Extinction Causes and Conservation Measures Assessment for

Mengxin Beavers in China

Xiaoyu Song

Tianjin Yizhong High School, Tianjin, 300041, China

Keywords: Mengxin Beaver, Biodiversity, Participatory Protection, Public Engagement.

Abstract: Originating 2 million years ago, the Mengxin beaver is the only kind of species that can be found in China.

Due to its rarity and the small size of its exisiting population, it warrants serious investigation, and yet its

behavior and its role in the ecosystem are poorly understood and little researched. Mengxin beaver has

essential research value as new evidence from a recent field study has shown that they are essential in

establishing and maintaining biodiversity in the Wulundu River of Xinjiang Province. However, the

population of the species remains relatively small due to climate change and human encroachment on their

natural habitat. The main goal of this study is to raise public awareness of the persistent decline of the species

as well as their importance to the ecosystem and highlight the need to protect them. The possible methods

will be discussed with a particular focus on a multistakeholder participatory approach that involves the

government, researchers, the local community, and the general public. The previous protection measures rely

too heavily on the leadership of central government. But it fails to incorporate the needs and concerns of local

community as protection of natural habitat of beavors often causes conflict to their livelihood. Neither does it

recognize the importance of greater public engagement beyond the local community. The protection effort

this study envisions will address these gaps and create a synergy of multistakeholders’ participation.

1 INTRODUCTION

The Mengxin beaver is a species that survived from

the Pleistocene epoch of the Quaternary period 2

million years ago and is widely regarded as a “living

fossil of ancient vertebrates” (Brazier et al., 2021).

Listed as a first-class state-protected animal in China,

Mengxin beavers are the only beaver species living in

China and are found only along Ulungur River in

Xinjiang’s Altay Prefecture. Beavers are often

considered one of the keystone species in the natural

world. More specifically, beavers work as an

ecosystem engineer that creates, changes, or destroys

a habitat. River ecosystems rely on beavers to take

down old or dead trees along riverbanks to use for

their dams. This allows new, healthier trees to grow

in abundance. The dams divert water in rivers,

creating wetlands that allow a variety of animals and

plants to thrive. Therefore, Mengxin beavers are

essential in establishing and maintaining biodiversity

in wetlands and providing new habitats for other

plants and animals.

Yet some studies challenge the positive role of

beavers. Some researchers have found that beavers

could cause their dams burst, resulting in extensive

flood damage (Stringer and Gaywood, 2016). In the

U.S., for example, the dams built by the beavers can

cause flood in places during the rainy season, and

according to estimates, every single year, it costs the

U.S. timber industry 22 million dollars to fix the

damages which the dams built by beavers caused

(Virchow et al., 2001).

But for the Mengxin beaver living in the arid area

of Xinjiang autonomous region, this is not the case.

The annual precipitation in Xinjiang is only 143

millimetres, as long as the annual precipitation is less

than 200 millimetres, it is classified as an arid region.

Clearly, beavers cannot cause flood problems. On the

contrary, their dams can actually help the arid area

raise the water level and keep the steam from drying

up, making the whole ecosystem run. The dams and

networks of watercourses that they create can store

vast amounts of water. This will encourage the growth

of the riverbank vegetation. In addition, the dams

made by beavers can store more 20% more water than

Song, X.

Extinction Causes and Conservation Measures Assessment for Mengxin Beavers in China.

DOI: 10.5220/0013847600004914

Paper published under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Renewable Energy and Ecosystem (ICREE 2024), pages 109-113

ISBN: 978-989-758-776-4

109

the ones without the dams. It can actually decrease the

temperature of the water, which can be good for

marine animals sensitive to the water temperature.

2 CHARACTERISTICS OF

MENGXIN BEAVERS

Mengxin beavers are usually very timid, and they can

be scared by anything in nature. They usually come

out during the night and only stay around the water

because when they are on land, their movement are

very clumsy and they have bad eyesight, so they can

be caught by predators easily. Besides, their tails are

very special, their tails are flat and have scales on it.

Tails can not only help beavers to swim, but also help

beat the water to catch others’ attention. If they felt

something was wrong, they would go under the water

and hide in the dams they build, which are home to

them.

This animal, which feeds on the shrub that grows

near the rivers, has a strong sense of territory and

won’t leave their own surroundings. They have very

strict requirements about habitats and only choose for

their home an area with abundant food resources.

Their food choices vary from season to season.

Between April and the end of August each year, their

primary feed includes shoreline weeds and grasses,

along with a significant amount of willow trees.

However, the availability of the shrub keeps

decreasing. The lack of food and habitat is the major

cause impacting the beavers’ reproduction.

The beavers, which can build dams, are dubbed as

‘engineers’ in the animal kingdom. Their dams can

store their food, and provide a cozy shelter, but also

provide a better living area for other animals living in

that part of the area. These dams can change water

levels, gather shoals of fish, attract birds to nest and

bring insects and small mammals. So, every beaver’s

dam can provide a new ecosystem for wild animals

and lift the biodiversity levels in the area.

