Discussion keeps the world turning.
This is Round Table. Growing up in southern China, I used to envy aquatic animals.
In summertime, when we are loath to venture out in the sun, looking everywhere for some shade when we are actually out, you think it's nice to be a happy seal floating in blue waters.
But not every animal is blessed with such good fortune and a long path of evolution.
What about those who have to stay out in the open all the time in the desert?
Hello, I'm Limeing and this is Round Table.
Today with New Holy and Braden Yees, we find out whether our concerns for the animals' fate is warranted and see if we need to do something about it.
So, Tiger's Lions and Bears, there's a zoo in downtown Beijing, in Sicherman, and there's a wildlife zoo in the suburb as well.
And if you have kids, often than not, you're more likely than not.
You may have been there enjoying the seeing and enjoying interactions with the animals.
And I remember there was one summer when I went there and I saw I was looking forward to seeing the pandas, but they were not around because it was too hot.
Yeah, it happens because there are at least two factors here.
First, is that the reason we start zoo to make sure that kids would be able to see the animals that are not necessarily quite often or common to see in the area that live.
So, for example, pandas, we know are more common to see in Sichuan province here in China.
Yet, in Beijing, you get to see one or two if you go to the zoo.
Any extendie, go. Yes, it's not necessarily their common habitat or their original habitat.
Yet, you get to see them because that's the purpose of zoo.
We do research, we demonstrate these animals to kids so that they know, wow, the world is a very interesting place with multiple creatures.
And the second thing, well, with that in consideration, you know that not all animals in the zoo are quite accustomed to the local situation, the weather condition or the climate condition in the zoo.
Like there are penguins in Sichuan, the zoo in Beijing.
Yes, and in usual days, you customize the environment for them.
But when it's 30 degrees Celsius, 40 degrees Celsius in hot summer day, yes, we do need to make special arrangement for these animals.
And the second factor is definitely that, yes, when it comes to taking care of themselves in relatively extreme summertime or winter days.
Yes, they have their own ways.
You see a dog left their tons out.
That is their way of cooling down.
Yet, we see climate changes real.
The hot air, let's say the hot climate or hot days are more and more often for human beings.
And more extreme. Yes, so with that, we're not sure whether or not the animals can deal with the situation quite that fast without the ACF help like human beings.
So taking care of animals and protecting animal welfare is definitely a thing.
Brandon, did you go to the zoo while you were in South Africa?
I mean, I'm saying I'm a...
South Africa is a giant zoo.
So I mean, it's just nature and wildlife everywhere.
We don't necessarily have zoos in the traditional sense.
We have a lot of sanctuaries and like aquatic arenas and that sort of thing.
So a lot of the places where you can see animals in a relatively controlled environment, they're more designed to protect and conserve the animals as opposed to entertain viewers.
So sometimes going to some of these venues is seeing the animals as determined on their mood or where they are that day or whatever if they're being taken care of or not.
So there's a lot of areas around South Africa to either see animals in their natural habitat but if they are in more customer-friendly areas, it's a lot more about the protection and the conservation of the animals as opposed to putting them on display for people to see.
So it's a little bit more of a gamble in terms of what kind of experience you will have as a viewer going to a certain sanctuary or a aquarium or whatever it may be.
Plus, the penguins probably felt more at home in the South Africa.
Oh, yeah, yeah, that's the thing.
I mean, one of South Africa's and Cape Towns and most well-wild-renowned areas is the penguin colony in the Cape where you can actually see thousands of penguins in their natural habitat and you can actually go onto the beach and swim with these penguins.
So that's definitely an experience I would recommend to anybody that ever visits Cape Town in South Africa.
In any episode of Round Table, I would definitely applaud all that design because yeah, allowing them to stay in their natural habitat is definitely a much better, let's say, living condition for these animals, except that in these really extremely hot summer days, if they live in indoor areas.
Like Lemmy has already said, there is a zoo in downtown Beijing and there is a wild animal, kind of like a wild animal zoo.
