Classmates! There is an animal with horns like deer but not deer, a face like horse but not horse, hooves like cow but not cow, and a tail like donkey but not donkey. Do you know what it is? "" It is a rare species unique to China - elk! "At the Nanhaizi elk Garden Museum in Beijing, a group of elementary school students were holding their heads high and gathered around the exhibition department director Hu Jining, listening attentively to her explanation. In China, the history and culture of elk have a long and rich history. The elk is the "mount" of Jiang Ziya in mythology, the protagonist who "refers to deer as horses", and the famous "four unlikes". The Nanhaizi Milu Garden, located in Nancheng, Beijing, is a natural wetland that was once a royal hunting ground and garden during the Liao, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Time has passed, and the scene of hunting is no longer there. Nowadays, high-rise buildings and vehicles flow endlessly around the wetland. But in this wetland, the deer's shadow is graceful and the water birds are swimming, still a scene of birds and animals cheering. As a unique deer animal in China, milu deer has multiplied in China for millions of years. It was widely distributed in the plains and marshes of the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins in China. After being discovered by the French in Nanyuan, Beijing, in 1865, western countries rushed to introduce it. At the beginning of the 20th century, due to wars and natural disasters, elk became extinct on Chinese soil. It has always been the Chinese people's long cherished wish to let elk go home. In 1985, China and the UK collaborated to launch a deer reintroduction project, with 38 deer crossing the ocean and returning to Nanhaizi. Thanks to measures such as artificial breeding and wild release, the number of elk that have returned to their hometowns has grown to over 14000 nationwide. To ensure the implementation of the reintroduction project for elk, Beijing has established a new scientific research unit - Beijing elk Ecological Experimental Center. In 1987, the first young elk was born at the center Introduction by Bai Gade, Director of Beijing Elk Ecological Experiment Center. In the past 40 years, the number of elk has grown from a few dozen to over 14000 nationwide, with a wild population of over 5000 elk. The effectiveness of elk conservation cannot be achieved without the three-step strategy of population rejuvenation, relocation protection, and wild release, "said Bai Gade. As early as over 1000 years ago, elk had basically disappeared from the wild. One important way to protect endangered species is to restore their wild state. On November 1, 1993, the Beijing Elk Ecological Experiment Center transported 30 elk to Tian'ezhou, Shishou City, Hubei Province, allowing elk to return to nature. After years of efforts by conservation personnel and continuous improvement of the local ecological environment, the elk population has developed rapidly, and now it has grown to more than 2800. In September 2021, 22 elk from the Beijing Elk Ecological Experiment Center were released into the Daqingshan National Nature Reserve in Inner Mongolia. After one year of wild release, they successfully reproduced their first generation and established a wild elk population for the first time in the transition zone between the North China and Mongolian Xinjiang regions on the southern edge of the Mongolian Plateau. After more than three years, the total population of elk has increased to 52. In addition, the Beijing Elk Ecological Experimental Center also undertakes consulting services in the breeding and rearing of elk. Guo Qingyun, the head of the Elk Protection Research Office at the Beijing Elk Ecological Experiment Center, deeply felt this: "Although the number of elk in the Nanhaizi Elk Park in Beijing is not dominant, significant breakthroughs have been made in the breeding, disease prevention, and breeding of elk, which can provide guidance and assistance to the national elk protection centers in terms of technology." After 40 years of reproduction, population rejuvenation, and wild release, elk has fully covered the original habitat of elk in China, with its distribution increasing from 2 to 94 relocation protection sites now. Among them, the wild release of elk has been successfully implemented in six areas including Dafeng in Jiangsu, Yancheng in Jiangsu, Shishou in Hubei, Dongting Lake in Hunan, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi, and Daqing Mountain in Inner Mongolia, establishing stable wild populations. Why is protecting elk so important? Zhong Zhenyu, Deputy Director of the Beijing Deer Ecological Experiment Center, told reporters: "Protecting deer not only benefits a single species, but also maintains the overall ecological balance. A healthy and stable ecosystem is the cornerstone of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature. Deer play a crucial role in the ecosystem and are an important consumer in the biosphere. Deer are wetland animals, and their intervention not only limits the excessive expansion of reeds, but also nourishes aquatic organisms with their feces, creating a virtuous cycle." The Beijing Wild Duck Lake Wetland Nature Reserve, located in Yanqing District, Beijing, is the only wetland bird nature reserve in Beijing with a rich variety of aquatic plant species. Due to the lack of large herbivorous animals in the Wild Duck Lake ecosystem, there were too many aquatic plants such as reeds and calamus, which affected the reproduction and growth of other species. In June 2021, the Beijing Elk Ecological Experiment Center and Yanqing District Nature Reserve Management Office collaborated to significantly enhance the biodiversity of the Wild Duck Lake wetland through comprehensive measures such as introducing four elk and controlling aquatic plant biomass. In March 2024, in order to promote the protection and restoration of the Wuliangsuhai wetland, Inner Mongolia introduced 20 elk "settling down" in Wuliangsuhai from the Beijing Elk Ecological Experimental Center. The reproduction of the elk population has increased the diversity of biological species in many regions of the country and played an important role in the local ecological balance. In 2024, the Beijing Elk Ecological Experiment Center was selected as one of the first six bird watching bases in Beijing. The successful selection of the first batch of bird watching bases in Beijing is a high recognition of the ecological value and protection achievements of the center, "said Bai Gade." Due to years of wetland ecological protection and construction, rare birds have frequently appeared, and some have settled and thrived here. "According to statistics, there are more than 300 species of plants and 200 species of birds and other animals in Nanhaizi Deer Park in Beijing. (New Society)