Experts remind tourists to share photos of holding pikas to attract attention from software | pikas | tourists
Recently, a science popularization blogger posted on Weibo that they caught tourists posting photos of themselves holding wild pikas on social media, which attracted attention.
The blogger said, after searching the Qilian grasslands and seeing similar pictures, "It seems that catching pikas has become a tourism project like feeding marmots..."
On social media platforms, some netizens posted photos of holding pikas.
In the aforementioned post, some tourists claimed to have caught pikas on the Qilian grasslands, while others said that pikas are very cute.
In response to the aforementioned situation, on July 25th, a staff member of the Haibei Prefecture Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Qinghai Province reminded that they have noticed the situation and that the aforementioned behavior carries a risk of infection. Tourists are not allowed to touch and feed rats and rabbits. If similar situations are found, they can report them to the local disease control or health department.
A staff member from the office of Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve told Pengpai News that pikas are distributed throughout the Qinghai Tibet Plateau region, and it is difficult to control the personal behavior of tourists, so they can only go to persuade. A staff member of the Qilian County Bureau of Culture, Sports, Tourism, Radio and Television stated that they have not received any relevant reports yet, but the grassland is not a scenic area and cannot control tourists. However, they will provide warm reminders and have also done relevant publicity.
Another expert who has studied pikas for a long time told Pengpai News that on the one hand, the above-mentioned behaviors destroy the natural ecology, and may also lead to infection of animal diseases, such as pestis.
![Experts remind tourists to share photos of holding pikas to attract attention from software | pikas | tourists](https://a5qu.com/upload/images/a3c2c778cd8adf31d562df75d48b4dea.jpg)
"It's more dangerous to play with marmots, which are the focus of Yersinia pestis," he said.
A blogger pointed out that tourists' behavior of catching rats and rabbits is inappropriate.
The science blogger who exposed the aforementioned information also stated that there is a certain probability that pikas can carry infected fleas, and it is necessary to maintain a distance from pikas and wild animals. Secondly, this behavior may have adverse effects on individual animals.
"Of course, I think it is normal for some tourists to lack knowledge and awareness in these areas, and this requires everyone to constantly popularize science." The blogger said that she believes that the person with the greatest responsibility in this matter is those who claim to be the "guide" or "leader", and they should not lead or induce tourists to catch rats and rabbits; Secondly, the platform does not regulate posts with incorrect value orientation.
Pengpai News noticed that on July 25th, when searching for the keyword "pika" on the aforementioned social media platform, the platform prompted "respect the laws of nature, do not feed".