That's where conservation becomes more important than putting them on display for people to see.
Yeah, but for those areas, since there's literally no indoor area for any animal, it is hard to provide them with AC or provide them with a location where they can get some popsicle respect.
They're not popsicle, they're like bloodcicle or water melonsicle, whatever.
I mean, it's even harder to make sure that they have a relatively more friendly environment for them to at least hide away from the extreme heat.
Well, if there's a rare animal like pandas, then there are AC rooms where they can escape into and the same thing happens to other animals being in zoos across the country.
But I think in those circumstances, particularly when animals are brought to a certain country or zoo where they are out of their natural habitat, the responsibility then falls on that country or organization to do everything they can to provide the best possible setting for that animal to feel as comfortable out of their natural habitat as possible.
Oh, definitely. Let's take an example from the Beijing Zoo.
Actually, measures have been implemented to ensure animals are comfortable and protected from the heat during the summer.
These measures include additional sprinklers providing ice blocks, laying cooling mats and increasing the variety of juicy fruits and vegetables.
You can see rhinos enjoying mud baths, which is a way that they use in their natural habitat to stay away from the direct and burning sun.
And hippos munching on water melons, giant pandas hugging ice blocks is precious.
It's so fun. They would be fun.
Watch out for hippos, though.
They love munching on humans, too.
I'm saying yes. Well, what I'm saying here is, giant pandas can search for the ice blocks and go hugging them as a way to cooling down, to cool down, and ground bears can play under the sprinklers.
These are in the kind of relatively conservative zoos that we talked about.
They have these indoor areas.
Yet, I think if I'm a panda, I don't really know.
If I were a panda, I would love to hug some ice cubes or ice blocks in these really hot summer days.
I mean, on some days, even as a human hugging an ice block sounds like a great idea to me.
So it sounds like a lot of those animals are really well taken care of.
Yes. And some fun and interesting, I think, like, hitting two birds with one stone approach is that visitors are allowed to see these kind of different cooling facilities and cooling measures they are disupplying all these different measures to the visitors.
So they're, you know, educated and entertained in the meantime.
And you can see a snowflake symbol above the polar bear's door, indicating that the door remains open so the polar bears can get indoor and outdoor.
I think outdoor, we don't really mean outdoor to the outdoor areas.
Like a created outdoor environment.
Exactly. Yes. So you get to see that these are some measures taken to protect the polar bears.
And in the meantime, there are also kind of facilities like mists fence that blow mists for cooling and dust reduction can be observed by the visitors.
So visitors get to see how these animals are protected.
I think it's up to the zoos and other researching situations where they keep wild animals to make sure that animals that they are within their premise are taking care of this for sure.
But also, I think, if it's a zoo and where there are tourists coming in, then I think we as tourists should also take into account that the summertime and the animals are probably lethargic to begin with, let's not annoying them further, but trying to wake them up and then throwing food at them to get them more awake, that kind of thing.
So some good behaviors, please.
And while we are on the issue of animal welfare in summertime and today seems to be the global tiger day.
That is a phenomenon date arranged by celebrated every year.
In fact, on July 29th, as a way to raise awareness about this very beautiful but endangered big cat.
And this was set up firstly in the year 2010 by a number of countries who have, who are home to such wild animals and they want to, to initially wanted to raise the number of big cats and tigers to twice the amount in back in 2010.
It also aims to promote a worldwide system for safeguarding the natural habitats of tigers and to enhance public awareness and support for tiger conservation issues.
International tiger day has proven effective in boosting online awareness about tigers through information searches.
Very interesting information.
And I think I love tigers.
I mean, I think I love, well, I love cats.
You like looking at them.
Yeah, I love looking at them.
Not getting too close to them.
Being friends with them.
Yeah, yeah. And spending at least one day a year to talk about the protection of tigers is something that I can do.
Yeah. It's important that we raise awareness.
