The whistling of a dolphin is one of the sounds available on a "caring for the wild animals" hotline (86-10-29896000) that started April 15 in Beijing for an information fee per call that goes to conservation efforts for wild animals. All species -- birds, land animals, sea animals, amphibians and insects - are included for those who call.

The Beijing Wildlife Relief Center together with the Beijing Rongxin Telecom Service Co., Ltd. set up the hotline. [The operator speaks in Chinese. However, if you press 1, you will get the line for animal sounds. The next message in Chinese says to press 1 for birds, 2 for land animals, 3 for sea animals, 4 for amphibians and 5 for insects. Within each category are several examples, too numerous to mention. But in each category the first sound you will hear is: Birds, they mynah; land animals, leopard; sea animals, whale; amphibians, crocodile; and insects, cicada. To go forward in each category, keep pressing 2. To go back, press 1.]

According to sources from the Beijing Forestry Administration, the purpose of the hotline is to promote public awareness about the protection of wild animals. The hotline also offers [in Chinese] abundant knowledge about the protection, relief and adoption of wild animals as well as an invitation to win a gift by participating in a quiz through the hotline. The operators can also answer questions from by the public about wild animals.

An information fee assures that Beijingers calling the hotline are contributing to the care of wildlife.

In addition, the Beijing Wildlife Relief Center plans to set up another free "wildlife relief hotline" to support the construction of a wildlife relief network.

(北京晚报 [Beijing Evening Post] translated by china.org.cn staff reporter Zhang Tingting, May 2, 2002)