Guo
Geng permits students to experience how it would feel to be
confined in a cage like animals.
According to Interpol data, smuggling wild animals around the
world each year has reached US$15 billion, becoming the third most
profitable smuggling activity after firearms and drugs.
In 1998 Guo Geng came to work at the Nanhaizi David's Deer Park
in Beijing. A year later, this animal protector began to build a
graveyard for extinct animals within this park. Many people began
coming regularly to visit it on the day of Pure Brightness (April 4
or 5), a traditional Chinese festival for commemorating the
dead.
More
than one hundred tombstones in the?David's Deer?Park
topple unto each other like dominoes over a space of more than 100
meters.
Guo designed the tombstones in a domino pattern in order to
demonstrate a natural law: the extinction of one species may
trigger the extinction of dozens of related species.
During ancient geological eras, birds lost only one species
every 300 years and animals lost one every 8000 years. But during
the 18th century birds and animals on average lost one of their
species respectively every 10 years and from the 19th century to
the middle of 20th century, birds and animals lost one of their
species each every year.
According to United Nations statistics, human activities have
sped up the extinction of species by a thousand percent. The
current speed is quite similar to that of the dinosaur extinction
period. Experts estimate that 37 percent of the animal species on
the planet will disappear by 2050.
Chinese Crested Terns Heading for Extinction
Since he built the graveyard, upon receiving a report for
another newly extinct species, Guo would predict which species will
follow next on the road to extinction. "More and more tombstones
will be built here. The park may not be large enough to accommodate
all the extinct animals," he said.
The Nanhaizi David's Deer Park covers a land of about 66
hectares. It is situated near the south fifth ring road in Beijing.
This park is located where the wild David's deer died out. But
fortunately in 1985, existing David's deer scattering around Europe
were returned to China and resettled in this Park.
Real estate developers often disturb these rare animals and
their tombstones with their names inscribed because they want to
turn the Park into a villa area or a golf course. In Beijing this
size of land now signifies an enormous profit. Because of this
threat one of Guo Geng's responsibilities is to safeguard these
memorials for extinct species.
All About
wild animals
(China.org.cn by Zhang Ming'ai, December 20, 2007)?
