A garden of night delight
Print Edition
THE Shanghai Botanical Garden is a delight to visit by day, but what happens when night falls?
Every summer, the garden invites the public to find out. Its night “safari” tours are a popular way to see the critters who come out of the shadows after dusk to forage for food or pursue courtship. The tours are always a welcome relief from sultry summer days.
The two-hour tours with experienced wildlife guides are preceded by a 30-minute talk giving an overview of what visitors might see. Vehicle transportation is provided between different venues in the park to save time and too much walking.
Zhao Yingying, who has been conducting science education programs at the garden since 2003, said the nocturnal tours are actually designed for children between the ages of six and 12 — a prime age of curiosity and the itch to explore.
The organization for the tours involves more than 30 staff, including volunteers, guides, security guards and drivers. This year, the botanical garden has chosen a new route that includes better locations for observing wildlife. The tour costs 200 yuan (US$29.99) for one adult and one child.
I went on the tour on the evening of July 16.
The first destination was an area where light pollution is relative weak and fireflies may be seen. There, amid dark bushes alongside the walkway, we saw several of the bioluminescent insects.
The guide explained to the group that female fireflies produce dimmer lights than the males, and Shanghai has two species — the terrestrial yellow Neuroptera firefly and the aquatic Japanese firefly.
With the flashlights off and voices kept down, the children in the group anxiously looked for traces of fireflies and were delighted when they spotted a few flickering lights.
Next, it was on to the “magic tree,” so named by park staff because it’s a haven for insects at night, from slugs glued to the trunk and stag beetles hidden in small holes to giant moths flying overhead. It’s magical for those who aren’t squeamish about bugs, and, of course, most children aren’t.
The tour then wended through a wooded area, where many cicadas were spotted on the trees. They undergo the molting process in the summer. It takes about an hour for each insect to shed its “skin,” which explains why they are so slow-moving.
From insects we moved on to amphibians. The Shanghai Botanical Garden is alive with wild frogs in the summer, and at night they are most active in the garden ponds. The species include the eastern golden frog, the ornate narrow-mouthed frog and the black-spotted frog. Toads can also be seen in the ponds.
Tadpoles are normally best seen in spring and early summer, though a few may linger longer. Small crab and crayfish also live in some of the ponds, and the crab often wander along grasslands looking for prey.
During the tour, the children constantly stopped whenever they thought they had spied something interesting, like small snails.
“For children, the process of exploring the natural environment is important,” said Zhao. “It encourages them to go to the small parks in their local communities to look for insects. Every species is fun in its own way. Some beetles play dead to escape predators, and the slug has two pairs of antenna for different purposes. Children find all that very interesting.”
Building a relationship with the environment around them teaches children that it’s important to protect wildlife, she added. For the botanical garden, protection is a balancing act.
The garden normally uses pesticides to protect flowers and trees from insect infestation. During the night safari season in July and August, pesticide use is greatly reduced to encourage insect numbers.
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