In July 2007, Ma Wenhu photographed wild pandas for the first time in the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ma Wenhu)
Xinhua News Agency, Chengdu, February 22 (Reporters Hui Xiaoyong and Zhang Hailei) "How can I see wild pandas? "Find Master Horse!" In the Tangjiahe area of Sichuan's Giant Panda National Park, this is almost universally known.
Who is Master Ma? Ma Wenhu, a native of Dagou Village, Qiaozhuang Town, Qingchuan County, Sichuan Province, is 52 years old. Mountain patrols, forest rangers, collection of taxidermy... He has been working in Tangjiahe for nearly 29 years and can skillfully identify more than 300 species of birds and more than 90 species of mammals.
In the photography circle, Ma Wenhu is a "big god" level figure, every time he photographs rare wild animals, he always amazes the circle of friends, attracting countless envy and appreciation. In fact, what he is most proud of is that so far, he has photographed wild pandas seven times.
According to Chen Limin, head of the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park, in 2014, there were 39 wild giant pandas in the Tangjiahe River, and the actual number may be as many as 50 at present.
When I first arrived in Tangjiahe and watched other photographers take exquisite photos, Ma Wenhu had an idea: "When I patrol, I also take some photos, and when I am old, I call the old guys together and proudly tell them that this is all taken by me." Finally, in 2006, he bought the first Nikon D90 camera for more than 10,000 yuan.
In April 2020, Ma Wenhu photographed wild giant pandas in the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park. This is the most recent time he has photographed a panda. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ma Wenhu)
July 2007 was Ma Wenhu's first photograph of a panda. At that time, he and his colleagues observed and recorded the living conditions of the horned antelope on the hillside of the reserve 3500 meters. Suddenly, a round black-and-white object broke into the telescope. Ma Wenhu fixed his eyes on it, and it turned out to be a panda! "After waiting for 14 years, I finally saw wild pandas for the first time in Tangjiahe!" He was so excited that he almost didn't hold the camera.
But Ma Wenhu's location is still some distance from the mountain where the panda is located, and under the conifers are dense arrow bamboo. Afraid of getting lost in the forest, he first ran to a high place to choose a shooting point, and then moved towards the target point, "using his hand to pull away the bamboo branches, stretching his feet into it, and walking slowly, for two hours." When Ma Wenhu arrived, the panda fell asleep in the tree. He quickly grabbed the camera and clicked a few times to record the panda in his sleep.
Fortunately, in August 2008, Ma Wenhu saw pandas again with a telescope. After borrowing a camera from someone else, he hung the walkie-talkie in his hand on his clothes and headed in the direction of the panda, "running for nearly 40 minutes."
With the previous two experiences, Ma Wenhu saw the panda again and was obviously much calmer. He saw pandas for the third time in 2014, when he and his colleagues were monitoring wild pandas. At an altitude of 1955 meters, suddenly a impala was running and calling, Ma Wenhu realized that there should be other animals around him, turned his head to see, a panda was twisting and twisting out of the forest! Ma Wenhu and his colleagues immediately crouched behind the stone, and he changed the camera and pointed it at the panda. The sun was hitting the panda, and the panda, who had not found anything unusual, was looking into the distance to give him a "pose". "That's the most beautiful one." Ma Wenhu said to everyone.
The last time I saw a panda was in April 2020. From April 1 to 7, he was looking for wild pandas. At 2:30 p.m. on the 7th, the sky drifted with light snow, and the pandas on the opposite mountain came into view. Because the equipment was too heavy, he quickly hid the camera in the snow and set off with two mobile phones, and the sound of the panda biting the bamboo seemed to be right in his ear. However, a deep ditch is in front of you, although the span is only more than 1 meter, but there is more than 30 meters deep under the feet. Before he could think about it, Ma Wenhu jumped over. "It was still very dangerous, it was the panda's estrus period, and it could rush over in 10 seconds."
In 2014, Ma Wenhu photographed wild pandas for the third time in the Tangjiahe area of the Giant Panda National Park. This photo is one of the pandas that Ma Wenhu thinks he has taken best. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Ma Wenhu)
In addition to pandas, Ma Wenhu has also photographed ocelots. In December 2018, the staff of the Pool Ping workstation took out the ribs to thaw. When he woke up in the morning, Ma Wenhu found that the ribs had fallen to the ground, "it must have been done by some animal." With curiosity, after hearing the sound that night, he quickly ran out and took a picture with a flashlight, which turned out to be an ocelot. The frightened ocelot quickly ran back into the hole, and Ma Wenhu hurried back to the room to get the SLR. The night was too cold, he looked at the ocelot outside for a while, and then went back to the house to roast the fire for ten minutes, repeated 12 times, the ocelot found that the environment outside the cave was not terrible, slowly walked out, seized the opportunity, Ma Wenhu quickly took a few photos. The ocelot in the photo looks natural.
Otters, yellow-legged fishing owls, grey-crowned jays, red-bellied horned pheasants... The first- and second-level key protected wild animals in these countries are regular customers in Ma Wenhu's lens. Ma Wenhu believes that he can photograph these "treasures", compared with other photographers is not technology, not equipment, but than who is more diligent, who encounters closer distances and better light.
After filming for so many years, Ma Wenhu has a deep feeling for the ecology of the Tangjiahe River: "I used to see a few small chamois scattered and scattered, and now I often see a group in a range. ”
With Tangjiahe being selected as one of the first batch of nature education bases in the Giant Panda National Park, Ma Wenhu also began to lead more people into the forest and mountains as a nature education instructor.