I have a wildlife zoo

Many people, when zoos come to mind, likely conjure up images of lions, zebras, hippos, giraffes, kangaroos, koalas, and penguins—foreign animals, first and foremost.

It's not that showcasing foreign animals is wrong, but before that, native animals should be properly displayed.

Take the red panda, for example, many visitors initially didn't know them and mistook them for raccoons, which is actually quite a frightening thing.

And then there's the snow leopard, before any promotion many visitors just thought they were leopards with white fur, nothing special; Pallas's cats are just cats with somewhat fatter faces and strange looks; the Chinese mountain cat is just a more ferocious-looking house cat; as for green peafowl and blue peafowl, they seemed to have no significant difference.

So many precious native animals; not knowing about their endangered status, not realizing they could vanish at any moment, not protecting them and never seeing them again—it's quite sad to see people glancing and leaving.

It's not that these animals lack the charm of lions and giraffes, but rather that zoo resources haven't been biased towards native species.

An excellent zoo should introduce itself to the world first, before introducing the world to tourists.

The standard for a good zoo was never about how many rare animals it housed that couldn't be seen elsewhere, but rather the focus on nature and ecological protection, which is the ultimate goal for zoos.

Therefore, Fang Ye had not planned on applying to join the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums before; it wasn't too late to join after a few more years of development.

After all, the animals that could still be introduced and purchased without membership were already quite diverse, including frogs and dragonflies, which didn't even need special importation—if one wanted to showcase them, they could be shown in all their glory.

However, receiving an "Association Membership Certificate" as a task reward wasn't bad either.

Having a few more star animals could spark everyone's enthusiasm for visiting the zoo.

Considering the introduction of such creatures as the world's largest tortoise, the Galapagos giant tortoise, and the adorable koala, wasn't a bad idea either.

As thoughts raced through his mind, many ideas came to him.

But even without the reward, he would do his best to help with such matters.

For the Skywalker hoolock gibbon, with only 150 left in the wild, having one more mated pair meant one more chance of hope for the continuation of the species.

He promptly replied, "Sure, my zoo is quite large, and we welcome you to come and record the song of the gibbon. You can come anytime, and after the recording, I'll treat you to a hot spring, no problem!"

Fan Peng had been somewhat worried!

He had heard that Linhai Zoo was a private zoo, just some rich second-generation's plaything.

He wondered what to do if Fang Ye refused, since they weren't very acquainted and had never interacted before.

Switching to another zoo wouldn't yield a solitary male gibbon capable of singing a love song.

Unexpectedly, the agreement came so quickly, so warmly!

He immediately felt grateful, "Thank you, Zoo Director Fang!"

Fang Ye said, "No problem, I love helping those who protect wild animals. You guys are the real heroes."

Upon hearing this, Fan Peng was even slightly moved to tears!

He replied, "Alright, then we'll come as soon as possible..."

...

Two days later!

At 7 a.m., two travel-weary figures appeared at the entrance of the zoo.

Fang Ye received the message and was already waiting at the door in advance!

Fan Peng looked like someone who often worked in the field, wearing a coat that gave off a sense of resilience through wind and rain.

The other person wore black-framed glasses and looked scholarly, more like a teacher. He was lugging a large suitcase, its contents unknown.

Fang Ye stepped forward, respectfully shaking hands, "Teacher Fan, good to meet you!"

"Zoo Director Fang, it's too kind of you to take time out of your schedule to meet us in person, thank you very much!"

Fang Ye smiled: "It's okay, I'm usually free anyway."

Then he looked towards another person: "And this is...?"

"Director Fang, hello, I'm Li Xing, an independent music producer!"

Li Xing introduced himself proactively, and Fang Ye responded with a friendly smile and a handshake: "Hello, Teacher Li!"

Fan Peng said: "Teacher Li is a very experienced musician! He will be in charge of the recording work."

They had already recorded the song of the bachelor male gibbon and played it for the female gibbons before!

But the female gibbons didn't show any particular reaction.

Because the meaning of the song could include declaring territory, spotting an enemy, being happy or unhappy, wanting to sleep, wanting to defecate, seeing a red panda, or spotting a mandarin orange—who knows what the gibbons are singing about.

Occasionally recording a segment was too random.

This was also why they came to the zoo to look for alternative subjects.

Fang Ye didn't bother with excess formalities and thought for a moment before saying: "Let's go record the gibbons' songs first! They are a bit more active in the morning."

"Sure!"

Fang Ye led the way, crossing the plaza while pure white pigeons flapped their wings and flew up.

Fan Peng and Li Xing followed behind, looking around with curiosity and amazement as they walked through the zoo.

This zoo's environment seemed quite nice!

Li Xing looked at the huge bird-nest-like structure by the road, pointed at it curiously and asked: "Director Fang, what is this?"

Fang Ye laughed: "Oh, that's our tropical rainforest aviary! By the way, we also keep green peafowl in there. The real green peafowl, not mixed-breed ones."

Fan Peng's eyes widened: "Green peafowl!?"

For many years, he had never encountered green peafowl in the wild.

Although he worked on gibbon research, he also conducted distribution surveys of green peafowl based on interviews and infrared cameras, but the surveys turned up no clues, and their habitats were heavily disturbed.

He hadn't expected that Linhai Zoo actually had real green peafowl.

Suddenly, an idea flashed through his mind as he recalled something he had heard from a friend: "Green peafowl were returned to the country, and they were brought to your zoo, right?"

The corners of Fang Ye's mouth lifted slightly as he admitted: "There shouldn't be another zoo. We've even had baby green peafowl hatch recently."

Fan Peng found it hard to keep walking, his eyes fixated on the aviary, eager to visit!

Finally, with great willpower, he endured: "Let's go record the gibbon songs first, then we can come back after."

Li Xing, who always paid close attention to animals and the environment and had even recorded songs with natural sounds, wouldn't have gotten involved in recording the love songs of gibbons otherwise.

He was also eager: "I knew about the green peafowl because of the case! I've always wanted to see them."

They arrived at the gibbon exhibition area.

"Oooh~~~~ Oooh~~~~ Ah-oo-ah-oo-ah-oo~~"

Brothers Qingtian and Sunshine were climbing the perching frame, singing loudly.

The ethereal and melodious song gradually became urgent, making one involuntarily enraptured.

Fan Peng exclaimed: "They're very lively!"

Although gibbons are more likely to sing in the morning, those in the zoo tend to be quieter than those in the wild and are less willing to express themselves.