"Mexico City opened its Spring Flower Festival with giant floral sculptures of the endangered teporingo, a rabbit species native to the capital, to promote its conservation. Footage filmed on Friday shows visitors taking pictures of the sculptures and browsing a flower market at Plaza de la Republica. More than 50 producers from Xochimilco and Tlahuac take part in the fair, which features over 10,000 plant species. "We are welcoming spring, bringing flowers from the conservation land into the centre of the city, and here we see teporingos represented, two small ones and one monumental one, made out of flowers. Why did we choose teporingos? Because teporingos are an endemic animal of this area, of the volcanic zone of Mexico City," said Julia Alvarez Icaza Ramirez, Secretary of Environment of Mexico City. The event runs from Friday to Sunday and is expected to draw around 10,000 visitors a day, city authorities said. The festival also aims to strengthen ties between residents and local biodiversity, with the teporingo highlighted as a symbol of Mexico City. "And we want to highlight them because they are a species that identifies us as chilangos, it is something that defines us, and that does not exist anywhere else in the world or anywhere else in the country. So here, in the centre of Mexico City, this is a tribute to the teporingos and to the biodiversity of the conservation land of Mexico City," the secretary added. The festival is part of a broader government strategy to strengthen conservation of ecological land, promote local products and position the city as a leader in protecting native species."