Warm heart
More than 110 days of climbing mountains and ridges with elephants
A row of elephants walked along the road in a line, with three baby elephants under the mother's belly.
Despite its huge size, no footsteps were heard. The light elephants walked between the road and the buildings, silently... When 15 elephants appeared on the screen of the drone remote control, Yang Xiangyu was excited and again. Excited and nervous.
This day is May 27, 2021.
The 15 Asian elephants that left the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province for more than a year and went all the way north entered Eshan County, Yuxi City, Yunnan Province, wandering around the Kun-Mo Expressway and nearby buildings.
This rare phenomenon caused a sensation all over the world.
According to the deployment of the Yunnan Provincial Headquarters for the Safety and Precaution of the Moving North of the Asian Elephant Group, in the following 110 days, 58 officers and men of the Yunnan Forest Fire Fighting Corps were divided into 4 groups to monitor the elephant group 24 hours a day. They were involved in the movement of the Asian elephants. In the security work of the group, the only team that monitors the movement of the elephant group in the whole process.
As the "eyes of the command center", the monitoring team obtained data such as the location coordinates of the elephant group, the actual situation of activities, and the distribution of surrounding villages. Entering densely populated areas is very important, providing accurate basis for "staring, managing people, claim settlement, and relocation", and also left precious image data for the northward migration of Asian wild elephants.
These young people who have dealt with the forest all the year round, for the first time undertook a job they have never done before: using drones and infrared telescopes to monitor and track the world’s most continental animal elephants, and this is known as the “short-nosed family”. "The elephants went through a fantasy journey together, traversing the mountains, sleeping in the wind, sleeping in the air, and wading through the mountains and waters.
16 close encounters with elephants
Before performing this mission, Yang Xiangyu and his comrades had only seen elephants on TV and in the zoo.
Each of them came with excitement and excitement.
However, reality is not the same as expected.
“When using drones to survey the fire site, the law of fire movement can be relatively predictable. However, the elephant group has its own judgment and the law of activity is difficult to grasp, which brings great difficulty to the monitoring.” Yang Xiangyu said.
The elephants came out at night, and the monitoring team turned upside down in twilight.
Like walking, like stopping, anxiety, suffering, anxiety, worry, all kinds of emotions permeate their hearts.
During the day, the elephant flock shuttles and rests in the dense forest; at night, it goes down the mountain to find food and drive on the road. Sometimes the elephant flock walks seven or eight kilometers at night.
Two or three drones must take off alternately when changing batteries, and the monitoring team must always stare at the display screen in order to monitor the elephant group in real time.
In June, Yunnan entered the rainy season, and it became more difficult to track the phenomenon.
The elephants in the dense forest move very fast and often disappear on the screen.
From day to night, the monitoring team has to constantly move around to continue to lock the position of the elephant group. At most, they have to move 12 times a night.
Sometimes, they also bring machetes, infrared telescopes, small drones and other equipment on foot into the woodland to search for elephants.
In the deep mountains and dense forests, there is often no signal. In order to send back the pictures and points to the headquarters in time, they have to climb to the top of the mountain to find the signal.
These all require the professional skills of outdoor survival and identification of maps and directions that forest firefighters usually practice.
On the way to frequent transitions, it is inevitable to encounter elephants.
In more than 110 days, the monitoring team had 16 close encounters with the elephant herd, the most dangerous one being less than 5 meters away from the elephant herd.
One day, continuous rain, the fog remained, the drone was unable to search, and the elephant herd was out of monitoring for nearly 5 hours.
Around 9 pm, the drone team on duty that night went to search for the last spot where the elephant herd appeared.
When the car drove halfway up the mountain, they found the footprints of the elephants.
When they came to a mountain col with open terrain, the team members used drone thermal imaging to search. Soon, they saw scattered light spots on the screen. It was elephants walking, only about 40 meters away from them. The team members The returning drone reported the coordinates to the command center and jumped into the car and left quickly.
What is even more stressful is that the elephant group enters the village.
