1
Hexi Corridor with Zhangye
The first Nomadic peoples of the Mongolian Plateau arose in the Yinshan Mountains and have since become a unified people: the Huns.
In 215 BC, the Qin general Meng Tian drove the Xiongnu north to the Hetao region (south of the Yin Mountains, suitable for farming). The Yin Mountains could not stop the Xiongnu who lived in the bitter cold of the desert north from yearning for the fertile wilderness in the south, and for the next hundred years, the Hu-Han dispute was endless, and the Hexi Corridor from Hetao to the north of the Qilian Mountains was basically controlled by the Xiongnu.
In 121 BC, after recovering Hetao, Emperor Wu of han sent the general Huo Quyi to lead his troops north out of Longxi to attack Hexi in order to open up the road to the Western Regions, and launched the second campaign against the Xiongnu in three major battles: the Battle of Hexi.
Huo Wentai crossed the Yanzhi Mountain for the first time, marched thousands of miles west, and annihilated the enemy nine thousand.
The second time, he went north along the weak water, crossed the Yanhai Sea, went deep into the desert for 2,000 miles, and annihilated 30,000 enemies.
Since then, the Hu and Han dynasties in the Hexi Corridor have changed hands, and the Han Dynasty has set up counties in the Hexi Corridor: Wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, and Dunhuang.
After Emperor Wudi of Han's war against the Xiongnu was victorious and the Hexi Corridor was incorporated into The territory of China, Emperor Wudi of Han began to set up administrative institutions in the Hexi Corridor, and wuwei, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Dunhuang, and the four counties of Hexi were successively set up Picture source: Network
After losing Hetao, the Huns lost the choke point between the Han and Western Regions— and the last granary: the Hexi Corridor. The cry of wailing said: "The death of my Qilian Mountain has made my six animals restless; the loss of my Yanzhi Mountain has made my women colorless." ”
In 36 BC, Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty sent the Western Regions Capital to protect Gan Yanshou and the vice-lieutenant Chen Tang to expedition against the Northern Xiongnu and kill Zhi ZhidanYu. Chen Tang left a sentence: "Those who commit crimes against strong men will be punished from afar!" Since then, the Northern Xiongnu have withdrawn from the stage of history.
The power vacuum of the northern steppes was quickly filled by Xianbei, and Tuoba eventually established the Northern Wei, and gradually expanded southward and Became Sinicized, and the Hexi Corridor also became Northern Wei territory. A part of the Xianbei people maintained the northern nomadic custom of the Xiongnu, called Rouran.
After the rise of the Turks from the Western Altai Mountains, Rouran was destroyed and the remnants fled eastward, dividing into the Mughals in the north and the Khitan in the south.
The landscape photos taken when Zhangye went out of the wild are no different from the scenery of the Hexi Corridor in the documentary Big Cat
After the Northern Wei Dynasty, after a short period of Northern Zhou and Sui Dynasties, the Tang Dynasty rose and Li Shimin destroyed the Turks. The territory of the early Tang Dynasty was vast, bounded by the Northern Nomads on Longshou Mountain north of the Hexi Corridor.
During the Tang Dynasty, the Hexi Corridor was once again prosperous as the Silk Road, and its economic prosperity was second only to Chang'an and Suzhou and Hangzhou, and it was once the closest and largest foreign trade trading center to Chang'an.
After the Anshi Rebellion, the Hexi Corridor fell into the hands of Tubo, and in the late Tang Dynasty, Ganzhou (Zhangye) and Liangzhou were retaken by the Tang.
After the Anshi Rebellion, Guo Ziyi, in order to appease the ethnic minorities in the west, suggested that Emperor Daizong move the Dangxiang Qiang people from the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the area of present-day northern Shaanxi, then called Pingxia, after two hundred years of operation, the Western Xia rose, and the Hexi Corridor had become the sphere of influence of the Dangxiang people.
In 1038, Li Yuanhao was proclaimed emperor of the Song Dynasty, and since then the Western Xia and the Song Dynasty have been inseparable. By the time of the Southern Song Dynasty, the Han had lost control of the Silk Road, and the Hexi Corridor was withering away.
