The internet-famous wolf in Kekexili was hit and killed by a car? This may be due to feeding

This Monday, many netizens posted on social media platforms that the "Kekexili Internet Celebrity Wolf", which became famous for being fed food by tourists, was suspected to have been hit and killed by a large truck.

Later, the Sanjiangyuan National Park Administration confirmed that a wolf waiting to be fed by tourists on the roadside had been hit by a car accident: the truck driver suddenly braked after spotting the wolf, but it was too late. However, it is not yet certain whether this is the most well-known "first generation of Internet celebrity wolf".

A wolf in Kekexili was suspected to be hit and killed by a truck while waiting to be fed｜Photo source: Internet

Over the past year or so, this internet-famous wolf, which became famous for being fed, has been on the hot search list many times. Even though experts have repeatedly called for a stop to feeding, the practice of feeding has not stopped; and the car accident this time is probably related to the wolf's habit of being fed by humans.

The Internet celebrity wolf that was fed

The internet celebrity wolf became famous last year.

It lives near the Qinghai-Tibet Highway. At first, someone fed it food to attract it in order to take a close-up photo. Over time, the wolf got used to it and not only is it no longer afraid of humans, but it will also actively approach cars to ask for food when they stop.

Actively approaching humans to beg for food | CCTV News

These interactions between it and humans were posted online, and netizens even compiled a set of wolf life scripts for it, from "fallen wolf king" to lying on the roadside for egg yolk pie. More people who want to catch up with the trend or traffic come here, and the behavior of the Internet celebrity wolf has also changed - in order to beg for food, it not only actively approaches humans, but also wags its tail and turns its belly over to act like a pet dog to act like a spoiled child to humans . Because of the abundance of food, its body shape quickly became round, and it even became picky about food.

The "Internet celebrity wolf" soon brought more companions, who gathered on the roadside waiting to be fed . This time, the staff responded that there were four or five wolves waiting to be fed by tourists on the road; in an interview last year, the staff mentioned that at most, there were 12 wild wolves waiting to be fed around the "Internet celebrity wolf"'s activity area.

Fat as two wolves | Image source: Internet

Don't feed! Don't feed!

Some people feed animals for traffic, some for fun, and some because they think they are doing a good deed. However, feeding wild animals is harmful to animals, humans, and the ecological environment.

Human food is not suitable for them

The Internet celebrity wolf eats food fed by humans and becomes plump, but this is not good for it. Not all animals can be eaten by humans - some foods are safe and harmless to humans, but not to animals. Chocolate, which is edible by humans but poisonous to cats and dogs, is the most typical example.

Some food additives are safe for humans, but not necessarily for animals. For example, the dosage of some additives is adjusted according to human weight. It is fine for a 60-kg person to eat a small snack occasionally, but a 6-kg animal may have problems if it eats it three times a day. In addition, the high sugar, high salt, and high fat ingredients in snacks can cause obesity in animals, affect their cardiovascular health, cause bone deformation, affect the reproductive system, and make it difficult for animals to reproduce.

In the Beijing Zoo, tourists forcibly peeled off the sealant on the glass and stuffed raw noodles into it to feed the mandrills. Click on the picture to learn more about why you can't feed in zoos｜Hua E

Moreover, animals may not be able to distinguish between wrapping paper , and accidentally ingesting plastic packaging on food can directly cause health problems for the animals.

For animals, feeding can be poisoning. Last year, a 4-year-old golden monkey died in Qinling Sibao Science Park because of excessive feeding by tourists . Zoos generally have staff to stop feeding, but in the wild, animal health problems caused by feeding are more difficult to track and may be more serious.

Impact on the ecological environment

The "Internet celebrity wolf" calls friends to wait for feeding. Once the wolf pack gets sick due to feeding, the local ecological balance may be destroyed . In the natural environment, wolves prey on deer, antelopes, rabbits and other animals. If the number of wolves decreases, the number of these herbivorous animals will increase sharply, and the vegetation will face greater pressure. This will be an ecological problem that is more difficult to repair in the already fragile ecological environment of Hoh Xil.

Even if feeding does not cause the animals to become sick, it will cause damage to the local environment. For example, the red-headed gulls that fly from Siberia to Kunming for wintering every year, tourists feeding the red-headed gulls has become a famous local sight. However, many food residues brought by artificial feeding and feces discharged by a large number of clustered red-headed gulls directly enter the water bodies of Cuihu Lake and Caohai (the inner sea of ​​Dianchi Lake). Studies have shown that the total phosphorus content of the bottom mud of Cuihu Lake is 7950 times the total phosphorus content of the water body, which is much higher than that of famous eutrophic lakes such as Taihu Lake and West Lake. The pollution problem caused by artificial and disorderly feeding of red-headed gulls cannot be underestimated.

People feed red-billed gulls by the Dianchi Lake. The drawbacks of "human-gull interaction" are more than that. Click on the picture to learn more | Oriental IC

Disease transmission

Some people get close to animals or even touch them when feeding them for fun or to take photos, which provides an excellent opportunity for the spread of zoonotic diseases . The most typical example is the pika and marmot, which have become popular on social platforms every summer vacation in the past two years.

