The white-headed hard-tailed duck, a critically endangered animal, was headshot by steel balls

"They are all masters of slingshots, about ten meters, a slingshot headshot." On May 7, the carcass of a young male white-headed hard-tailed duck was found by a team of wilderness Xinjiang volunteers in the habitat of White Bird Lake. On May 8, the cause of death of this rare bird species in Wushi was determined after autopsy, which was an obvious incident of artificial harm to wild protected animals to death. "The closer you get, the more frightened you get. It floated quietly among the reeds, lifeless. At about 15:30 on May 7, Yan Lizard, the leader of the White Bird Lake Patrol Team of the Wilderness Xinjiang Volunteer Team, and Lisa, a member of the team, were patrolling along the lake when they suddenly found the carcass of a bird lying in the reeds 10 meters away. After raising the telescope to carefully identify, the rock lizard's heart suddenly tugged. A cocked duck's tail looms in the reed gap, and the rock lizard suspects that it may be a white-headed hard-tailed duck, which is the breeding area of the white-headed hard-tailed duck.

Rock lizards hurried to the kayaks of the patrol station, and when the two men rowed closer, lying in the water was the carcass of a white-headed hard-tailed duck, floating in the reeds of the lake area, revealing its upturned tail. "Judging from the black stray hairs on its face that have not yet faded, it may be a white-headed hard-tailed duck less than 1 year old, most likely hatched and raised in Lake Shiratori last summer, and this year it flew back here through all kinds of difficulties." Rock Lizard, the captain of the Shiratori Lake Patrol, who guards the birds here every day, was distraught to see this scene, and he found that its body had swelled its abdomen, "Probably dead for two or three days, and we have not found it."

After carefully examining its body, the rock lizard found that it had a deep circular hole on the left side of its head, "as if it had been shot by something", rock lizard said, having studied animal dissection, carefully dissected the white-headed hard-tailed duck carcass, and as a result, he took out an 8 mm steel ball on its head, "This is the most fearful of all kinds of ducks I have ever seen, too stupid or too fond of humans, and the slingshot can only hit it." On the afternoon of the same day, the White Bird Lake Patrol Team reported the case to the forest police.

This year, only eight white-headed hard-tailed ducks were observed in White Bird Lake, three males and five females, including this male white-headed hard-tailed duck who died before the next generation of breeding began. Throughout the afternoon, the rangers eagerly used binoculars to look for the surface of the nearby lake and the reeds, but the other seven white-headed hard-tailed ducks never appeared. Was he frightened to escape and did not dare to come out, or was he also killed? The rangers did not dare to guess, nor did they dare to think.

Regardless of the wind and the sun every day, the patrol team has been constantly patrolling, raising funds, and pulling up a protective fence in the core area of the breeding of white-headed hard-tailed ducks, but all these efforts have not been able to stop the invasion of "animal killers".

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The number of white-headed hard-tailed ducks is lower than that of giant pandas

According to the "Red List of Vertebrates in Xinjiang" released by the Xinjiang Forestry Department in 2015, the white-headed hard-tailed duck is currently a critically endangered protected animal, and its number is ten times less than that of giant pandas, and in China, only the White Bird Lake and Kuitun Sewage Reservoir in Urumqi, Xinjiang have their breeding records. Every April, they fly from distant wintering grounds to Lake Shiratori to breed the next generation, and in October, they "drag their families and mouths" to winter in Europe and other places. However, because this rare bird species has not been listed as a national key protected species in China, poaching, egg picking, nest destruction incidents occur from time to time, coupled with the obvious shrinkage of the wetland of White Bird Lake in recent years, nearby mining, industrial park development, sewage discharge and other human interference and destruction, resulting in the crisis of White Bird Lake, the survival of the white-headed hard-tailed duck population has been in danger.