Elk, commonly known as "four unlike", is a specialty of our country, with horns like deer, head like a horse, body like a donkey and hooves like cattle. Elk was originally a wild animal along the coast of northern Jiangsu, and it was listed as a tribute to the emperor in all previous dynasties. The late Yin Dynasty and the early Zhou Dynasty were the prosperous times of Qin and Han Dynasties. Due to the change of climatic conditions and human overfishing, the number of elk has decreased sharply. In the Yuan Dynasty, elk only lived in the Royal Hunting Park. By the Qing Dynasty, there were only over 200 milu deer in Royal Hunt Park in the southern suburb of Beijing, which was the only milu deer group in the world at that time. 1900, Eight-Nation Alliance captured Beijing, and all the elk were robbed. 190 1 year, the Duke of Beffort bought the only 18 elk in the world from France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium with a large sum of money, and concentrated them in Wubang Temple Manor in a semi-wild way, which saved the elk from extinction.
After the birth of New China, experts and scholars at home and abroad have repeatedly called for "returning elk to their hometown for grazing" and put forward the initiative of "establishing nature reserves". The 1960s and 1980s. Elk bone chromium was unearthed in Dafeng coastal area, which attracted academic attention. After a lot of textual research, it is confirmed that the southern coastal area of northern Jiangsu, including Dafeng, is the hometown of elk. 1In May, 1985, WWF, together with officials and experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources and the Zoological Society of London, England, visited the coastal area of Dafeng City and chose the Yellow Sea alluvial plain swamp south of Chuandonggang. It is considered that rivers and harbors crisscross here, and salt marshes are all over bare land, grassland, reed, Pudong, bamboo garden and locust forest, showing the original scenery of the seaside. Moreover, it has a mild climate, abundant rainfall, four distinct seasons and a long frost-free period, which is the most ideal stocking place for elk. Therefore, with the cooperation of the Ministry of Forestry and the World Wildlife Fund, the Ministry of Forestry and the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Agriculture invested more than 3 million yuan to establish Dafeng Elk Nature Reserve.
At present, the Elk Nature Reserve has initially built a seaside wildlife park with seashore characteristics, with Elk as the main species and a variety of animals coexisting. This is a great tourist attraction, which is receiving more and more tourists from China and foreign countries. Entering the reserve, the first thing you pass is a quaint and elegant archway with five characters of "Dafeng Elk Garden", and not far away are sculptures of elk, cows, donkeys, horses and deer. Walking on the North-South Avenue, the artificial lakeside yurts and Spanish-style buildings in the east of Ludou are hotels for tourists to stay and eat. There are paths, pavilions, corridors and monuments in the forest on the west side of the road, so the sculpture of "four unlike" that Jiang Taigong rode is even more amusing. Further on, you will reach the captive elk farm around the fence, where dozens of elk have different looks, so visitors can appreciate its beauty at a closer distance. Climb the high deer-watching tower, and with the help of binoculars, you can enjoy the natural scenery of the original beach and see the wild elk herds. There are also rare botanical gardens, animal and plant exhibition halls, audio-visual halls and small racetracks. Chen Pixian, Ye Fei, Ji Pengfei, Peng Chong, Hong Xuezhi, Fei Xiaotong and other former leaders of the National People's Congress and the China People's Political Consultative Conference have all visited here.
Elk Nature Reserve covers an area of about 40,000 mu, and the core stocking circle of barbed wire fence is more than 5,300 mu. 1986 August 13, 39 elk took off from London, England. Wang Meng, director of the Animal Protection Division of the Nature Protection Department of the Ministry of Forestry, Lu Shi, director of the Forestry Bureau of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Agriculture, and the head of the Dafeng County Joint Management Bureau were transported to Dafeng. Put them in the Elk Nature Reserve. With the establishment of the nature reserve, the elk ended their overseas wandering career for nearly a century and began a new life of returning to their hometown and nature. Over the years, after careful observation and feeding by scientific and technical personnel, we have gradually mastered the physiological behaviors and activities of elk, such as estrus, mating, calving, molting and foraging, as well as the anesthesia safety technology of deer and effective prevention and treatment measures of various diseases, so that the number of "overseas red babies" who have left the motherland for nearly a hundred years has increased rapidly by 22.7% every year, and now the total number of elk has increased from 39 to 355. In addition to elk, there are more than 20 species of red-crowned cranes, white cranes, true Danque and other animals listed as first-class protected animals, and leopard cats, red-bellied eagles, roe deer and other second-class protected animals, among which the true Danque is listed in the Red Book of Endangered Animals in the World. There are more than 80 species of other resident and migratory birds 180, more than 90 species of woody plants and 75 species of herbaceous plants 175 in the nature reserve. 1997, the State Council was approved as a national nature reserve.