Wild protection operations in a village:
The father and son took care of the snow leopard for 3 years and the white-lipped deer grew up at the forest ranger's house
West China Metropolis Daily-Cover News Sanjiangyuan Special Report Group
In Gengsi Village, Zhenda Township, Shiqu County, Ganzi Prefecture, a special "guest" lived in the courtyard in front of the house of Gen Qiuzeren, a villager.
Whenever someone approaches, it will roar and even raise its paws in a gesture of attack.
This is an old snow leopard, a national first-class protected animal.
On November 12, Gen Qiuzeren told reporters that his family had been "neighbors" with this snow leopard for more than 3 years.
In 2017, the father of a forest ranger and his colleagues rescued this snow leopard. Because there was no special rescue station in the village, he was fostered at home. My father said he would continue to help."
Gengsi Village is adjacent to the source of the Three Rivers, with an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. There are rare animals such as snow leopards, white-lipped deer, brown bears, and rock sheep.
Among them is a white-lipped deer cub that is under the care of the forest rangers.
Rangers rescued the snow leopard and took care of his son after three years of death
Gen Qiuzeren's father Jiata was the village party secretary of Gengsi Village and the general forest ranger of the village.
Entering the living room of Gen Qiuzawaren's house, you can see a row of awards and certificates hanging on the wall at a glance. They are all honors that Jiaqi had won during his lifetime.
In 2017, Jiahe and several other rangers rescued an injured snow leopard.
"I found it under the rock wall. It was dying because of excessive bleeding. One of its forelimbs was broken, and it is still limping when walking." Genga, also a forest ranger, introduced the snow leopard at the time. A snow leopard was injured after losing a food, because Zhenda Township had not yet established an animal rescue center, so the snow leopard was fostered in Jiata's home.
The township government funded the construction of the "iron cage" in which the snow leopard lived. Jia was responsible for feeding it, and his wife would clean the pen for the beast every once in a while.
Earlier this year, Jia it died of cancer, and the 22-year-old Gen Qiuzawa inherited his father's job of feeding snow leopards.
He cut the yak meat into large pieces according to his father's instructions during his lifetime, and fed the snow leopards once every other day, about 13 kilograms each time.
Genga told reporters that the snow leopard was released back to the mountains after healed from his injury, but they observed that it had lost the ability to survive in the wild. “Its wildness still exists, but it can’t hunt. This is an old snow leopard. The teeth have been smoothed out. Based on the person’s age, it may be equivalent to an old man in his seventies or eighties."
"This is the second snow leopard we rescued. The first snow leopard was relatively young and did not come back after it was released. This snow leopard is relatively old and we will continue to help it." said Zhu Xiutao, the mayor of Zhenda Township.
The rangers have no poaching lassos on their weekly patrols in the mountains
Shiqu County is one of the areas with the highest density of white-lipped deer, a national first-class protected animal.
According to statistics, the population of white-lipped deer here is between 11411-14693.
Zhu Xiutao said that the white-lipped deer used to be the target of many poachers. “Because the white-lipped deer’s antlers are precious medicinal materials, there used to be a lot of poaching here. No one is allowed to pick it up."
At present, there are more than 40 official forest rangers in Zhenda Township. They are divided into teams to patrol the hills.
At the same time, the local area has installed infrared cameras according to the different conditions of each area, so that the forest rangers can monitor everywhere at any time.
“There are people on every mountain, and there are people patrolling the mountain three or four days a week. We can see which animals are on the mountain, which animals have increased, and what they are doing in the pictures captured by the camera.” Zhu Xiutao said.
"In the past, the lasso used for poaching can be found on mountain patrols, but these things have basically been invisible in the past few years." Zhu Xiutao said that with the increase in inspections in recent years, poaching has almost disappeared in Zhenda Township.
Local animal protection stations will be built to better rescue wild animals
In addition to the snow leopards fostered in Genqiuzawaren's home, Zhenda Township has also rescued a white-lipped deer under the age of one year, and is fostered in the family of forest ranger Duojia.
Zhu Xiutao introduced that in mid-May this year, the forest ranger discovered this white-lipped deer while patrolling the mountain. “It was just able to go at that time and its mother was missing. The team members rescued it and fed it with yak milk to grow up. Now it can eat highland barley. When it grows up, we will release it back to the mountains and forests."
"At present, the little white-lipped deer and the snow leopard are kept separately in the ranger's house, and we do not have a designated rescue center."
Zhu Xiutao said that the professional "animal protection station" is already in preparation and it is expected to start construction next year. "After the establishment of the animal protection station, the protection of wild animals will be strengthened and the protection conditions will be better. In the future, free-range breeding The white-lipped deer and snow leopards in the foresters’ homes will be transferred to the animal protection station to receive better care.”
Zhu Xiutao said that protecting wild animals in Zhenda Township is already a work involving all people. In addition to forest rangers, herders will also participate in the work of protecting animals. Participate in the protection of animals."