Early the next morning!
Liu Wei and his classmates gathered at the school gate after breakfast in the cafeteria.
Seeing Jiang Lan and Yang Yue, the boys laughed and said, "Our goddess has arrived!"
"Didn't see you for a vacation, yet the goddess is still beautiful!"
Jiang Lan didn't react much, already accustod to the boys' exaggerated teasing, while Yang Yue covered her mouth and giggled!
As girls in the software departnt, they were all treated like group pets by the boys.
The class monitor, tall and thin with glasses, asked, "Is everyone here? Let's go, let's go!"
...
They took the bus to the zoo.
Actually, it's almost the sa if they walked for about fifteen minutes.
The zoo is very close to Xinghe University.
When Liu Wei went to buy tickets, he discovered that tickets were only 30 yuan, with half-price discounts for student IDs!
A 15-yuan ticket was almost the sa price as a cup of milk tea.
He couldn't help exclaiming, "Wow, the zoo tickets are so cheap!"
Wu Jiancong thought it was normal, "The zoo in my hotown is even cheaper, 25 yuan in high season, 20 yuan in low season!"
Gao Kaijin seed a bit puzzled, "I rember wildlife park tickets are expensive! Probably starting at a hundred or even two or three hundred."
Liu Wei scratched his head, "Speaking of which, what's the difference between a zoo and a wildlife park?"
This question stumped both his roommates; they thought for a mont but couldn't figure it out.
Actually, wildlife parks are generally built in the suburbs, can be larger in size, providing more extensive space for animals.
The downside is that transportation isn't very convenient, and ticket prices are higher, with a stronger comrcial nature, possibly including animal performances and such.
Wildlife parks also an that the environnt is closer to the natural habitat, and they usually do a better job at presenting the animals.
City zoos usually have a charitable nature, so the ticket prices are just tens of yuan.
The dividing line between the two is not so clear. Like Linhai Zoo, although it is in the suburbs with a 'wild' na, it does not have a large area, and ticket prices are cheap.
So wildlife parks may be large, but the environnt is poor, not as well presented as city zoos. So city zoos also have animal performances.
Anyway, this question doesn't affect their visit to the zoo; if they couldn't understand it, just visiting would suffice!
...
Arriving at the plaza, they first saw a flock of spotlessly white pigeons on the green grass beside them!
A green net had been set up before, corralling the pigeons inside, and they were fed with so fodder on this grassland every day.
Now that the net was removed, the pigeons had beco accustod to moving around in this field.
"Wow, so many pigeons!"
Many visitors were at the fence of the grassland, looking inside with curiosity!
Liu Wei said, "To be honest, this is the first ti I've seen a living pigeon! Before, I've only seen them in soup!"
Wu Jiancong nodded solemnly, "Sa here!"
Yang Yue looked around and upon spotting a nearby volunteer, ran over to ask, "Hello, can these pigeons be fed? Is there a place to buy fodder?"
The volunteer explained, "These plaza pigeons have just settled in the zoo and are not very familiar with the environnt. Feeding them might cause them to fly away if they're full, so we don't have such service at present, but it might be available in the future!"
Yang Yue was a little disappointed, "Oh, okay!"
The pigeons strolled leisurely on the grassland!
As dosticated poultry, pigeons are not very fearful of humans.
A sparrow flew down from the treetops and hopped on the lawn searching for food!
The pigeons had already claid this lawn as their territory; upon seeing a sparrow fly in, several nearby pigeons imdiately beca aggressive and charged at the sparrow, flapping their wings to chase it away.
This is our turf! Shoo, shoo, shoo!
They started off running quickly and after chasing for a few ters, they took off in low flight.
The pigeons at the back, although not sure what was happening, saw their companions take to the air and quickly followed suit; suddenly, over thirty pigeons all took flight!
Flying together, the "flap flap" sound of their wings beca sharp and distinct. Dozens of pigeons ford ranks and flew past the tourists, presenting quite a spectacular sight!
The tourists' gazes followed the pigeons in unison, letting out exclamations of amazent.
"Wow!"
"So beautiful!"
"They fly in such good formation! Have they been trained?"
Cara shutters clicked continuously.
The little sparrow, being chased by the pigeons, if it could talk, would definitely complain: "Damn, what on earth did I do to deserve an entire company of troops coming after !"
After driving the little sparrow out of the area, the leading pigeon took a cool turn and flew back!
It circled low over the lawn, asserting its sovereignty.
When it returned from a circle, Wu Jiancong even stretched out his hand, trying to give the pigeon a high five!
Of course the pigeon ignored him, splitting into two groups and flying past both sides of his raised arm.
One group circled twice before landing back on the grass!
The other half flew to a large tree nearby, or landed on the ground of the square.
A pigeon landed next to Yang Yue, stepping forward with its claws, bobbing its head, looking around as it walked, appearing sowhat nervous.
Yang Yue squatted on the ground, excitedly saying to Jiang Lan beside her, "Wow, this pigeon's walk is so funny!"
Jiang Lan was also intrigued and beckoned to the pigeon with a hooked finger, "Co here, co here!"
The pigeon glanced at her, then quickly slipped through the wide gap in the fence!
It rejoined the main flock, made its way to the lawn, and appeared to relax significantly, slowing down its steps.
Next to the lawn of the square, a new display board stood, with a pigeon statue placed in front of it.
As Liu Wei passed by, he curiously took a look. There were two images on the display board: the first depicted a huge flock of birds in flight covering the sky like a vast dark cloud; the second showed a solitary pigeon standing on a tree branch.
The contrast was striking.
"Once there was a miraculous species of bird.
If one went back to the early 19th century, one might see such a scene in the United States: a flying flock of birds 1 mile wide and more than 300 miles long, darkening the skies, taking several days to pass over a single farm. These birds, flying in swarms, were the North Arican passenger pigeons.
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The renowned ornithologist Audubon once predicted that this species would never be exterminated by humankind.
However, being both abundant and delicious, passenger pigeons faced large-scale comrcial hunting in the 18th and 19th centuries.
In the 1840s, the numbers of passenger pigeons had already begun to decline noticeably.
By the 1870s, it beca very rare to find flocks of wild passenger pigeons.
In 1900, a boy shot the last wild passenger pigeon with an air rifle, and after that, passenger pigeons were never found in the wild again.
Attempts to breed passenger pigeons in captivity also ended in failure; on September 1, 1914, the last captive passenger pigeon, 'Marsha,' left this world too.
A once vast population of 5 billion birds was completely extinct within just a century and a half.
Humankind erected a monunt for the passenger pigeon, with an inscription that read, 'This species was extinguished by human greed and selfishness.'"
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