I have a wildlife zoo

Fostering empathy among visitors is one of the missions of zoo conservation education.

Empathy allows visitors to understand the emotions of animals, respect them more, and ultimately transform that respect into actions to protect them.

The most fundamental way to cultivate empathy is for zoos to display the natural behavior of animals, like birds flying in the sky, singing atop trees, and red pandas climbing up and down trees.

Behaviors such as riding bicycles, wearing clothes, standing on their heads for no reason, or jumping through hoops are not found in the wild.

Reinforcing the concept of animals as "individuals" is very helpful in fostering empathy, especially for children.

After all, it's abstract to consider the perspective of a species, but quite concrete to consider the perspective of a particular animal.

At this moment, Fang Ye was explaining the names, personalities, and interesting stories of individual animals, allowing the children to gradually realize that each animal is an independent individual with its own emotions and preferences, rather than just a representative of a species. Explore more at My Virtual Library Empire

Educating through entertainment.

Once Jin Martin finished his food and flew aside, Fang Ye called out again, "Jinzhi?"

Jinzhi flapped over to his hand and politely bowed to the children left and right, his posture gentlemanly and friendly, "Hello! Hello!"

It wasn't just parroting, but also combined with gestures; it knew the meaning of these words.

"Wow!"

"Hello, beautiful parrot!"

The children were amazed once again.

A polite and intelligent parrot that greets people without being prompted.

Jinzhi stood next to Fang Ye's hand, leaned forward, and toward the child who called him beautiful, "mua!"

(*╯3╰)

He puckered his beak and made a kissing sound.

Fang Ye introduced with a smile, "This parrot is named Jinzhi, and he's the leader of the parrots!

Jinzhi is very smart, learns to speak quickly, and even recites poetry. Plus, he has a great personality, is sensible and obedient. Whether with people or other birds, he is always polite and friendly, so the other parrots respect him a lot!

Jinzhi, would you perform a poetry recitation for everyone?"

Jinzhi, feeling quite happy with all the praise from Fang Ye, let out a cheerful sound!

"Ga ga!"

He cleared his throat, preparing his state of mind.

"Before my bed, the moon is shining bright, I wonder if that's frost upon the ground. I lift my head and look at the bright moon, I lower my head and think of my hometown."

He recited the poem, bobbing his head and swaying from side to side. His voice was expressive with emotion!

If you closed your eyes, you'd definitely think it was a person reading, just one with a bit of a hoarse voice from a cold!

The children were astounded. How could this parrot recite poetry so well, giving off the feel of a class representative?

The nearby language teacher was even more dumbfounded!

She couldn't help but jest, "Send him to school quickly, don't let him miss out on getting into Tsinghua University!"

Truly remarkable.

"Oh?" Fang Ye was also surprised, "Is this a new poem you've recently learned? Not bad, here's a walnut as a reward."

He had taught him a poem before, "Ascending the Stork Tower," and now he knew "Quiet Night Thoughts" too.

Jinzhi picked up the walnut and went off to offer it to Jingwen with diligence.

Two parrots flew onto a perch, nibbling on walnuts together, taking turns feeding each other, appearing very intimate.

By now, they had officially established their romantic relationship.

Wang Haoran had just watched the parrots reciting poetry, and found it miraculous; now, curious, he asked, "Why can parrots talk? Other birds only chirp and tweet."

Seeing the children's eyes brimming with an eagerness to learn, Fang Ye thought about how he could explain it in a simple way and then said, "Well, the secret to parrots speaking lies in their unique anatomical structure.

The vocal organ in birds is called the syrinx, and the parrots' syrinx is more developed than that of other birds. It is also quite similar to the human vocal cords, having an angle close to a right angle, a blunt angle. This angle is key to determining the syllables and modulation of sounds; the closer to a right angle, the stronger the sense of syllables and modulation.

Moreover, parrots have well-developed tongues, similar to those of humans, which is why they are able to produce human-like sounds.

As for why they have a natural talent for mimicry, one reason is that birds like to respond to calls similar to their own and reject birds with different calls. Parrots can mimic other birds' calls, which helps them better fit into the flock.

Plus, parrots are smart. Mimicking speech is also a form of entertainment for them, creating a challenge for themselves and trying to mimic speech to pass their boring time."

"Oh~"

After answering the question, Fang Ye shared some common knowledge about birds and their ecological importance!

Although protecting wildlife is inherently the right thing to do, without needing any reasons, and we should not arbitrarily hunt or destroy their habitats, such statements still lack persuasive power.

For most people, only by clearly articulating their value can we ignite the desire to protect them.

"The most important ecological function of birds is to help spread seeds. In some tropical forests, birds can help the majority of trees and plants spread their seeds. Some important tree species even rely on certain birds to disperse their seeds.

Birds and trees are dependent on each other.

Birds can also help spread pollen...

Another important role is pest control. The vegetables and fruits we usually eat can be reduced in yield if pests attack them. Both birds and pesticides control pests, but birds are a natural and pollution-free alternative...

Birds of prey can control the mice in the fields. A barn owl, over its lifetime, can eat more than 11,000 mice that would otherwise consume 13 tons of crops. Moreover, just the presence of birds of prey in the vicinity can notably reduce the consumption of seeds by mice and rabbits due to their fear of the predators.

Now some farmers complain about an increase in rabbits, which is because there are fewer birds of prey..."

Fang Ye briefly introduced the ecological role of birds. The children might not fully understand some of the details, but as long as they had a general impression, it would suffice.

Many mischievous boys like to climb trees and rob bird's nests or even use a slingshot to hit birds with stones when they are young.

Having seen the natural beauty of birds today and heard what he had said, knowing that birds have very important ecological value, they might treat birds with more care in the future.

After the serious talk, some children clung to Fang Ye, begging him to teach them the language of birds! They too wanted to experience the prestige of commanding the birds.

Then there were children like Zheng Yan from Wang Haoran's class, a studious youngster who asked him all kinds of strange questions, like why bird feathers are so colorful and whether penguins are birds, showing interest in learning more about birds.

Some teachers had questions too and wanted to chat with Fang Ye!

Previously, he had spoken quite simply to accommodate the children.

The rest of the kids all ran off to play with the parrots.

A child ran up to Jin Martin, sized him up carefully, then turned around, pointing to it with his thumb, and bragged to everyone with pride, "I know it, it was the one that pooped on my head last time!"

"Hahaha!" The children laughed heartily, and a nearby teacher couldn't help but chuckle quietly, as if it were something to be proud of.

Jin Martin glanced at the child, blinked his eyes with a sly expression, and suddenly let out a very loud cry.

"Squawk!"

"Ow!"

The child was startled by a sudden noise from behind and without reacting ran several meters away in a flash.

And the crowd laughed at him once more.