3 LOOMING EXISTENTIAL

CRISIS

There are four main reasons why Mengxin beaver has

become extinct. The first reason is that human activity

causes the amount of food for beavers to decrease

yearly. For example, people cut down 10 % of the

forests, which directly damaged the habitats of the

beavers and greatly reduced the living range of these

little creatures, all these directly resulting in the

decline of the population of Mengxin beavers. Based

on historical data and estimates, from 1959 to 1986,

the numberof Castor fibers birulai was cut in half. Till

1957, there were only hundreds of them.

Secondly, the disafforestation and diverting rivers

for irrigation caused the water level in that area to

drop, leading to increasingly bad living conditions for

the beavers, especially in winter, causing many

beavers to die.

Thirdly, the rarity of Mengxin beavers‘ fur has

rendered the creatures the target for hunters and fur

traders As their skull and body color are markedly

different from those of other species that have been

discovered, Mengxin beavers become the raw

material par excellence for felt hat. Besides, the

physical structure of beaver fur predisposes it to the

felting process, making it a highly desirable fur for

felt production. This led to the indiscriminate killing

by hunters and the rapid depletion of the species

Finally, one of the lesser-known factors

contributing to the decline in beaver populations has

been the extraction of castoreum, a substance secreted

by beavers. Historically, castoreum has been highly

valued as a natural ingredient in products such as

vanilla-flavored ice cream and perfumes. Due to its

value, there was a significant incentive to trap

beavers, especially those considered problematic —

those that caused flooding in unwanted areas or

damaged crops. These “problem beavers” were often

lured into traps using castoreum, then relocated or

killed for further castoreum collection. Fortunately,

recent advancements have led to the development of

more humane methods for collecting castoreum, and

for the perfume industry, alternative synthetic

chemicals have been successfully integrated,

reducing the reliance on natural castoreum. This shift

is a positive step towards reducing human-induced

threats to beaver populations.

4 EXISTING PROTECTION

MEASURES

Various ways have been adopted to prevent the rare

species from extinction, but the outcome isn’t very

satisfying.

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4.1 Natural Habitat Protection

The best way to protect species, especially

endangered and threatened species is to preserve their

natural habitat. In 1980, the Chinese government

authorized the establishment of the Xinjiang Burgen

Beaver Nature Reserve. This move however, didn’t

lead to an increased beaver population as had

expected. Instead, the size of the local beaver families

dwindled even further. From 1982 to 1999, their total

number had dropped from 93 to 90 (Chu and Jiang,

2009).

In December 2013, the Nature Reserve was

upgraded to a national-level reserve by approval of

the General Office of the State Council. This brought

a moderate increase to 162 in 2014, but it didn’t last

very long before the number dropped again to 152 in

2015 (Han, 2018).

4.2 Raising Public Awareness

It turned out that a designated protection area still

couldn’t immune them from descructive human

activities, the biggest threat to their survival. To

increase farm land, many trees were cut down. The

gradual diminishing of riparian forests led to food

shortages for beavers. Diverting rivers for irrigation

purposes resulted in reduced water levels, which were

crucial for their survival. Poaching beavers were quite

rampant as well. To address these problems, a public

awareness campaign was carried out to ensure the

local community was fully engaged in the

conservation effort. Moreover, the local government

has organized programs to provide the local herdsman

with necessary training on the protection of beavers

and offer them information on relevant legislation and

regulations. Meanwhile, the local government and the

Beaver Reserve have established an incentive system

that rewards activities such as reporting poaching,

rescuing injured beavers, and protecting their habitats.

In addition, an ecological compensation

mechanism was established to encourage local

herders to stop grazing their livestock or felling trees

in the protected area. In return they will get free

forage. These initiatives have proved to be very

successful in getting local community to be directly

involved in the protection effort.

4.3 Technology Improvement

Mengxin beaver is a nocturnal animal, so it is hard for

the conservation staff to observe them in the wild at

night when visibility is poor. The traditional way is no

longer useful for Mengxin beaver. Instead of

monitoring by people, experts installed infrared

cameras in the beavers’ protected area (Liu et al,

2015). It is a better way to obtain the activity

information of the beavers, including the difference of

daily activity intensity in different times of day and

night and among different seasons. This is an

important tool for non-invasive investigations that

will not affect the beavers.

5 PROPOSED PROTECTION

MEASURES

5.1 Effective Protection Measures for

Reference in the near Future

The above-mentioned participatory approach, which

features a partnership between the local government

and the community, is very targeted and effective. But

in this increasingly digitalized world where people are

becoming more interconnected than ever before,

recruiting and engaging diverse stakeholders through

modern communication technology seems to be more

powerful and efficient (Palmer and Rosell, 2010;

Gibson and Olden, 2014 & Palmer and Rosell, 2010).