And I think that we are back in ancient China, I think, if you read the literature classics, then you know, like tigers often were branded as well the evil animals to be slayed.
They eat human, yeah. Yeah, and whoever did that were considered heroes.
But now, apparently, with the numbers dundering and without knowledge of their role in the ecosystem, I think our understanding of Israel is the importance of keeping them in safe hands has definitely registered in more and more people.
And I'd like to do something fun about tigers on this particular day and then some trivils.
Brandon. Yeah. It's going to be a quick quiz.
Oh, it's a quiz. All right.
Oh, fun. Definitely. You're not going to get any of these right, but let's do a stripper.
Yeah. Number one. I want you to test your knowledge to see whether this claim is correct or wrong.
Okay. Tigers are the largest wild cats in the world.
I'm sure lions are bigger.
Yeah, yeah. That's my assumption as well.
Yeah. Because I have the main that looks them, makes them look bigger.
Yeah, but I even think I think female tigers are also bigger than, sorry, female lions are bigger than the average tiger I think.
So I would say false. Now, no, they are the largest.
Tigers are the biggest.
Oh, wow. How large can they be?
Adults can weigh up to 363 kilograms and measure up to 3.3 meters.
That's amazing. It's like a van.
And they're beautiful creatures too.
I mean, just the colors and the textures.
And, you know, they're faces and the big teeth.
And they really are stunning creatures behind the fence.
So they really are great to, they're visually very appealing.
My global tiger day resolution would be to see tiger before the next tiger day.
To see tiger. I mean, I've never seen a tiger in person.
I've never seen tiger in my life.
Yeah, well, I think in the zoo.
No, no, no, I haven't. Do you have any at the Bayesian zoo?
I haven't visited the Bayon.
Yes, they are. And also there's the wildlife animal in the suburb.
I think that's the end of the lion.
Hmm. All right. And number two, tigers are solitary hunters and generally search for food alone at night.
I would say yes. There's a point that says tiger, tiger burning bright in the forest of the night.
I think they do hunt at night.
But I don't know if they, I don't know if they hunt alone.
If they have to, I think they hunt at night or during the day as well.
Well, I'm going to say yes.
They quietly stalk their prey until they are close enough to palce.
Then they kill the victim with a bite to the neck or back of the head.
So the answer is yes. Yes.
Oh, that's another example of why you don't want to get too close to it.
A tiger's role can be heard as far as how long?
All right. Hmm. A couple of kilometers maybe between five and ten.
Five and ten. Yeah. That's too long.
That's like Gong Dwarf and from where we are now.
That's too long. Yeah, very long.
Maybe one kilometer. Maybe one and between one and three.
It's three kilometers away.
Wow. If you're in like, well, coastal subway station, then.
That's crazy. In the jungles.
But I think the jungle would have to be like, deadly quiet.
Now it's going to be a few of these.
And the mountains and the apples.
Yeah, colds and everything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But still quite stunning.
That is still pretty amazing.
I mean, it's 3,000 meters.
I mean, yeah, it's a great distance.
So if it's a concrete jungle in Manhattan, Ireland.
Maybe no. Maybe you can maybe you can hear that.
Because the voice will be bouncing back and forth.
Yeah, but there's so many sirens and cars and people.
And you know, it might be a bit tricky to hear that.
And at full speed, tigers can reach up to.
Hmm. 30? No. I think that's like a cheetah speed.
That's like a wheelchair.
Really? No, 30 kilometers.
30 kilometers an hour. That's fast.
It's fast, yeah. Yeah, I think that's maybe.
If you think about the kind of animals, they change the apples.
You say, you say, volts, top speed, like 30 kilometers an hour?
Hmm. So. I'm going to say 30.
It's 65. What? No way. But a cheetah's like double that, I think.
A cheetah's the fastest animal in the world if I'm not mistaken.
A cheetah gets up to like 100.
Oh, that's why it's so fast.
Yeah, so I guess 16 is possible.