The Western Xia King's Mausoleum located in the eastern foothills of Helan Mountain Image source: Network
In 1206, the once remnant of The Ruran, Mughal Mulvwei, had risen to become the most powerful force in the northern steppe: the Mongols.
In 1226, Genghis Khan sent an army to attack Western Xia, personally leading an army to capture Ganzhou (Zhangye), but then fell ill and died of illness at Liupan Mountain.
In 1227, the Mongols destroyed the Western Xia; in 1234, the Mongols destroyed the Jin; in 1271, Kublai Khan established the state with the title of Dayuan; in 1279, the Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty.
In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang led an army to conquer Beijing, and the Yuan Dynasty fell. A few years later, Gansu was retaken by Daming, and the Hexi Corridor was returned to the hands of the Han Chinese.
In the centuries since then, the Hexi Corridor has stabilized.
A generation of genius, Genghis Khan Image source: Network
2
Rabbit Rouge
At 5:41 p.m. on October 29, 2021, the rabbit "Rouge" lay in front of a cave located in a mound depression on the side of Provincial Highway 237 in the north of Zhangye City, Gansu Province, peacefully enjoying the warm evening sun.
Rabbit "Rouge", about Rouge, more wonderful videos, all in today's two, you can also move to the B station to enjoy sucking cats
This gentle hilly area on the northern slope of Longshou Mountain is inconspicuous.
Although it bears the history of the most brilliant agricultural and nomadic civilization in China's history for more than 2,000 years, it is now a semi-wilderness land with a few camels wandering, a wind farm being built, and gerbil caves on the ground.
Xiongnu, Qianghan, Xianbei, Tang, Uighur, Tubo, Western Xia, Mongolia, Daming, Jurchen... The seemingly long history of more than 2,000 years of humanity is not worth mentioning to Rouge.
As the oldest member of the cat family, the rabbit appeared on Earth 6 million years ago, and the earliest humans did not appear until at least 2 million years ago.
But when it came time to name the rabbit, I tried to find a relatively old name that was in line with the characteristics of the ethnic region: Rouge.
The markings on Rouge's face are very characteristic, with a clear "three" on the right and a ">" on the left.
Rouge is a mountain located in Shandan County, Zhangye City, right in the middle of the Qilian Mountains and Longshou Mountains, like an island in the Hexi Corridor.
According to legend, there is a kind of red flower (probably red flower honeysuckle) on Yanzhi Mountain, which the Xiongnu women call rouge and smear it on their faces to make up; and the beautiful woman is also called Fu Shi (pronounced "rouge"), such as Shan Yu's wife, which is actually a meaning.
The rabbit is a female cat, so she's called Rouge.
Just over a month ago, Rouge had just sent away two babies (maybe three) born this year, and now it's a rare time to relax.
It wasn't cold yet, there were a lot of rats, and although the cave was no longer a regular nest after she had given birth, she would still come back from time to time.
"Rouge" in August
Rabbits are not as fearless as big cats, and in this exposed wilderness, they maintain the habit of hiding and hiding at all times.
After all, not so long ago, there were snow leopards, wolves and other large beasts of prey here; even now, grassland eagles and the occasional golden eagle will become potential enemies of rabbits.
In July 2021, I participated in the research project on the eastern edge of the distribution of Asian wildcats by Luo Shujin of Peking University, and the purpose of this trip was to find evidence of the existence of Asian wildcats in the eastern edge of The Asian wildcat distribution area, and to explore its genetic exchanges with relatives such as desert cats and domestic cats.
In Zhangye, Ma Duifang, a senior engineer from the Management and Conservation Center of The Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve in Gansu Province, led us north across the oasis in Zhangye, and it took us only a few minutes to pass through the tunnel of Longshou Mountain.
Before that, I couldn't imagine how such a small mountain that didn't even look like grass could isolate the Hexi Corridor and the barren, dry and cold Alxa Plateau, which was rich in water and grass.
However, this is the case, beyond the Longshou Mountain to the north, the landscape immediately becomes a desert Gobi that does not even grow a single tree.
