Lights of fireflies being extinguished

A LOCAL ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION GROUP has called on people to boycott a firefly theme park in Beijing's Fangshan district, as it says most of the supposedly "free-range" fireflies in the park were caught in the wild. Beijing News commented on Thursday:

Although staff members of the Fangshan park responded by saying that the fireflies on display were bred in the wild by firefly farmers, their claim is questionable. China's urbanization has led to the near-extinction of wild fireflies in big cities because the insects are extremely picky about where they live. Only a few dozen wild fireflies have been found on the outskirts of Beijing in recent decades.

The fireflies swarming inside the park in Fangshan are therefore likely not locally bred, since farming them is an equally unlikely option. The cost of farming fireflies can reach 20 yuan ($3) per firefly while one caught in the wild is only 4 yuan. It is an open secret that people are hired to catch wild fireflies in large numbers and sell them to commercial enterprises like the one running the firefly theme park in Fangshan.