But I mean, to be going at 60 kilometers an hour and weighing like 300 kgs, that's pretty insane.
Yeah. Which is why you want to stay away from them.
And these fierce felines have walked the earth for a long time.
Fossils remains of tigers founding parts of China are believed to be two million years old.
Wow. I mean, tigers are related to those, those ancient, what are the old, the ancient versions of tigers like a same two tiger.
Yeah. Because I think those are even from like almost dinosaur age times, I think.
And the truth. Yeah, I think they've been around for thousands of years.
Kind of explains how calm that there are so many stories in ancient Chinese classics related to tigers.
Been around for a long time.
Last, trivia and these subsidy subspecies are, there are five subspecies of tiger, including Bengal tiger, South China tiger, Indo Chinese tiger, Sumatra tiger and Amur tiger, also known as the Siberian tiger.
That's the white tiger.
All right. The Siberian tiger, thank you.
That's the one that's white and black as opposed to ours.
Because it's always snowy then.
Yeah. Yeah. And actually, no, I actually know that there are at least four sub, sub categories, sub species of tigers here in China.
It's quite impressive to see these animals here in this country.
And actually, it's published in 2021.
The Northeast tiger in Leopard National Park spans the province of G-Lin, Hylongjiang, covering an area of approximately 14,000 square kilometers.
It is a store-called natural distribution area of the Siberian tigers in Leopard and the only region with wild, resident populations and breeding families of those species in China.
If I'm not mistaken, tigers are more of an Asian thing and then lions on African thing.
African thing, yeah. I don't think there are any tigers in the natural habitat in Africa if I'm not mistaken.
And according to a researcher at the scientific monitoring department of this park, last year alone, they captured over 5,000 images of the Siberian tigers and more than 8,000 images of Leopard.
Additionally, the camera set around in the park recorded over one million instances of major, who fed animals such as wild boars and deer in different types of deer.
So yeah, we get to see that with the measures and all the protection policies happen here in the country.
We see the increasing of numbers of these beautiful animals here in China and hopefully around the world as well.
So good news for Tiger Day.
And another indicator for the changes in our awareness and understanding about tigers is while in the past and in literary works, we often see experts training these tigers to be taming them, to be deadly forces.
I mean, harnessing their ferocity and their teeth and claws for the purpose of making waging war.
Now, I think a lot of the institutions, their goal is to try and make them wild again, even for tigers that are raised and nurtured in closed areas.
A lot of them start by feeding them live chicken and rapists and to let them learn to hunt and then.
So they increase the difficulty and challenge by releasing bigger animals like wild pigs and hawks and basketball players and volleyball players.
No, that's just the bigger animals the taller they get.
That's not true. We don't feed humans to tigers.
There you go. Some fun thing about animal welfare in summertime and on this particular day, global tiger day.
We're just going to be testing to round table up next round tables motivation on Monday.
Welcome back, Brandon.
What do you have for us this week?
I have a quote from Elon Musk, who's undoubtedly the most famous South African in the world at the moment and probably the most successful South African ever, although he doesn't really identify as South African, I claim him as South African because he was in South African until the age of 18.
But I think he was unfortunately heavily bullied at school, which I think also impacted his future success because I think a lot of that made him a stronger person and more determined to achieve his dreams.
Not that we want bullying to move.
Of course not. But I think it was in some of his interviews, he's definitely mentioned that it impacted his desire for success, not saying that that's the best way to achieve success.
So he said when something is important enough, you do it, even if the odds are not in your favor.
And I think that he is someone that has been able to achieve remarkable feats in the face of incredible adversity.
And he's been able to achieve a lot of things that people thought were seemingly impossible.
And I think it's very important for human beings to, in life, hopefully have the opportunity to find something that they are incredibly dedicated to or incredibly passionate about.
And I think when you have the blessing of finding that you're able to make that happen or do everything in your power to try and make that happen, no matter what odds you face.
And I think Elon Musk is a great example of triumph through adversity.