I saw brownish-yellow rock sheep on this mountain that looked like only bones, but I thought that the wasteland in front of me must be a typical Asian wildcat habitat, right?
In the north mountain of Zhangye, on the barren cliff wall stands a rock sheep big cat
It turns out I was wrong.
We ran a large circle around the Dongdashan Pipe And Protection Station of the Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve in Gansu Province, north of Longshou Mountain, and all the information about the "little wild cat" pointed to the rabbit, and did not find any evidence of the existence of Asian wild cats, nor the existence of desert cats.
Even from Zhangye to Wuwei, the vast desert area north of Longshou Mountain basically does not hear any information about Asian wildcats, and only in the edge of the Tengger Desert in the north of Wuwei, there are some sporadic records of Asian wild cats.
In the desert area between the northern desert and the oasis of the Hexi Corridor, only the information of the rabbit fox can be verified.
The "earth cat" who climbs the mountain with his face
It seems that from the perspective of habitat selection, if the desert cat is a grass cat, then the rabbit in this area is an earth cat, and the Asian wild cat is a sand cat.
They do not have a wide co-domain distribution in the northwestern desert, as I thought, but are cleverly staggered from each other by taking advantage of differences in habitat selection. They may be distributed in the same domain, but their main population chooses different habitats to make their own home.
You can't appreciate the wonders of these animals without running in the wild. But before seeing the rabbit in person, these impressions are not so direct.
Big geese search for wild animals in the desert Big cats
On the evening of July 17, 2021, I drove a night patrol with Teacher Luo and her student Han Sicheng in the deserted beach on the northern slope of Longshou Mountain in Zhangye.
We first saw a few goose-throated antelopes, then a pair of bright turquoise eyes as we shined a flashlight on a small hillside, and then another pair.
They are probably only about 50 meters away from us. With the help of a flashlight, I carefully identified what kind of animal it was. They look like cats, who neither turn around and run away for a few seconds like foxes, nor do they bury their heads and ignore us like badgers.
They showed obvious curiosity: although they showed vigilance against flashlights and cars, they did not flee, but hid behind stones, showing half their faces to observe us.
I judged it from the contours and markings of its face: the rabbit.
The rabbit hid behind the stone and looked at us big cats with its head exposed
After a few minutes they seemed to get used to our presence and began to run around, seemingly playful.
We were surprised to find that there were 3-4 rabbits in this place (more 4, it is difficult to count at night), they chased each other, and ran on the earthen beams not far away. We watched enough before we left here.
The next day we decided to come here and install several infrared cameras. And just in the afternoon when we installed the infrared camera, we saw a rabbit lying on another dirt beam in the distance, and it found that we quickly disappeared after looking at it.
I guessed it didn't go far, so we tried to find its hiding place.
Luckily, we did find a rabbit hole that we were sure of: it was very hidden, located in a depression in the middle of the hillside, which could not be seen either from the bottom of the slope or the top of the slope. It is scattered with a lot of cat feces, and there is no doubt that the rabbits live here.
We quietly installed an infrared camera and left quickly.
Later, the camera installed here did capture the rabbit
3
The rabbit family in the desert
About a dozen days later, Han Sicheng stopped by to check the camera while traveling by the northwest. Infrared cameras faithfully recorded the Rouge family's good times: at least two rabbits chased and fought at the mouth of the cave.
At this time, they are not small, and they have obviously begun to follow their mother around, learning the skills of life, and they do not live here every day.
Two baby rabbits frolicking at the mouth of the cave
On January 8, 2022, I came to Zhangye again with Qiaoqiao and Big Goose. In addition to recycling the cameras installed in Longshou Mountain, we also have to inspect the infrared cameras installed in Inner Mongolia's Yabulai Mountain and Wolf Mountain last August.
Survey area
This is our northwest cat to fill in the blank survey activities, with the strong support of the cat alliance monthly donors, we have the freedom of activity funds to find out some of the chinese cat distribution blank areas one by one.
Our aim is to work with Liang Bin, a professor at Inner Mongolia University, to find wild cats in western Inner Mongolia, including snow leopards, lynxes, rabbits, Asian wild cats, etc.
