Going wild has its own rewards
Print Edition
FROM the bamboo forests of the Wolong National Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province to the windswept plains of Inner Mongolia, Wang Xiaoming’s footprint crosses a vast swathe of China’s wild side.
The director-general of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum has studied and helped protect more than 30 endangered animals. Now, he is taking on the task of popularizing scientific research with the public.
“The more you know about nature, the better you can understand it from a scientist’s perspective,” said Wang. “On one hand, people look at the nature and animals from man’s perspective; on the other, shouldn’t we be looking at animals from their own perspective?”
Born in Sichuan Province and graduated from Sichuan University with a zoology degree, Wang, 54, chose his major after a teacher told him that ecology was the up-and-coming popular field of natural science.
“Back then, people going to university were motivated by career prospects more than by personal development and interests,” he said.
After graduation in 1980s, Wang joined a panda project affiliated with the World Wildlife Fund in the Wolong National Nature Reserve, tracking the wild panda population. He later was involved in a behavior control study of pandas and black bears in the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve in Qingchuan County, Sichuan.
Wang did graduate studies at East China Normal University and finished a doctoral degree in France before returning to Normal University in 1993 as a teacher.
“In France I studied small mice in apple orchards,” he said. “Before I came back, I started talking with international organizations about focusing on endangered animal species in China.”
His first project after returning to China was the Mongolian gazelle, a medium-sized antelope that migrates between Mongolia and the neighboring Chinese province of Inner Mongolia. Barbed-wire fences at the border disrupted ages-old migration routes. In 2009, eight safe passageways were opened on the border for wildlife to traverse.
“We had to do something because the gazelles would pile up on one side of the border, trying to climb over one another to get over the barbed wire,” he said. “It was causing great damage to the species.”
Wang later participated in conservation projects involving the Himalayan blue sheep, the Chinese alligator, the Chinese giant salamander, the Tibetan eared pheasant and other animals. He spent decades in the field, doing biodiversity research, species restoration and eco-system management.
The work was sometimes dangerous. During the many years spent in the field, Wang had several narrow escapes, like the time he was tracking pandas with radiolocation in a bamboo forest in Wolong.
“As I was approaching one site, one of my colleagues stopped me in my tracks, and I saw a Chinese green tree viper (the poisonous Trimeresurus stejnegeri) just hanging there in front of me,” he said. “If I had walked past it, I wouldn’t be here today.”
During the Mongolian gazelle project, Wang’s team got lost on the vast prairies in a cold January. They were eventually saved by a herdsman who took them to his home.
And in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Wang once lost his way. In front of him was a small creek. After seeing a Tibetan boy cross easily, Wang thought he could ford the waterway with no problem.
“Holding my camera tight to me, I entered the creek,” he recalled. “The water from melting mountain snow was piercingly cold in early November. My muscles contracted and I fell. When I finally managed to get out of the creek, I didn’t know which way to go, so I followed tire tracks on a small road. It was very late. My only thought was to keep walking because if I stopped I might freeze to death. Fortunately, I was finally able to make it back to our camp.”
Scientists go to places where few people venture to see wild animals in their native habitats. Fieldwork is not only dangerous, but it can be very lonely. Researchers have to spend months alone in the wild, and the sense of loneliness is enhanced if they return without any interesting discoveries.
“When you look at data and don’t find any scientific enlightenment, you can feel very disappointed,” he said. “One has to be able to endure the loneliness and be persistent.”
By working in museums now, Wang hopes to share the experiences of scientific research with the general public, through exhibitions and films.
The Shanghai Natural History Museum reopened in the Jing’an Sculpture Park in 2015 as a branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum. The museum receives thousands of visitors every day.
“When I came to the Science and Technology Museum and started on the project of building the Natural History Museum, we wanted to tell the story of evolution,” Wang said. “We wanted to use technology tools to simulate natural settings.”
The design of the museum creates one adventure after another. In the River of Life exhibition hall, visitors can view different species that lived in different periods and compare them. Wang said the exhibition is designed to provoke questions, which are at the heart of scientific research.
Nature education, he said, can inspire young people to take up science.
Wang also emphasizes the relationship of art and nature. People need to see the beauty in nature, he said.
“If museum can raise the awareness and interest of young people, that’s a very good thing,” he said. “No matter what profession they eventually choose, respecting nature and life will help them better understand and appreciate the world around them.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