I think as little kids we've always been taught about these lofty virtues and great things that people did in the past.
And it was much easier for kids to absorb these inculcations to try and to want to be the heroes that the world wanted them to be.
But then growing up there are challenges and hardships and unexpected things happening to our lives.
And I think that makes it all the more valuable that someone can stick to his goal that he or she had at the very beginning as a young child.
New Holy, what do you have for us?
Well, instead of a quote, today I actually provided a piece of new story or a lovely story I'd like to share that has been motivating me at least for the past weekend because actually on July the 27th Beijing Central Axis, a building on some books, submitting the ideal order of the Chinese capital has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List becoming China's 59th World Heritage Site.
It's been announced at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, India.
And China now has the most global heritage sites in the world, if I'm not mistaken.
I think with that addition, China has the most heritage sites globally, which is also an amazing experience.
Yeah, naturally sure. We are the most popular country.
The longest history, longest continuous history.
Yeah, as a civilization.
Yes, and you say that and you feel like it must be something natural.
It happens and it's supposed to be what it is, but it's not to be taken for granted.
It's not to be taken for granted.
And it's not that easy, actually the formal application for World Heritage Status began in 2012 and lasted 12 years.
Along the way, there has been initial phases, comprehensive acceleration phases and crucial spring phases.
While these are described by the team that has been doing this task and has been striving for this goal for this 12 years.
And along the way, they have been also protecting different sites on this route, on this axis.
We see that rooted in the traditional Chinese cultural paradigm of ideal capital planning.
The axis features a collection of building complexes and these amazing landmarks spanning 7.8 kilometers north, south through the heart of Beijing.
It includes 15 components from the bell and drum towers to the, for example, Tsingshan Park, the Tiananmen Square.
That's like that long road going through the center.
I've traveled on that road, I mean, I don't know what the specific sites are, but there's that long road that goes through the middle of the city that passes Tiananmen Square and the forbidden city, you know, those are two very iconic Beijing landmarks.
And I think that's part of the axis, right?
Yes. And a lot of the landmarks are separated alongside this axis.
Right. Making sure the planning of the capital is both in a way symmetric and also beautiful and majestic.
And one interesting thing about this is that it's not only something traditional, it's not only something that's rooted from the ancient history of this country, it also affects today's China as well.
We see that calculating one step as 80 centimeters walking around trip along the central axis is nearly 20,000 steps, which is why a lot of young people are using these central axis as a city walk route for activities.
See it all the time. Yes.
That was a day too, like literally coming back from the live broadcasting of the Olympics opening ceremony, I was driving back to Xi Jinping Shun from the city center at like three o'clock in the morning.
And it was that central axis area was packed with young people at like three, four o'clock in the morning.
It was incredible. Yes.
It contributes to the everyday life of today's young people.
And it has this really heavy and magnificent history.
And it deserves to be listed on that World Heritage List.
And I'm very happy to see it happening.
It's really meaningful come to think of it, to reconcile the different strains of thoughts over the past few hundred years.
On the one hand, I think the central axis was this key concept in the building of the Chinese capital over multiple centuries in the past.
But then we also as a nation went through the process of rethinking whether that kind of a dynastic thinking was the kind of idea to build a strong nation.
A hundred years ago as the country was under a lot of foreign occupation and wars.
And then give come the people's Republic of China in the 1949.
There was this new forward thinking as to whether we should keep all of them or we should save them.
So a lot of thoughts, a lot of different schools of thinking goes into maintaining and the building of the central axis.
I mean, now I believe the Burst Nest, which hosted the 2008 summer games in Beijing, was part of the central axis.
So interesting. As it should be, because I think that was one of the most iconic Olympic games ever.
That has a sort of event that's been around in centuries.
So I think that the most important thing is to register and understand the kind of thinking, the different kinds of thinking that have gone into and in spite of all these shifting ideas, the central axis is still there and is being recognized by the world.
Great achievement. That's all the time we have for today's discussion.
Thank you for listening.
