Peking University, March 7, 2022: On January 31 and February 3, when two leopard cats appeared in the alpine skiing venue of Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games, Luo Shujin, a researcher at the School of Life Sciences at Peking University, was as thrilled and curious as everyone else.
Leopard cats shot during medal ceremony at Beijing 2022
Luo Shujin, associate professor and researcher of PKU School of Life Sciences, got a bachelor's degree from PKU in 1998, a doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota in 2006, and returned to PKU School of Life Sciences in 2009. Her main research interests include the genetic mechanisms and genomics of felines and other species phenotypic diversity, wildlife genome diversity, evolution and population genetics, and the conservation biology of wild cats in China.
Luo Shujin
In July last year, Luo published a photo of leopard cats watching the Winter Olympic Games in the letter column of the world's top academic journal Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.abl3669), introducing this special audience of Olympic Winter Games. The wild animals in the photo were discovered by Luo Shujin and her team in Beijing’s hidden mountain areas.
The leopard cat’s appearance near the competition venues of the Winter Olympic Games Beijing 2022 served as a reminder to Luo that there may be many ways for people and animals to get along.
"Animals are very sensitive to the environment, and their attitude towards people reflects that of humans towards them. According to eyewitness, these two ocelots appeared to be not insecure or defensive, not very afraid of people," Luo said, "I am just so happy about that."
Luo's team placed an infrared trigger camera in the mountains in Beijing, hoping to capture the wildlife watching the Winter Olympic Games. The camera has been working intermittently for nearly two years. Roe deers, pig badgers, impalas, wild boars, spoon chickens, and, of course, leopard cats are among the many animals that have been photographed.
Leopard cats have been photographed two or three times. The first time was in February 2021, when a leopard cat strode past the camera on the white snow. The adjacent branches were jagged, and the Olympic alpine skiing circuit could be seen in the distance behind him.
An ocelot walking past the infrared camera lens in February 2021
Luo Shujin then sent the photo to the editor of Science together with a 300-word passage entitled "The Hidden Olympic Spectator". The passage and photo were then published on July 23, 2021, the opening day of the Tokyo Olympics.
Before the publication on Science, Luo contacted the Beijing 2022 Organizing Committee to show these works outside the Winter Olympic Games competition area and explained that this may be a unique perspective to show the Olympic slogan of ‘Together for a Shared Future’. She was then invited to serve as a competition official for the alpine skiing event.
She was delighted to accept the offer. "We entered the closed loop on January 21. After that, in less than two weeks, wild leopard cats appeared twice in the Yanqing alpine skiing competition area of the Winter Olympic Games."
"I very much look forward to that after the Olympic Winter Games, I can return to my field of study and continue to carry out research on ocelots and wildlife," Luo said.
Luo hopes to take on the role of an objective and neutral scientific researcher to truly explore the extent to which wild animals with relatively high adaptability, such as leopard cats, can continue to live and multiply in Beijing’s mountainous areas.
Written by: QIU Kanghua
Edited by: Ye Yimeng
