Hunchun, Jilin: Ecological Homeland Attracts "Return of the King"

In the vast temperate coniferous and broad-leaved mixed forest on the northeast border of the motherland, there is such an animal: it has the momentum of being proud of the mountains and forests, it has the beauty of shocking people, and it has many legends full of mysterious colors. It is the world's largest cat, known as the "king of the hundred beasts" and "the king of the forest" - the wild Siberian tiger.

The Siberian tiger is strong and fierce, compared with other tiger species, the individual is the largest and the most beautiful body color. As the flagship species at the top of the food chain, the Siberian tiger also has the title of "guardian of the forest", and its survival and reproduction are important symbols of regional ecosystem balance.

Hunchun, which is at the junction of China, Russia and North Korea, is an important activity area for the Siberian tiger. It belongs to the low-mountain broad-leaved forest area, with more small and medium-sized wild animals and a small population density, which is more suitable for the survival of Siberian tigers. In recent years, through the implementation of a series of protective measures, the number of Siberian tigers in Hunchun has shown a restorative increase, and new families with female tiger belt pups and female leopard strip pups of Siberian tigers and female leopard belts of Siberian tigers can be monitored every year. Hunchun has become the area with the highest number and density of wild Siberian tigers and leopards in Jilin Province and even in the mainland. Wild Siberian tigers have finally achieved the "return of the king".

Dense Forest Tiger Shadow: Wild Siberian Tiger Frequently "Debuts"

On January 19, 2022, several militiamen in Hunchun City encountered Siberian tigers again during their patrol. In the video, a muscular Siberian tiger is leisurely pressing the road, paying no attention to the vehicles behind it. After walking for a while, the Siberian tiger trotted up, and then an arrow stepped into the mountain forest on the right side of the road. It is no accident that the "Great King" came down the mountain. From "Wandering Tiger", "Road Blocking Tiger", "Door-to-Door Tiger", and then to "Calm Tiger", "Meng Meng Tiger" and "Bai Nian Tiger", in recent years, the videos of Hunchun wild Siberian tigers have frequently appeared on the Internet, and hunchun, a small border town, has entered the public eye again and again. On October 12, 2021, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park was officially established and entered a new stage of development. With the upgrading of protection efforts and the enhancement of protection means, the habitat environment of Siberian tigers has been gradually improved, the population is healthy and stable, and the range of activities has been expanding.

Patrolling the Mountains: True Love To Protect the "King of the Hundred Beasts"

In the early morning of January 30, when the temperature in Hunchun Forest District reached minus 20 degrees Celsius, Li Dongwei, captain of the patrol team of Hunchun Forestry Bureau, led two team members into the forest area and began a day of supplementing feed for wild animals. Carrying out mountain forest patrols, deploying far-infrared cameras to identify individual tigers and leopards, and detecting the impact of prey populations and human disturbances on wildlife habitats are the jobs of rangers. From December to March of each year, the coldest winter in the northeast, the rangers often waded through knee-deep snow, climbing ice and lying in snow in minus 20 to 30 degrees Celsius, and patrolling the mountains. "In the past, due to the limitation of personnel and equipment, we could only carry out mountain patrols in winter, because there were few grasses and trees in the forest in winter, and the footprints of tigers and leopards were clear. Now we have adopted an advanced patrol mode, dividing the forest area into a grid, and carpet searching and cleaning the hunting tools in the area. Li Dongwei said that in the process of Qingshan operation, each team member should maintain a safe distance, and record the GPS waypoint information and image data in detail and accurately, as well as the details of the starting point, inflection point, stacking point and end point of each section of the fence and the daily Clearance set of data, without going through the formalities, without formalities, without leaving dead ends, to ensure that "one piece is clear, one piece is clean".

In the forest area, in addition to the "regular army" such as Li Dongwei, there are also a number of peasant volunteer patrol teams that patrol and protect the Siberian tigers on the mountain. In Zhongtumenzi Village, Hunchun Hua Town, 6 members of the community farmer patrol team will go up the mountain every week to patrol and clean up the hunting sets, and immediately report the poaching behavior, and report the tiger and leopard tracks in time. Many of them are farmers who make a living from farming, and after systematic training and training, they are now the guardians of the mountains and forests.