Late one night, the elephant group slowly entered Shiyan Village, Longwu Township, Shiping County, along the road. The headquarters imposed power cuts on the village.
The guard elephant walking in the front has been carefully testing the route. After confirming safety, the elephant behind did not follow up.
In order to prevent the elephants from entering the farmer's home, the headquarters put food in advance, and the elephant herd followed the guided route and walked while eating.
The monitoring team members stared at the screen nervously, counted the number of elephants, and reported the situation to the headquarters in time.
At around 3:30 in the morning, the elephants passed the village smoothly according to the route guided by the feeding, and everyone's hanging heart was relieved.
On the other night, the monitoring team performed a night monitoring task on the roof of the third floor of a fellow villager's home in Furangpeng Township, Eshan County.
In the middle of the night, the elephant group walked from the winding mountain road to outside the fence of this fellow villager.
They immediately turned off the lights.
Suddenly, the dog in the yard barked wildly. The guard turned his huge body in the direction of the barking and hissed, and his long, thick nose swept down the bricks on the wall.
After standing for a while, the three frightened little elephants walked away, and the other elephants also walked towards the dark distance.
"Although I monitor the elephants on the screen every day, I am still very scared when I see the elephant herd up close." said Du Wei, a member of the team.
"What should I do when encountering an elephant group? I used to think of countless ways to deal with it, but when I really meet an elephant, there is only one state: the unreacted circle." said Xiao Zhixiong, a member of the team.
During the interaction with the elephant herd, they summarized the "five-step method" of the sudden encounter with the elephant herd: Calm down, do not drive, guide or harm the elephants; observe to see if the elephants roll up or raise their noses and ears. There is no sign of anger; avoid, find the right time to leave the elephant group’s path of travel at the fastest speed; control stability, control the drone to fly in the air while evacuation, and grasp the group’s dynamics; early warning, the first time the coordinates of the elephant group’s position are notified The headquarters and surrounding crowds keep the elephants at a safe distance.
Not only that, in the monitoring and observation of the "short-nosed family", many team members became "elephant masters": gradually became familiar with the posture, personality, and hobbies of each elephant; they understood their movement trajectory through the map icon drawing, and judged What environment do they like, what path they take, and where will they find food.
These observations have greatly assisted the ground search when the elephants were not found in rainy or windy weather.
I was deeply attracted by elephants in the days I spent together day and night
"I heard that the elephant herd is leaving our village, so I am a little reluctant to come and see the elephant for the last time." In the Shiyan Village Committee, one of the villagers who watched the elephants, a woman sighed.
The trip of the "short nose family" brought losses and joy to the villages passing by.
Elephants, the headquarters, various staff, drones, etc. have all become the villagers’ talks.
"The elephant is here! The lucky elephant is here!" "The elephant is in my field" "Haha, how lucky your family is".
They surrounded the monitoring team members, asking and discussing the direction of the elephant group's activities, just as lively as watching a live sports match.
The curious and enthusiastic villagers also warmed the monitoring team who chased the elephant all the way.
At around 3 a.m. one day, the elephant herd was moving very fast. The monitoring team moved to Zhumujiu Village, Shijie Township, Yimen County. The battery of the drone was almost used up. The team members were worried. There was a family on the side of the road. Opened the door, warmly invited them into the house to charge, and brought hot water and clothes.
"We knew you were here when we heard the sound of the drone taking off."
Another day, an older sister saw the monitoring team looking for the drone's take-off and landing point, and invited them into the house, "I have read your stories on Douyin, and my family welcomes you at any time."
However, the roof of her house is narrow and it is not convenient for drones to take off and land. The team members can only find another place.
The eldest sister felt very sorry, "not able to help the team."
On July 14, the elephant group entered Longwu Township, Shiping County, just in time for the "Zhazha Festival" of the Hani ethnic group.
In order not to disturb the elephant herd, the Hani compatriots gave up traditional activities such as gatherings, celebrations, lighting toasts, and village banquets. Send cakes and dragon fruit to the monitoring team members, and let the team members spend the "Zaza Festival" with the elephants.