A good case in point is the phenomenal success of

a public participation project initiated by Chu

Wenwen, a young and passionate wildlife

conservationist from China’s Xinjiang Uygur

Autonomous Region. During the past four years,

through the popular social media platform Douyin

(Chinese version of TikTok), the program has

attracted more than 1 million post-1990s volunteers

joining the natural conservation campaign for the

Altai Mountains in Xinjiang. In 2018, she initiated

another program, the beaver canteen, which attracted

over 1 million internet users to donate their snack

money. A super-canteen of about 400,000 willow

shrubs was built with the snack money from those

post-1990s and even post-2000s netizens. She was

called “princess beaver” by her followers on social

platforms. 410,000 saplings of that shrub were

planted for beavers facing a severe food shortage.

According to the data throughout this activity, the

Mengxin beavers’ population had increased from

500~600, and the family number had also risen by 37.

The project also provides the local herders

training on expertise, skills and job opportunities

through capacity building. Later, when the beavers’

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population survey was launched, they were enlisted

for help, and they made deals with the herders so they

could better regulate the overgrazing practices. Chu

uses the power of the internet to galvanize public

support for the protection of endangered species. In

addition to Chu and her team, some businesses also

contributed by releasing products printed with

Mengxin beavers or even creating versions of cartoon

characters for the beavers. For example, a toy

company called Pop Mart unveiled a series of blind

boxes of cartoon characters based on the Mengxin

beaver, which let more people know about this

creature.

5.2 Proposed Protection Measures

To protect the beaver, raising public awareness is

certainly important, but it is only the first step towards

synergizing actions for real change. In this process,

volunteering work from young people plays a

significant role, as the generous donation for beaver

canteen program has demonstrated. That’s because

young people growing up exposed to the concept of

animal welfare are more passionate about animal

protection than any previous generation. Meanwhile,

the advancement of ICT technology, such as social

media, can easily reach out to them and engage them

in meaningful volunteer work. In the case of Mengxin

beaver protection programs, over 3 million internet

users have donated their snack money to secure food

sources for the cute animal. Among them, a majority

are young people born after 1990s and even after the

2000s. According to the estimates of the program

initiator Chu Wenwen, over a million young people

were actively involved in the program from 2019 to

2021 (Hubei Changjiang Business Daily, 2022). The

same young people have gone to the field to help with

the rescue of beavors as well as the planting of willow

shrubs, the favorite food for beavers during winter

when food supplies are scarce. The success of the

program reminds us the power of young people in

delivering social good. Therefore, the future

protection effort should tap into young people and

make full advantage of their talent and their

commitment to biodiversity conservation.

There is another workable plan to protect the

Mengxin beaver through a business partnership. More

specifically, using the images of them, people can

have cooperation with industry companies to launch a

series of co-branded ips, such as the clothes printed

with pictures of the Mengxin beaver and some daily

living equipment that people cannot live without it. In

the future, scientists will invent new eco-friendly

materials. When producing the products, the special

raw material that has been used can reduce waste.

Every year, the reservation will monitor the

number of beavers family staff can give them a name

and post their pictures online so the reservation can

hold a “online adoption”. When people choose one

beaver that they like, the staff from the reservation can

install some cameras that don’t disturb the beavers’

normal life, and staff will send a qualification and

access to the camera to live stream the beaver’s life

for the people who had adopted a beaver, they will be

kept updated about the beavers they have adopted.

Besides these, staff will also take photos of the

beavers and send them to their adoptors. For the

donation, staff could use it to buy more trees to store

more food for them.

6 CONCLUSION

The plight of the Mengxin beaver, a unique species

whose existence stretches back two million years,

mirrors the broader challenges faced by many

endangered species across the globe. As this study

highlights, the Mengxin beaver not only plays a

crucial ecological role as a biodiversity engineer in

the arid ecosystems of Xinjiang but also faces

numerous threats largely attributable to human

activities. While climate change, habitat destruction,

and direct exploitation have led to a precariously

dwindling population, this study underscores the

critical need for a multifaceted conservation strategy

that goes beyond traditional governmental

approaches.

Emphasizing participatory conservation efforts is

essential. By involving local communities, leveraging

modern technology, and harnessing the influential

power of social media platforms, conservation

initiatives can cultivate broader public support and

more effective engagement. Particularly inspiring is

the innovative use of participatory projects like the

“beaver canteen,” which not only fosters community

involvement but also directly contributes to the

sustainability of the beaver’s habitat.

Moreover, this article advocates for the

integration of young people into conservation efforts,

tapping into their dedication and digital savviness to

propel awareness and action. The success of

initiatives spearheaded by conservationists like Chu

Wenwen illustrates the potential impact of blending

traditional conservation methods with modern

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technological outreach. By creating educational

campaigns that resonate with the public and

developing innovative products that promote the

Mengxin beaver, these efforts can create sustainable

revenue streams that support ongoing conservation

work.

In conclusion, securing the future of the Mengxin

beaver demands an adaptive, inclusive approach that

embraces the complexities of ecosystem

management, human-wildlife coexistence, and

community engagement. As this study shows, when

local communities, governments, and

conservationists work collaboratively, there is a

greater chance for not just preserving a species but

also enhancing the ecosystems they inhabit. The fate

of the Mengxin beaver is not just a matter of

ecological importance but a poignant symbol of our

broader relationship with the natural world, urging us

to act thoughtfully and swiftly.

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