spread in border areas with small quantity as well as fragmented distribution areas. In such circumstance, bingturongs are quite fragile. In other countries, bingturongs are also encountering the same misfortune. In Malaysia, local people even buy the animal as pet at home. Nowadays, bingturong has been listed as a kind of endangered and protected animal in the world and in some parts, the quantity of bingturongs starts to increase. Anyhow, we look forward to more good news.

Aye-aye is named because of its long fingers as well as toes. Aye-aye is similar with big mouse with body length up to 36mm to 44mm. The tail of aye-aye is longer than that of its body about 50mm to 60mm. The weight of aye-aye is 2kg. Aye-aye has long and thick body hairs which are 10mm long. Aye-aye possesses big ears and it only has 20 pieces of tooth whose structure is like those of mouse. In addition, legs of aye-aye are longer than its arms. Aye-ayes mainly perch upon big branches or trunks of trees of tropical rainforest and they build nests in tree holes as well as branches. At present, the tiny monkey has been traced in the costal forest of east part of Madagascar. Aye-ayes like eating insects, cranes, coco and mango. If fed by human beings, the rare and precious animal also eats banana, egg as well as jujube. When the animal gets food, it always knocks tree bark and gets close to it to hear whether there are worms or not. Aye-aye usually comes out at night along or in couple. Aye-aye looks differently from other animals. It looks like big mouse but when it jumps, it is similar with kangaroo. Reproductive peak for the animal focuses in February and March and aye-ayes produce babies every two or three years. In addition, they can only produce one baby one time.
Aye-aye is a kind of animal which could help to keep the ecological balance of forest. Even so, it is considered as the ominous animal by local people in Madagascar because its wow is quite nasty. Aye-aye wows crisply and it hears like that it cries. In addition, yellow eyeballs of aye-aye could give out mysterious glow at night, which looks like a dreadful ghost. Therefore, local people think that if aye-aye jumps onto their body, death would come to them. In such case, it is impossible for local people to be friendly to the animal and once they see aye-aye, they would kill it without any hesitation. What is more, people also press dead aye-ayes against stakes so as to drive the misfortune away. As human beings have killed precious aye-ayes in a large number, the quantity of the animal has decreased rapidly. In addition, about 1500 years later, people from other regions, for example, Indonesia, arrived in the area and started to cut down trees squirrelly. Vast forest became farmlands as well as ranches and the acreage of forest reduced less than 20% of the original forest before degradation. Consequently, ideal habitat for wildlife including aye-aye disappeared. Until 1960s, people hardly found the track of aye-aye. In the year 1966, two biologists from France at last successfully collected 9 aye-ayes which were put on an island 5km away from northeast part of Madagascar. Afterwards, people tried to find out more aye-ayes but unfortunately, searching work ended up in vain. Nowadays, people could only see the precious animal in some zoos.

Songhua River is the largest tributary of Heilong River with the total length of 1900km. The river, whose drainage area is larger than that of Pearl River, covers 545, 6000 square kilometers. Acreage of Songhua River takes up 69.32% of the total land of the three provinces in northeast part of China. Songhua river has two sources in both north and south parts. The north source is Nenjiang which is also a large river. Nenjiang originates from Daxinganling and flows from north to south. The length of Nenjing is 1379km and the drainage area which takes up 51.9% of the total drainage area of Songhua River, covers 283,000 square kilometers. South source originates from Changbai Mountain with the length up to 795km. The drainage area of south source covers 78180 square kilometers, taking up 14.33% of Songhua River. The source also supplies 39% water of Songhua River. Silt content of various rivers belonging to drainage area of Songhua River is not much. River basin of Songhua River is rich in forest with a large amount of timbers. The region is the largest forest area in China. Abundant mineral resources also can be found in the region such as gold, iron, copper and coal etc. In addition, various crops such as soybeans, maize, wheat, sorghum, flax and cotton etc provide great yield for local people. Songhua river is a quite large freshwater fishery in northeast part of China. In a world, compared with other rivers in northeast part of China, Songhua River plays an more important role in agriculture, shipping and other aspects of people’s daily life.
However, people rarely treat the great river well. At present, pollution for Songhua River has become a serious problem. In the year 2005, the double benzene plant of China Petro encountered explosion. As a result, much harmful substances flowed into Songhua River. Many creatures were badly affected. Although people took measures to deal with the accident, the pollution could not be completely eliminated. The quantity of pollutants discharged by people into Songhua River is also not small. At the south bank of Songhua River, 175,100 cubic meters waste water without good treatment is discharged into the river every day. Besides people’s unreasonable activities, natural disaster could also cause more serious pollution for Songhua River. On 28th July 2010, terrible flood occurred in a county of Jilin province and various buildings suffered from collapsing. Consequently, more than 7000 barrels of chemical materials of chemical factories were flowed into Songhua River. According to some report, those materials included 3-methyl chloride silane, hexamethyl disilazane and other chemical substances. A large number of items floated on the river due to fast-flowing so salvage work proceeded with some difficulties. Some chemical reaction happened as some chemical met with water. Therefore, smog and pungent odor were given out. In such case, local water sector had to stop water supply temporarily. At present, the clean-up work still continues. We hope that people could make great achievements for the pollution caused by flood. But we should pay more attention to the ecosystem of Songhua River in future. Otherwise, unexpected accidents or disasters could happen sooner or later.

