A Very Good Sign

Yanqing is in the news again, with two articles under the “districts and counties” section of 京报网. One I’ve decided not to bother with. I don’t want to bang my head against officialese. No thanks, not after the last couple of weeks of busy-ness, I don’t need that. But this one shows us how great Yanqing’s environment is:

延庆生态好 獾猪进县城

Yanqing’s ecology is good. Hog badger enters the county town.

And because nciku is inaccessible again and my dictionary doesn’t have 獾猪, I’m just going to have to trust Danwei for that…. except that Danwei has it as “猪獾”… oh dear. The pictures look like the same animal, though. Compare:

Danwei’s picture ripped from Steve Jackson’s Badger Pages:

and 京报网’s picture:

京报网’s Zhang Xinhua and Zhang Yehui report:

日前,延庆县园林工人在距县城的绿化带内,成功救助了一只北京市二级野生保护动物——獾猪。

The other day, Yanqing County parks and forest workers succeeded in rescuing a Beijing Municipality grade two protected wild animal within the county town’s green belt- a hog badger.

当时,园林工人在回家的路上,发现一名老人正在从绿化带内的树丛中逮獾猪。园林队负责人梁卫民迅速停车,带领队员王贵萍、张晔辉等前往共同救助。经辨认确 定为北京市二级野生保护动物獾猪,随后,他们马上电话联系了野生动物保护协会的工作人员,并共同将獾猪送到八达岭野生动物园。

At the time, as the parks and forest workers were on their way home, the came across an old person in the process of catching a hog badger from a thicket in the green belt. Liang Weimin, the person in charge of the parks and forest team, quickly stopped the car and took team members Wang Guiping and Zhang Yehui with him to rescue the animal. Having confirmed it was a Beijing Municipality grade two protected wild animal, a hog badger, they immediately phoned a worker at the Wild Animal Protection Association and together took the hog badger to the Badaling Wild Animal Park.

八达岭野生动物园工作人员介绍说,獾猪进入县城,一方面可能是迷路了,另一方面也说明延庆县城区的植被具备了野生动物的生存条件,生态环境好了,人们保护野生动物意识加强了,人与动物能够和谐相处,所以才有獾猪出没。

A worker at the Badaling Wild Animal Park said that a hog badger entering the county town, on one hand could be because it lost its way, but on the other hand shows that the vegetation in the Yanqing County town area has the conditions for the survival of wildlife, the ecological environment has improved, people’s awareness of the protection of wild animals has strengthened, people and animals can get along harmoniously, and therefore a hog badger can wander around.

All that fuss about a hog badger. Well, most of my time in Yanqing has been spent much further out from the county town at the base of the mountain range that forms the northern edge of the Yanqing basin a stone’s throw (almost literally) from a forest protection zone (the mountain range) and not far from the Songshan nature reserve. In all that time, the wildlife I have seen up there has been: One snake. One hare or rabbit or something similar. Two pheasants (not counting the pheasant killed by a cat then brought home for dinner by Ba who happened to be passing by as the cat killed it while he was taking the sheep out to graze one afternoon. By all accounts the cat was most upset to have expended so much energy to catch a pheasant, only to have the pheasant stolen by a shepherd. Poor cat (no, I am not sympathising with the cat)- I only saw that pheasant after it had been cooked). Half a dozen crows. The various “magpies with Chinese characteristics” (they look very similar to Kiwi magpies, but they don’t sing the same way, and don’t get so insanely territorial- or at least, I’ve never heard of anyone being menaced by them, let alone attacked) and other assorted birds that hang around the fields. Oh, and a few lizards. That’s it. The wildest life I have ever seen in the county town would be myself and the three other Kiwis who I have taken there (my parents and Roubaozi). So, much as I would rather not admit this about my beloved Yanqing, seeing something as seemingly insignificant as a hog badger in the county town is a Very Good Sign.

Update: lzh tells me her father and uncles used to hunt hog badgers and that their meat is very tasty. That may explain why they’re now a “Beijing Municipality grade two protected wild animal.