We set foot on this desert again big cat
It was still early to get off the plane, and I said let's just go collect the camera, anyway, it's not far.
In fact, I'm worried about the loss of these few opportunities on The 237 Provincial Highway, but they're actually all fine.
At the mouth of this bunny cave, we saw Rouge again in the camera: shortly after we left, the bunny foxes also left. But their mother was still here, and she would occasionally return to the cave to live, and lick her hair and daze comfortably at the mouth of the cave, looking as if she had adapted to the infrared camera.
In addition to Rouge, a red fox has visited here.
At least one of the little rabbits had ever returned, and it was also in another camera not far away. I think it's Rouge's child, but I don't know where the other kids went, and it looks like different pups have different strategies when they choose to spread, and we don't know enough about it.
A small rabbit that appears at another site not far away
We had three infrared cameras, one at the entrance to the cave and one on a small ridge, one at the entrance of the cave and two at one point in the field.
We have seen a lot of rabbit droppings in these places. So in a few months, we can just look at the activity of the rabbit, and I didn't know these life histories of the rabbit before.
From August 3, 2021 to January 7, 2022, the three cameras recorded a total of 80 effective triggers of rabbits, in addition to some red foxes, tiger ferrets, camels, rats and so on.
The location where the rabbit appeared, and the red fox and tiger ferret were photographed
Rabbits often avoid the pass, and a camel passes by from behind
Gerbils also appeared at the site of the rabbit, a small rodent that is one of the main foods of the rabbit
I counted the shooting time, so I can see that during this time period, the peak of the rabbit's activity is from 18:00 to 21:00 in the evening, of which it reaches its peak from 19:00 to 20:00; and there is also a small peak between 6:00 and 8:00 in the morning.
The rhythm of the rabbit's activity Chart: Big cat
It looks more like a cat that is active in the morning and evening, and is more active from dusk to night. This is somewhat similar to some big cats, and the habits of ocelots are very different.
There are several time slots that are apparently when the rabbit chooses to sleep: from 1 a.m. to 4 a.m., from 10 p.m. to 1 p.m., and around 5 p.m. it seems to be a time when it just woke up in a daze at the mouth of the cave.
Draft: Big cats
However, since rabbits use multiple caves, it is not very telling that we can only look at one hole.
A big problem is that rabbits are very difficult to identify individually, and the markings on their bodies are too scarce.
I looked at it and found that it could only be identified by the markings on its face, and a small number of markings on its legs and tail seemed to be able to see, but the stripes on the body of an adult rabbit almost all disappeared, which is an unpleasant fact.
But even so, I think I still saw 3 or 4 rabbits. In addition to the female individual Rouge, at least one of the newly independent rabbits will also appear in front of these two points. There may be more individuals active here, but I can't see it right now.
There was a larger adult rabbit that I thought might be a male, and anyway he deserved a name that I thought could be called "Shan Yu".
Rabbit "Shan Yu"
Anyway, it's just about verifying whether there is, and it's not time to map out the population, and if this work is really done, they will lose these names and be replaced by PC-M/F-x.
In this place where the birds do not pull a few grasses, the rabbit still maintains the habit of some cats: marking territory. On this small ridge we found an inwardly sunken earth pit at the edge, and a lump of cat inside.
The droppings of rabbits were found in big cats
A rabbit pulls the to the mouth of the rat hole and declares that the rat hole belongs to it big cat
At that time, I thought that maybe the rabbit would nest in it to escape the heat, after all, I was almost roasted dry. So we installed a camera here to see what it was all about here.
As a result, this place has become the place where rabbits have been photographed the most times. I was surprised to find that this humble little nest was actually their social field.
I didn't see the rabbit hiding inside to escape the heat, but at least several rabbits would come here to spray urine on the protruding earthen wall, and even the little rabbit would come here to learn the appearance of the big fox and try to rub the smell.
Drew a circle on the stone with urine
Rub it
I also learned that rabbits hide themselves in the depressions of the commanding heights of this flat environment, so that they are integrated with the desert that neither prey nor predators can find them, and they are here to observe the surroundings, looking for opportunities to hunt.