Proboscis monkey has a formal name called nasalis larvatus. The main and obvious feature of the proboscis monkey is the big nose. Its nose is long and big but people at present still do not know what the function is. As male proboscis monkey grows older and older, its nose also becomes bigger and bigger. When they are excited, their noses would erect up or shake up and down. That is very funny. However, nose of female proboscis monkey is quite normal. Male proboscis monkeys are much larger than female ones. Body length of male proboscis monkeys is usually about 75cm with the length of tail up to 75cm but the length of female ones is just 60cm. In addition, the weight of male proboscis monkeys is twice of that of female ones. Male proboscis monkeys also have another unique feature which is the big and inflated belly. Some people who do not have enough knowledge upon proboscis monkeys often consider male ones as pregnant female proboscis monkeys. Proboscis monkeys like living in groups and they also have their own leaders respectively. Generally speaking, 10 to 30 proboscis monkeys often consist of a group. Unlike many other animals, proboscis monkeys are choosy for food. So it is not quite easy for them to find food when various fruits on trees are not mature. Proboscis monkeys have to walk some miles to obtain enough food every day. Compared with other primates, proboscis monkeys eat much more because there are various microorganisms which could ferment food in the stomach.
Proboscis monkeys originate from Kalimantan Island located in southeast part of Asia. At present, the north part of Kalimantan Island belongs to Brunei and Malaysia while south part is a part of Indonesia. Many mosquitoes and sand flies live in the region so the living environment is not good. However, proboscis monkeys like the place very much for they can get enough food. Although the environment is bad, the habitat for proboscis monkeys still belongs to the region with the most dense population in Kalimantan Island. Some big cities and towns and most large agricultural area concentrate in the region. Therefore, most habitats of proboscis monkeys have been destroyed by forest degradation. In such circumstance, the survival of proboscis monkeys has been seriously threatened. Even though proboscis monkeys have been protected by laws, hunting and killing never stop. The animal also can not be fed by people. Otherwise, it would die within a week. Most proboscis monkeys scatter in the area which belongs to Indonesia and people have never made survey for the quantity. But in Brunei, Sarawak and Sabah, the number of proboscis monkeys has decreased rapidly. In order to protect the precious animal, a natural reserve with acreage of 60 square meters, was built in Sarawak. The natural reserve extends to forest and leads to the central land of Kalimantan Island. People have taken various measures to protect the remaining animal but people have to verify whether they have made some achievements or not.