"The enthusiasm of the villagers makes this bitter journey of chasing elephants a beautiful memory. We will also tirelessly tell the villagers the story of elephants." said team member Huang Nanxiang.
This is a happy big family, no matter the wind and rain, or the summer heat, they always sing forward happily.
When you are happy, roll your nose up and down and shake it up and down; when you drink water, take a sniff and spray it on other elephants; their favorite game is to fight ivory wars with long tusks.
Sometimes when the fire is over, other elephants will come to persuade them to fight and eventually stop them; when passing by the village, sometimes the little elephants will use their noses to carry the hose to the ground to water, sometimes they will play with chickens and sheep for a while; Drink enough and you chase me in the ground, and roll all over the mud.
This is also a big family that loves each other.
When climbing a hill, the elephant pushes the baby elephant with its nose; while taking a bath, the elephant carefully helps the baby elephant.
Once, 4 elephants accidentally fell into a pond in the field, and one of them was a baby elephant.
The two adult elephants in the pond force the baby elephant out of the pond, and then the three elephants work together to pave the soil around the pond to form a slope and finally escape the danger.
During these 5 hours, the other 10 elephants have been wandering around the pond, guarding, and waiting.
Of course, taking care of these big guys is no easy task.
Sometimes, when the sun is in the sky, the team members are sweating, but the elephant herd is enjoying the sugar cane in the sugar cane field, and only eats sticks, not leaves.
Sometimes rolling sugar cane to play, sometimes using the nose to roll the sugar cane into your mouth, and close your eyes to enjoy a sweet "lunch"; sometimes, in violent storms, the team members become drenched chickens, soaked clothes sticking to the skin, struggling to find A few hours later, the elephants were found lying under the dense branches and fell asleep collectively.
Even if the elephant group rests, the team members cannot rest. The elephant group may sleep for a whole morning or get up and play in a short time.
In the woods, the mosquitoes rushed out. The team members shared the joys and sorrows of the elephants. The elephants were able to drive away the mosquitoes with their big ears, but the team members had nothing to do.
The team members found that following the elephant herd’s transition and crossing mountains and ridges, sometimes the elephant raised its big nose to greet the drone, but when looking for food and choosing a route, the elephant would first detect, then act, and always protect it. Baby elephant, try to avoid the crowd.
For example, when entering Eshan County on May 27, the elephant group chose the narrowest urban road as its route.
During the day and night with the elephant herd, the team members were deeply attracted by the elephants.
Three months ago, they saw the baby elephant staggering, like a toddler who had just learned to walk.
Three months later, the little elephants learned to roll in the mud and uttered deafening cheers to the sky. The players were surprised at their rapid growth.
"I feel the spirituality and beauty of nature, and I feel a little more in awe."
At 8:08 pm on August 8, 14 Asian elephants moved north to cross the Yuanjiang main stream safely.
In addition to the male sub-adult elephants that have been returned to the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve on July 7, all 15 Asian elephants that moved north returned safely to the south. There were no casualties of humans and elephants along the way. Safety precautions for Asian elephants moved north from Yunnan And emergency response work has made decisive progress.
At 1:40 on the night of September 1, under the guidance of the staff, the Asian elephants who moved north and then returned south to Mojiang County, Pu'er City, walked across the Zhe Bridge and successfully crossed the Amo River into Jingxing Town. At this point, they The straight-line distance between Pu'er City and Xishuangbanna Prefecture is about 103 kilometers, and it is getting closer and closer to the original habitat.
According to Zeng Yunfeng, a member of the Wild Asian Elephant Search and Monitoring Task Team of the Pu'er Forest Fire Fighting Branch, recent monitoring found that the baby elephants are significantly stronger than the previous period, walking longer, and their hair is thick and shiny.
As of 9 a.m. on September 2, Asian elephants are still active in Jingxing Town, Mojiang County.
China Youth Daily · China Youth Daily reporter Zhang Wenling Source: China Youth Daily
September 03, 2021 05 Edition