This reminds me of Suri Township in Qinghai, when I also saw a rabbit running to a dirt slope to hide in a small dirt pit, and when I looked away for a while, I couldn't find it.
Seeing that the harvest was good, we installed a few more cameras nearby.
We added a few new cameras to continue observing the rabbits
In the process we saw several small groups of goose-throated antelopes, adding up to an estimated 10 or more. It was a good place for these desert animals, though the Huns always thought the south was better.
The goose-throated antelope looks out over the hills, and in the distance ahead is the road
That night, we saw a rabbit on our night watch again. I looked into its glowing green eyes and wondered if it was one of those little rabbits from a few months ago.
On the night watch, I saw the rabbit, crouching on the dunes, the big cat
4
Feline desert
There are three subspecies of the rabbit: the nominate subspecies distributed in the northern Mongolian plateau, the plateau subspecies of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and the western subspecies, mainly in Western Asia.
Its distribution range is very wide, reminiscent of the northern king lynx, which is fully adapted to the northern habitat, and only the ocelot distribution range in Asia is comparable to that of the Asian kittens.
And China probably has all three subspecies. In addition to the two main subspecies, the Western subspecies of Fur-red may be distributed in the Wakhan Corridor and Ladakh regions of western Xinjiang.
However, as an Internet celebrity, China's rabbits are not respected accordingly: we hardly see any special research and protection of native rabbits.
Rabbit: Am I not cute enough?
The encounter rate of rabbit foxes in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is much lower than that of Tibetan foxes, probably because rabbits are more strict about habitat selection (which seems contradictory, because the distribution of rabbit foxes is far more extensive than that of Tibetan foxes). But the truth is that rabbits prefer rough terrain, which are rare in completely flat grasslands, while outside the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, there are only some scattered records of Chinese rabbits.
Although the nearest rabbit may be near the upcoming Winter Olympic games (northwest of Zhangjiakou is recorded, it may be less than 100 kilometers from Beijing), our perception of the local rabbit is still like a desert.
We don't know where they are, we don't know their population density, we don't know how grassland rats are affecting them, and we don't know how climate change will affect their prey and reproduction.
We were amazed that dozens of infrared cameras we installed at the same time in Inner Mongolia's Alxa Right Banner Yabulai Mountain and Bayannaoer's Wolf Mountain did not capture a single rabbit in four months.
The cameras here captured a lot of sheep and camels, but no rabbits
At least in local small talk, herders are still saying that there used to be a small gray wild cat, but now it is rare.
I once asked: Why is it less now?
Answer: In the past, there were many fights. Leather can be used to make hats, clothes.
He also said: In the past, there were more mice, and more cats. Now there are very few mice, and cats can't see.
What are the facts? This is the answer we want to pursue.
There is a great lack of attention in the arid northwest. It's like this magnificent desert in front of you, and almost no one cares about the ecology here. The only reason why Rouge, Shan Yu and Goose-throated Antelope have survived to this day may be the lack of development value or the cost of development is too high.
However, in the past, there were snow leopards on Longshou Mountain, and when the "yellow sheep" on the desert beaches such as goose-throated antelope and Mongolian hartebeest were an order of magnitude more than now, wolves also roamed here. With this in mind, the desert under the setting sun that we see today is a little more desolate.
The desert under the setting sun, especially desolate big cats
We don't know what we're facing, is it a regional recovery, or a regional endangerment, or even a regional extinction?
So running to the desert to find rabbits, wild cats, lynxes, and even snow leopards, in addition to satisfying curiosity about the wilderness, has also become a more in line with the values of the cat alliance: to fill the gap in China's native cats.
Whether it is its distribution, population, or threat factors, these are all issues that we have to worry about. Someone has to do these things, and since we're here, let's do it first.
There is a group name in the Cat Alliance working group called CFCA | Spotlight Team, where the big bull takes everyone to discuss various technical issues.
Hopefully, our efforts will illuminate the deserts of these cats, find those cats that are unknown, assess their current status, and provide protection for them.
The discovery is just beginning.
Thanks to Gansu Qilian Mountain National Nature Reserve for its assistance to this activity, this activity is funded by monthly donations.
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