While listening to the breeder''s explanation, Liu Wei observed the environment of the venue.

The stream flowed into a wide pond.

There is a natural reed marsh at the edge of the pond, which makes people feel natural and comfortable.

There is an island in the middle of the pond. The trunk perch spans the edge of the island and the river bank. One end of the trunk stands on the island and the other in the water.

The trunk retains intricate roots, and the gap between roots is like a maze for otters. Once they drill into it, they disappear.

An otter scratched on the trunk, rubbed his mouth, his cheek, his stomach, then turned over and rubbed his back, how cool and how to rub. His small eyes narrowed, very comfortable.

There are otters running down the water from the tree trunk, like a slide.

It seems that the environment here really suits their hearts.

Yugongxin''s attention is on the otter''s lovely appearance!

The little clawed otter is the smallest of the 13 existing otters in the world. It has a slender body, like a long gourd, a round belly, a round head, a short kiss and a long white beard. It looks very cute.

Staring fascinated at the otter playing with its belly exposed: "Kawaii!"

Took several pictures of the otter.

The keeper continued: "in China, there are three kinds of otters recorded, namely Eurasian otter, Asian small clawed otter and river otter. Among them, Eurasian otter is the most widely distributed. In history, they have their presence from the Qinghai Tibet Plateau to the southeast coast, from the north to the tropical rain forest.

You can have a look. Here are the comparison pictures of several otters. "

Next to the popular science exhibition board, the body length and weight of several otters from top to bottom are marked. With the pictures, the comparison is quite intuitive.

It includes some obvious characteristics, such as flat head and round tail of Eurasian otter, while short and round head and flat and wide tail of Asian small clawed otter.

A tourist asked curiously, "since otters are so common, why have I never seen them or heard about them?"

The breeder smiled and said, "that''s a long time ago!"

The popular science exhibition boards in the otter exhibition area are strung in order.

The signs at the entrance of the exhibition area introduce their characteristics, first give visitors a basic understanding, introduce their history, and then introduce the reasons for their demise and the threats they are facing.

The breeder walked forward and came to the middle exhibition board, and the tourists moved with him.

"When the east wind thaws, the stinging insects begin to vibrate, the fish bears the ice, and the otter sacrifices the fish." this passage comes from the book of rites. Our ancestors described and recorded the otter in ancient books as early as 2000 years ago.

The earth began to thaw, the ice melted, the fish also floated from the bottom of the water, and the otters began to fish and put the fish on the shore one by one. In the eyes of the ancients, it looked like the otters were sacrificing, which was a very strange behavior.

Otters sacrifice fish, and then Yu people enter zeliang. Jackals sacrifice animals, and then hunt in the field; doves turn into eagles, and then set Wei Luo; scattered vegetation, and then enter the mountain forest; insects do not sting, do not use fire in the field. They do not become addicted, do not lay eggs, do not kill embryos, do not kill demons, and do not nest.

Seeing otters offering sacrifices to fish is a signal to end the winter fishing ban, and fishermen can start fishing. You see, our ancients were actually very powerful. They knew the truth of sustainable development thousands of years ago. "

"Wow!"

"Our ancestors are so wise!"

"Taoism stresses the unity of heaven and man and live in harmony with nature. Confucianism stresses compassion, benevolence and forgiveness. We have this gene in our culture."

The tourists listened with pride.

"Because otters are good at fishing, the ancients also helped themselves catch fish by domesticating otters.

It can be said that otters played a very important role in the production and life of our ancients.

In areas where Chinese language records exist, otters are almost everywhere. Otters are often recorded in historical documents and local chronicles in ethnic minority areas. It can be said that otters once lived in every corner of this land, where there is water.

Here is the distribution of an otter in the history restored from ancient books, as well as the county chronicles of otters near the sea. You can have a look. "

The tourists all approached with great interest.

Liu Wei listened to the breeder''s explanation and was interested in watching the exhibition to see if there were otters in his hometown.

On the exhibition board, a piece of green indicates the distribution range of otters. Connecting several pictures, we can see that otters are still widely distributed.

In the comparison chart, the distribution of otters after 2000 is shown in yellow, which suddenly changes from large green to sporadic small pieces.

Suddenly surprised: "why did it drop so much?"

The breeder''s tone was a little heavier: "the otter''s fur is smooth, waterproof and warm, which is considered to be the top grade for making clothes. Because the otter lives on the Bank of the water, it is considered to be a pest of fishery and has various medicinal functions, so it has been hunted and killed in ancient times.

However, the impact on them was not so great. Until the last century, otters suffered a large number of hunting, which may be the darkest period for them for tens of thousands of years.

For example, in Hubei alone, more than 14000 otters have been killed in 55 years. In Hunan, at most 25000 otter skins are recycled a year.

Because of this, after the establishment of our wildlife protection law, several otters were listed as secondary protected animals, but they failed to reverse their downward trend.

The most widely distributed Eurasian otter has completely disappeared in many provinces. In some provinces and regions, the population has generally decreased by 80% or 90%, or even 96% - 99%. The river otter has not heard from for decades.

It can be said that in addition to the Qinghai Tibet Plateau with relatively low population density and low utilization of natural resources, otters in eastern and southern China are on the verge of extinction, with only some scattered distribution.

The existence of otters that can be found near the sea is actually a very valuable thing. "

The tourists were suddenly silent. They were not very comfortable. Some even sighed.

The keeper said: "although the hunting of otters has been reduced, their population has not recovered, and they still face many threats, such as water pollution, the reduction of prey caused by fishery and the construction of dams.

Among them, water pollution may be the biggest problem they face!

Otters are an indicator species. They can''t live in places with poor water quality.

In polluted water, the enrichment of various heavy metals in hunting objects such as fish and shrimp will have an adverse impact on otters.

In the last century, otters in many European regions suffered a devastating blow because of the water pollution caused by the large-scale use of DDT containing pesticides. The population did not begin to recover until these pesticides were banned. "