A photo shows a mama Mandarin duck walking across the bridge with her ducklings in Gushan Mountain of West Lake in Hangzhou, east China's Zhejiang Province. (Photo/thepaper.cn)
These days, a small bridge has been set up over a lotus pond in Gushan Mountain, which is behind Hangzhou's well-known tourist attraction the West Lake, reports thepaper.cn.
The bridge was reportedly designed for Mandarin duck squabs that have been spotted around the lake.
Built with timber piles, the bridge is composed of a 2.2-meters-long and 0.25-meter-wide wood board, with both ends fixed with ropes.
Since the height of the bridge is as tall as the lake surface, those squabs that have not learned to fly can easily walk into the pond to forage.
"We put nets outside the pond to prevent grass carps from entering the pond and eat lotus seedlings. But recently, the cleaning crew told us that as the nets are 40 centimeters higher than the lake surface, it has impeded the movement of the Mandarin duck squabs," said a director of the scenic area.
Lacking strength in their legs, the baby Mandarin ducks may fall into the water while climbing the net, or it may take a long time for them to get across it.
After volunteers from the Zhejiang Provincial Wildlife Conservation Association reported this issue, the site's water management office immediately responded by building this small bridge.
"There are lots of sightseeing boats passing through this area, but there are no lotus leaves to hide outside the pond's net, which means once the baby ducks are separated from the mother, they can't survive if any predators show up," said Chen Shuihua, Deputy Director of the Nature Museum of Zhejiang Province.
Since 2007, wild Mandarin ducks have been seen living in the Gushan Mountain of West Lake.
Mandarin ducks are winter migratory birds. Usually they fly for a warmer winter in the south and then move to the north for breeding in the spring.
But if food supply is abundant and temperatures appropriate, some may stay in the south to spawn.
Chen Shuihua says that the Mandarin ducks found in the West Like have likely transformed from migratory birds into resident birds since they have already adapted to the environment.
