Zoo director takes cares of over 3,000 animals

Shen Zhijun, who calls himself the "King of the Animals" on social media and is the head of the Hongshan Forest Zoo in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, has been taking care of 3,000 animals in the zoo for 15 years.

Shen dreamed to be a physician in his childhood, yet majored in landscape architecture. In 2008, he was transferred to the Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo, becoming the youngest zoo director at that time in China. From that day, Shen began observing the animals almost every day. Tourists who visited the zoo"complained" it was even more likely to meet him than the animals. Shen replied that animals' welfare came first. "If in a bad mood, they have the right to be not present," Shen said.

To enrich the animals' living environment and make their behavior more natural, confident and calm, the zoo has used a lot of delicate touches. For example, in the design of exhibition halls, the zoo cleverly utilized the existing mountainous terrain of Hongshan to recreate the natural habitats of animals in the wild as much as possible. In the facilities feeding leopard cats, the zoo designed numerous "hiding spots" for the animals, which are only visible through careful observations.

The zoo has created "multi-level villas" where animals belonging to the same ecological zone but not positioned at the top or bottom of the food chain are housed together based on their ecological and geographical distribution.

In addition to species conservation, the zoo also serves as a frontline base for wildlife rescue. About 1,000 animals are brought to the zoo each year, and around 300 to 400 of them are successfully rehabilitated and released back into the wild after receiving assistance to regain their health.

"Seeing endangered wildlife populations grow stronger brings a sense of pride. No matter how week or endangered a species group is, it has rights to survive on this planet,." said Shen. "There's still a lot of work for our generation to do for the zoos," he added.

According to Shen, his dream is to build animal sanctuaries within the zoo, and at the same time, to actively support and participate in wildlife conservation. Therefore, more wild animals can live in their natural habitats in a healthy manner.