Pikas and marmots are not difficult to see on the Northwestern prairie. They look cute, and some tourists feed them snacks or even pick them up in their hands to take pictures - but this behavior carries the risk of contracting the plague .

Plague bacteria first infect fleas and spread between various animals and humans through fleas, and wild rodents are the favorite hosts of plague bacteria . Among the 12 natural plague foci in China, the distribution area of ​​Himalayan marmots is the most active plague foci and one of the most serious areas of plague epidemics among animals and humans in China; although pikas are not the main source of plague, as neighbors of marmots, they may also become hosts of plague bacteria.

Screenshots from Xiaohongshu, these are all undesirable behaviors!

If plague is not treated, the mortality rate is as high as 30% to 60%. It is a Class A managed infectious disease in my country. Don't think that plague has been gone for a long time. In July 2022, a case of plague was confirmed in Ningxia. Fortunately, it was properly controlled and did not cause large-scale spread. And every time you take pictures with pikas and feed marmots for fun, you may put yourself in danger of contracting plague.

In addition, feeding can easily lead to animal clustering, just like the popular wolf in Hoh Xil that would bring its companions to wait for feeding. Animal gatherings can also increase the risk of disease transmission.

Unpredictable aggression

Most wild animals are afraid of humans, which ensures the safety of both humans and animals. But once animals are used to being fed and know that there is food at the human place, they are likely to actively approach humans. We cannot predict what actions wild animals will take when they are anxious to beg for food. After all, domesticated pets may bite their owners when they are anxious.

The monkeys in Mount Emei and Mount Qianling that "love to beat tourists" are the best example.

There were no macaques in Qianling Mountain originally. In the 1960s, several escaped experimental monkeys came here. If there is no human intervention, the escaped macaques will not overdevelop in the small Qianling Mountain due to food and space constraints. The key role in fueling the situation is people's seemingly harmless feeding - a scenic spot was later established here, and tourists and internet celebrities flocked here. People obtained the satisfaction of "love" and a large amount of traffic by feeding.

Since food fed by humans is very easy to obtain, the behavior of the monkeys gradually changed: from fear of humans at first, to getting used to being fed, and finally starting to beg for food . At the same time, due to the rapid increase in population, small territory, and high density, the macaques with a strong sense of territory became more irritable; lack of exercise and overeating of junk food can easily induce various physiological diseases in monkeys. The combination of various factors soon induced aggressive behavior.

The conflict between humans and monkeys caused by feeding is more than just a fight. Click on the picture to learn more | মাহফুজ আলম ফয়সাল / Wikimedia Commons

The Tibetan macaques in Mount Emei are native populations that have lived here for generations, but tourists feeding them has gradually caused fierce conflicts between humans and animals. These conflicts were posted online, and marketing accounts took the lead in cursing the monkeys for being extremely vicious. But under the traffic, people often ignore who caused all this.

Increased risk of car accidents

Many feedings take place on the roadside, where passers-by stop to feed the animals. If the road is narrow, this may cause a traffic jam behind them . For animals, feeding on the roadside increases the chance of road kill.

" Road kill " refers to the death of animals due to collisions with vehicles. Around the world, hundreds of millions of animals die every year due to road kill, which is one of the main causes of death of terrestrial vertebrates. China also faces a serious road kill problem. For example, in Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve, 3,475 vertebrate road kills were recorded in 4 years, with an average of 61.6 animals killed per 100 kilometers.

Animals killed by roadkill. Click on the picture to learn about roadkill. | Animal Behavior and Conservation Laboratory, Nanjing University

Animals that are accustomed to being fed by passing vehicles will stay and gather on the side of the road for a long time in order to get food, reducing their vigilance against vehicles , which makes them more likely to be killed on the road - and this is most likely the reason why the Hoh Xil wolf was hit and killed by a large truck.

There are many attempts to reduce road kill, such as avoiding hotspots where animals pass through when building roads, building special animal overpasses and underpasses, and raising public awareness of the road kill problem. But in the case of the online celebrity wolf in Hoh Xil, if they had not been fed from the beginning and reduced the gathering of wolves on both sides of the road, this tragedy might have been avoided.

In the more than one year since the online celebrity wolf of Hoh Xil became famous, every time it has been on the hot search, it has been accompanied by the call of experts to "not feed it". Even if you think the wolf is skinny and needs help, you should contact the local forestry and grassland bureau, wildlife rescue center and other relevant departments or institutions instead of feeding it without authorization.

However, these appeals seem to have been drowned out by the online frenzy—the story of the Internet celebrity wolf is still circulating, the feeding video is still going viral, and the people who come to feed the wolf may not care about the harmful persuasion of feeding. The car accident can attract attention, which is inseparable from the popularity of the Internet celebrity wolf. Curious people are concerned about whether it is the original Internet celebrity, but whether it is not, a wild wolf has finally died because of the overly intimate behavior of humans who think they are well-intentioned.

A wolf and a group of wolves became famous because of being fed by humans, but they eventually died because of it. Apart from the traffic and the vanity of the feeders, who else benefited from it?

Author: Mai Mai, Upside-down Sloth, Birdman Robbi, Wan Wan, Huo Si, Yu Cong

Editor: Calendar Girl, Siyi, Mai Mai

This article comes from GuokrNature (ID: GuokrNature)