Beijing is not a typical big city because the Chinese capital is rich in wildlife species. Among the capital cities of the G20, Beijing has the second largest number of bird varieties, second only to Brasilia, the Brazilian capital. That’s according to British biodiversity conservation expert Terry Townshend, who lives in Shunyi District in the suburbs of Beijing. Every weekend, he goes bird-watching in Beijing’s suburbs, such as Mentougou, Huairou, and Yanqing. “About 510 species of birds have been recorded in Beijing, I have been honored to see 430 species so far,” said Townshend.
A flock of swan geese fly in Beijing.
Recording Nature in Beijing
In 2010, Townshend came to Beijing to work for an international environmental protection organization. He was surprised to find that the super metropolis is a paradise for bird watching. So he built a website called Birding Beijing, which gathered many Chinese and foreign bird watchers to share bird-watching experiences and stories online. Since 2019, he has worked for the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau as a member of the international team of experts on Beijing’s urban biodiversity conservation.
Townshend has been passionate about nature since he was a child. Growing up in an area close to the sea and nature reserves in the U.K., he often spent his time in nature reserves observing and identifying different kinds of wildlife, and began bird-watching from the age of four. During the 11 years he has lived in Beijing, the completely different natural environment and rare wild species in China aroused his keen interest.
On the Birding Beijing website, he posted a checklist of birds of Beijing made by the Beijing Bird Watching Society, which aims to help tourists and locals enhance their experience of watching birds and other wild animals in Beijing. He has a bird-watching notebook, which records the specific date, time, location, species, and number of birds observed. He regularly updates these contents on the website to share with fans. He also records and uploads the sound of different birds in audio format. Now, in just a few seconds, Townshend is able to distinguish most types of birds by their sounds.
In May 2015, after a year of research, Townshend, cooperating with bird experts from China, Sweden, Belgium, and other countries used a photosensitive geolocator and discovered that the Beijing Swift that lives in the Summer Palace flies south more than 13,000 kilometers every summer, to the Western Cape in Africa for the winter. “I am privileged to have released a geolocator-tagged swift,” Townshend said. “Over the lifetime of an average Beijing Swift, the distance traveled on migration is equivalent to traveling halfway from Earth to the Moon. That’s incredible! “
In addition to birds, Townshend also set up pages on his website to introduce Beijing’s amphibians, mammals, reptiles, and insects. He has observed more than 170 kinds of butterflies in the city.
British biodiversity conservation expert Terry Townshend is watching birds on the bank of the Wenyu River in Beijing’s Shunyi District.
Forming Ties with Wild Cats
Townshend’s love for wild animals includes not only birds and insects but also wild cats. “Beijing is one of the few capital cities in the world that is qualified to boast populations of wild cats.” Townshend discovered wild leopard cats in Beijing and participated in the Leopard Cats in Beijing project, which was a collaboration between Peking University School of Life Sciences and the China Felid Conservation Alliance. He supported the research team in part of their field investigation of the leopard cat population in Beijing.
Townshend has been to many places in China, especially areas that are rich in wild species, such as Qinghai, Yunnan and Inner Mongolia. In the San-jiangyuan National Nature Reserve in Qinghai, Townshend saw snow leopards and photographed precious moments. “I visited there and saw snow leopards, which to me was a dream come true,” he said. “I was surprised that they were very relaxed in our company, which demonstrates how the local people and the predator snow leopard enjoy a harmonious relationship.”
Townshend participated in the preparation of the Valley of the Big Cats project in the Sanjiangyuan National Nature Reserve. This project is located in Angsai Township, Zaduo County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qing-hai Province. The place is a paradise for wild animals such as snow leopards, brown bears, and lynxes because mountains and valleys have largely isolated the region from the outside world. Thus it is called “the Valley of the Big Cats.”
In 2016, the first “Nature Watch” festival was held in Angsai. It was co-sponsored by the Zaduo County People’s Government, Administration Commission of Lancang-River-Source Zone in the Three-River-Source National Park, Shanshui Conservation Center, and Peking University Center for Nature and Society. Townshend was invited as a member of an observation team to visit there. He saw with his own eyes that there were “snow leopards running all over the mountains,” as local villagers described. Later, as a consultant, he participated in planning a snow leopard observation project based on the local herder community in Angsai Township.
As at the end of 2019, 98 groups involving 302 visitors visited the Valley of the Big Cats and more than RMB 1 million has been raised for the community. Townshend said that this project combines community, ecology, and tourism, which gives tourists the opportunity to obtain a unique experience of observing wildlife in a safe, orderly, and meaningful way. Forty-five percent of the income goes to the local host families, the other 45 percent is invested in a community fund, and the remaining 10 percent is used for snow leopard conservation. Townshend said, “Generating revenue for locals through tourism, local residents now see these predators as assets and raise awareness of protection.”
In January 2021, Townshend was presented with a gold award by the Beijing News for his services to the environment. “I feel humbled winning this award because I am just one of many who are engaged in wildlife conservation. This award should also belong to everyone,” he said.