Science and technology to help: heaven and earth to help tigers reproduce

In order for the "big cats" to reproduce, ecologists have used high-tech means to try to restore their natural homes. The State Forestry Administration relies on Beijing Normal University to establish the Northeast Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center, and uses modern information technologies such as communication networks, satellite remote sensing and unmanned aircraft, automatic collection of video and ecological elements, vibration fiber and artificial intelligence identification, big data mining and cloud computing to build a global coverage, real-time and efficient space-space integrated monitoring system. The level and effectiveness of national park management have been greatly improved. With the pilot of the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park system and the increase in protection, the monitoring system found that the Siberian tiger gradually spread from the border to the inland. More and more female tigers have settled in the Hunchun area, and more and more Siberian tiger families have participated in breeding, and every year a number of newly bred Siberian tiger cubs are born, and the Siberian tiger family gradually begins to prosper. The range of activities of the Siberian tiger has spread to every hill in the Hunchun area, basically realizing that "there are tigers in all mountains".

Multiple measures at the same time: polishing the shining "business card" of Tiger Township

The Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park is currently the area with the largest number and most frequent activities in the wild of China. As the core area of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park, Hunchun has actively explored and improved the long-term cooperation and exchange of wildlife protection to promote the construction of the Tiger and Leopard Park, formed a joint protection mechanism with close cooperation between multiple departments, and fully promoted the protection of wild animals and plants. Hunchun City actively implements and promotes the "four key" work, combined with the actual situation of enterprises to promote the standard ditch system contracting and withdrawal, cattle breeding transformation, ecological migration relocation, orderly withdrawal of industrial and mining enterprises and other key tasks. The Hunchun Municipal Party Committee and the Hunchun Municipal Government are determined to vigorously promote ecological remediation, providing a cleaner natural space for the habitat environment of the flagship species of the Northeast tiger and leopard, and providing a green ecological barrier for the migration and spread of wild animals.

The Return of the King: Man and Tiger Coexist Peacefully

The hegemon returns, and the majesty is shown again. From the municipal party committee and the municipal government to the grass-roots wildlife protection workers, from experts and scholars from scientific research units in colleges and universities to social groups, volunteers, ordinary farmers and the masses, countless people have spared no effort to protect the ecological homeland of the tiger and leopard.

Nowadays, more and more people love and protect tigers, and more and more people realize the value of wild Siberian tigers and leopards and the significance of protection work. On the occasion of "Global Tiger Day" on July 29, 2021, the first International Northeast Tiger and Leopard Festival in Hunchun, China, with the theme of "Embracing the Harmonious Coexistence of Tigers and Leopards", was launched. The event attracted the participation of many people, and domestic and foreign media competed to report on the grand situation of the Tiger and Leopard Festival. As the "hometown of The Siberian Tigers", Hunchun has made the whole country and the world aware of the efforts and achievements made by Hunchun in protecting the Siberian tigers and leopards and protecting the ecological environment.

In the process of actively carrying out the protection of wild animals and their habitats, Hunchun City has always maintained contact with international wildlife conservation organizations such as the World Wide Fund for Nature, the International Wildlife Conservation Society, the International Fund for animal welfare, and the World Bank, and established project cooperation.

The old garden is now a grand scene, and the tiger and leopard are roaring in the mountains and forests. The Siberian Tiger's "Return of the King" has changed from a vision to a reality. The protection of the Siberian tiger has enabled Hunchun to achieve coordinated ecological and economic development, laid a solid foundation for the sustainable development of Hunchun in the future, and provided more possibilities for the high-quality development of Hunchun. In the future, Hunchun City will strive to build the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park into a model area for China's ecological protection, an experience area for ecological nature, and a pioneer area for ecological and economic development, making it a new landmark in the construction of a beautiful China. The return of the king still has a long way to go.

China Jilin Network Ji Ke Correspondent Song Ziyan

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