It was a glorious summer day and it was ‘Biodiversity Day’ May 22^nd of ‘The Year of Biodiversity’ 2010 of the Chinese ‘Year of the Tiger’. The Beijing Zoo was swarming with weekend visitors but also many smartly dressed guests and VIPs from UN agencies, embassies, Conservation NGOs and other ministries attending the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s Inauguration Ceremony for the unveiling of a new Monument for 2010 Biodiversity Year. 

In a roped off area beside the Conservation Education Center the special audience listened to the speeches by Vice Minister Li Ganjie, UNEP spokesman Zhang Shigang And Senior Academician and renowned Biodiversity champion Prof. Li Wehua. There was also a charming speech by      representing the Chinese Student’s Nature Associaition. The speeches told a familiar tale of China’s great strides in protecting the environment, but the fact that biodiversity was still on the decline and more must still be done to reach the UN millennium goal of reversing the losses of biodiversity of the planet. .Formalities completed the impressive monument was unveiled and the guests spread out to see the other events and attractions in the zoo.

                                          

Another event was the formal opening of the ‘Green Cabin’ near the main entrance to the zoo. This space is kindly offered by the zoo to the conservation NGOs of Beijing to use as a meeting centre, information centre and general conservation focus. The cabin is attractively decorated with wonderful images of nature and offers brochures, leaflets and announcements of conservation activities and events of the many NGOs working in this field.

                                             

There were cameramen at the monument inauguration. There were cameramen at the ‘Green Cabin’ opening ceremony but strangely the biggest stars of the zoo were neither of these events nor any of the fabulous pandas, tigers or other endangered species for whom the Beijing Zoo is home. It was native biodiversity itself that commanded the biggest bank of cameras. First the wild mandarin duck hatchlings inside their nest-box up a tree were about to emerge and drop down without parachute into the watery canal below – all filmed live on a video camera inside the nest box. Another cluster of cameramen stayed around the main lake where the pelicans posed and the night herons are breeding in a noisy colony.

                          

Biggest attraction of all was a small hole in the bank of a small stream where two kingfishers are raising their brood. At one point more than 50 camermen were staked out – their huge lenses focused on the same tiny patch of water where once every half hour a bright blue kingfisher would dive in a flash of dazzling colour to emerge with a small fish. Motor drives whirred in a barrage of clicks as every moment of this natural spectacle was recorded for history.