"Xie Bigfoot" actor Yu Yuexian collided with two camels in an S228 line in Alxa, Inner Mongolia, in an SUV, and was unfortunately killed by Yuexian due to his injuries. Unlike other female actors, the role created by Yu Yuexian is mainly rural characters, with superb acting skills but not losing the simplicity of rural people, deeply loved by the majority of audiences, and her sudden death quickly burst the Internet, which is regrettable!
The media who visited the scene were at the site of the Yuexian car accident, and they could clearly see the brake marks left on the ground, and at the end of the brake marks were the wreckage of dead camels, and there were scattered car license plates and parts on the ground. From time to time, hordes of camels swaggered into the road between visits: first along the sides of the road, and then in the middle of the road. There are no guardrails on both sides of the road, and from time to time new camel herds join in.
In fact, the collision of camels by cars along the Alxa Highway is not an isolated case, it seems to occur every once in a while, and it happens more than once a month at the peak. Less than 40 kilometers from the site of the Yuyuexian accident, two years ago there was also an accident in which a car hit a camel, in which two camels died on the spot and one camel was seriously injured.
The reason why Alxa often has similar accidents such as car collisions with camels is closely related to the 130,000 camels active in the local area, because there are many camels and have a long history, and Alxa is called "the hometown of Chinese camels".
The Alxa camel is a typical bactrian camel, one of the three major bactrian camels in China, the other two are the Xinjiang bactrian camel and the Sunit bactrian camel. Although Alxa camels are mainly farmed, they are not kept in captivity but free-range.
Camels are one of the most intelligent animals in the world, with an IQ comparable to that of elephants. Free-range camels still continue some of the habits of wild camels and live in groups, with the entire population ranging from four or five camels to as many as a dozen or even two dozen. The leader of the group is usually a tall and mighty adult male camel, who determines the feeding location and walking route, and the other camels follow almost without thinking. This creates a situation in which when camels in groups are passing through the road, if the camel leaders do not change direction and let the horns of the cars behind them ring out, they still walk slowly.
More importantly, free-range camels have been in contact with people for a long time, and gradually they are no longer strangers to people and the cars and houses around them, nor do they have a sense of fear, and they also approach people from time to time to ask for food, so when one or two camels who are separated from the camel herd are strolling on the road, they still dare to occupy the middle of the road, neither dodging nor giving way.
An old herdsman with many years of experience in camel farming put it this way: Almost any time, whether during the day or at night, you can see camels walking along the road, most of them are two or more in company; if it is a camel, it must be separated from the camel herd!
The old herdsmen also said that most of the camels hit were large trucks from other places, and the drivers of these trucks were not familiar with the local environment, taking advantage of the fact that there were fewer vehicles rushing at night, often the speed of the car was too fast, when the camels suddenly crossed from one side of the road to the other side, there was no time to dodge, and when they hit the steering wheel, they crashed into the road teeth next to them; if they were too late to hit the steering wheel, they directly hit the camels, and many camels were killed on the spot.
In 2016, a large truck on the Zhangcha Line of AzuoQi killed 10 camels in one fell swoop, and the accident caused great repercussions in the local area. Since then, Alxa has set up various signs along the highway to guide drivers to reduce their speed and pay attention to camels passing through the road.
For example, the Alxa League public security traffic police have repeatedly issued travel guidelines, reminding drivers that the S228 line has a long highway mileage, narrow road surface, steep curves and other situations, and in order to avoid the occurrence of river camel collisions, the interval speed limit is deliberately reduced to 70 km / h, and the whole process of implementing interval time limit monitoring measures, the problem is that not every driver, every time to comply.
Some netizens are confused, only know that our domestic Bactrian camel, but did not expect to have so much. Wouldn't that reduce some camels? The problem is not as simple as you think.
At present, there are 130,000 camels in Alxa, but in the 1980s there were 250,000, and the number of Bactrian camels in the country was as high as 750,000, which is one of the world's important Bactrian camel production areas, but in the middle stage, the Bactrian camel almost came to the brink of extinction.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, a large number of grassland shrubs in Alxa were destroyed, and shrubs such as overlords, pearls, and red sand were either used to cook on fires or used to repair fences, which directly led to the reduction of 600,000 hectares of sothorn forests in just a few years, and the growth of camel herds with little food immediately stopped growing.
In addition, many areas in Inner Mongolia have set off a boom in goat breeding, and this wind has also blown to Alxa. The reason is that the state has adjusted the price of livestock products, the price of cashmere has soared from 15.66 yuan / kg to 140 yuan / kg, and the price of camel wool has also increased, but it has increased by less than 6 yuan. People who know a little bit of addition and subtraction can also calculate clearly, but goat breeding occupies a lot of grassland, vegetation, including the energy of shepherds, and the living space of camels is slightly eroded.
Subsequently, the number of Alxa camels was reduced by almost 10,000 per year, and the 80 camels of a herdsman's family who relied on camels for three generations did not have one left in 3 years: some fell ill and died, some were sold cheaply, some were released, and they completely cut off the idea of raising camels. In 2004, there were only 60,000 Alxa camels left, and the turning point also occurred in this year, because some experts began to call for the complete disappearance of Alxa camels in the next few years if left unchecked!
In 2006 and 2008, the state first listed alxa camels as national protected breeds of livestock and poultry genetic resources, and then established Bactrian camel reserves and seed farms to provide support from policies. At the same time, Alxa made great efforts to restore the local ecological environment, grassland and shrubs were gradually restored, and one-third of the area was used to breed camels.
In order to further enliven the camel market, Alxa continues to tap into the potential value of the camel market, rather than simply breeding and selling as in the past. At present, Alxa not only has a stable supply of traditional camel products such as milk, fleece, wool, meat, and skin, but also combines camels with culture and tourism to expand people's income.
In 2005, the Badain Jaran Desert Cultural Tourism Festival officially kicked off, and in the 2011 Cultural Tourism Festival, 555 Bactrian camels participated in the camel cross-country race at the same time, setting a new Guinness World Record. It should be known that the adult male camels in Alxa have an average height of 173 centimeters, a weight of 430 kilograms, a full load of 1 ton, a 175 kilograms of carriage, and a single rider who travels 55 kilometers a day, and is a famous athlete.
At the current growth rate of Alxa camels, it is very likely that they will reach the peak of 250,000 or even more than 300,000 in the future. Then the problem is, how to deal with the collision between vehicles and camels, will test the wisdom of local governments and experts.
Original: Old High