Tundra, a kind of biomes which grow in permafrost, grow in extreme environment. Tundra is located within polar easterlies of polar circle. In tundra area, the wind speed is very large and polar days and polar nights often occur. In winter, the temperature within tundra area is not very low and the lowest temperature there is even higher than that of coniferous forest in east Siberia. But in summer, it is very cold in tundra area and the summer also lasts not long. Rainfall in tundra area is not much but the evaporation is also very small. Therefore, the climate of tundra area is moist. In such environment, plants have to adjust to both moist climate and physiological drought.
Most tundra mainly is scattered around Arctic ocean. In Eurasia continent and north America, from Taiga to coastal area of Arctic ocean and the tundra expand to islands of Arctic Ocean. Tundra located in Europe and west part of north America is affected by warm current and they are distributed in the north region and the tundra belt is distributed narrowly. However, in Asia and east part of north America, tundra can expand far to south direction. In addition, forest tundra is located between the transitional zone of forest and tundra. Compared northern hemisphere, the area of tundra in southern hemisphere is not so large. Some vegetation similar with tundra can be just found in Falkland Islands of south part in South America, small ice-free area in South America and some islands in southern ocean. There are two kinds of tundra and they are alpine tundra and boreal tundra. The former is located in middle and upper position of volcanic cone situated more than 2000m of sea level and the latter, natural belt on the land, is located northern part of Eurasia continent and north America.
Tundra is the natural vegetation on the land but as the globe becomes warm, the ecosystem of tundra is facing up to destruction. In the summer of 2007, 5 fire disasters occurred in Alaska due to thunder and such disaster was very rare within Arctic circle. More and more evidence has shown that tundra in Arctic Circle disappeared due to global warming and scientists predict that tundra will be substituted with bush and forest gradually. In the past half century, temperature in most regions of Arctic region has increased by 3 to 5℉ and by the year 2100, the temperature will have increased by 10℉ compared with that of industrial revolution. That means tundra will disappear in the whole Arctic region. A research group has studied an area of tundra which suffered from fire disaster in 1977 and found that nearly all moss and shrub-like lichen could not be found, instead, shrub willow has occupied more area. Apart from fire disaster, thermal karst phenomenon also imposes harmful effects on tundra. Disappearance of tundra can cause great changes for ecosystem, plants, animals and human beings. Reindeer is a kind of animal which depends on tundra too much and local people also live on reindeer. After much tundra disappeared, the quantity of reindeers correspondingly decreased. In a word, endangered tundra will lead significant changes in Arctic region during those hundreds or thousands of years.

Agriculture, which is the main source of cereals, industrial materials, job opportunities and foreign exchanges, plays an important role in Southeast countries. They have made great achievement in agriculture but large areas of forest have been destroyed. In order to enlarge the area of crops, nearly all southeast countries hew down trees and destroy forest.
Since the Second World War, arable land in all Southeast countries has increased. Though the population has become lager, arable land per capita doesn’t decrease and it even increases in some countries. From the year 1980 to 1996, population in Cambodia increased from 6.4 million to 10.27 million and arable land per capita was up to 0.37 ha from 0.3 ha. The arable land per capita increased to 0.09 ha from 0.07 ha in Malaysia when the population increased from 13.76 million to 21.17 million. Philippine mainly developed agriculture by destroying forest before 1970s and in 1950s, arable land increased by 3.45% on average. In 1960s, the increase was 1.3%. Even Philippine tried to develop agriculture by destroying forest; they still couldn’t get great success because of the low productivity. Thailand also had the same mistake. Arable land increased from 41.4 million ha to 93.245 ha from the year 1950 to 1982 with the rate of 12.3% of national land to 29%. In 1990, arable land increased by 47.4%. Meanwhile, forest area decreased by 37.2% from the year 1951 to 1995.
Forest is a kind of renewable resource but the growth cycle needs some decades or even more than a hundred years. So the speed of growth is far behind that of human destroying. In fact, those countries have been punished by the results of deforestation. Soil has been washed away because of lack of protection from forest. Sediment deposition imposed bad effects on transportation and hydropower so people often can not get enough and stable electricity. Deforestation results in flood, drought and other natural disasters. Cambodia, located in the lower reaches of Mekong River, often suffers from flood if the rainfall is too much. At the end of 2000, terrible flood occurred in the country with 400 people lost and more than 1 billion dollars loss. In 2001, more than 108 people in Vietnam died from flood and the number of homeless people was more than 60,000. Forest decrease has reduced land fertility. In 1980s, 18 million ha land suffered from salinization in northeast part of Thailand and 260 ha land in south part suffered from salinization or acidification. Such phenomenon can be found in other Asian countries. Deforestation, at the same time, has destroyed biodiversity. Tropical rain forest, mangroves, wetlands and animals are on the brink of annihilation. In 1997, endangered birds take 11% in Indonesia, 24% in Philippine, 10% in Vietnam and 9% in Malaysia and Thailand.
In recent years, deforestation has decreased compared with that of before because most countries have realized the terrible result caused by deforestation. In addition, technology development also provides ways to improve productivity. However, deforestation still exists in the world and we have more work to do.