Above the clouds there is the sound of frogs GaoLigong Mountain is a genius
——Remember gaoligong mountain amphibian and reptile Tengchong local expert, "frog brother" Yang Shenpin
Croppers can also become experts
The story begins 3 years ago.
Mid-August 2018, Lanzhou University. The 2018 Symposium of the Amphibian and Reptile Society Branch of the Zoological Society of China invited a non-professional from Tengchong, Yunnan Province. At the meeting, this dark-skinned and athletic young man brought the research results to the venue and shared the report of "Tengchong Pseudo-Toad Reproductive Ecology Research" to the experts and scholars attending the meeting. Tengchong is a new species that was discovered in Gaoligong Mountain at that time. The simple and unpretentious language, detailed and accurate exposition, can not help but make experts and scholars secretly praise.
Yang Shenpin took a picture of the lizard
He was not a doctoral student, nor an expert scholar, but an authentic cropper, a ranger who had just graduated from junior high school. He is an ordinary ranger from the Datang Conservation Station of the Tengchong Pipe Protection Branch of Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve, a local expert in amphibians and reptiles in Gaoligong Mountain with his strong interest and sufficient efforts, and a well-known local "frog brother" Yang Shenpin. Tengchong's natural treasure trove contains too many two-reptile species, both discovered and undiscovered. Since 2014, three new amphibian species have been discovered in Tengchong Gaoligong Mountain, namely: Tengchong Palm Toad, Tengchong Toad and Tengchong Toothed Toad. The academic community uniformly uses the place name "Tengchong" to name these new species, highlighting the extremely rich and unique biodiversity resources of Tengchong Gaoligong Mountain. The discovery of the last two new species is inseparable from the exploration and efforts of the famous "frog brother" Yang Shenpin, a ranger who drills ravines, wades through streams and finds novelties every day.
Experts lead the way and get acquainted with frogs
Monitoring species resources is an important task for conservation area stewards and rangers. When animal nests, footprints, feathers, feces, etc. are found, they will take pictures and records in detail. For animals and plants that have never been seen before, they will not miss the opportunity to take pictures and retain them. If you are not careful, it is possible to discover a completely new species.
Yang Shenpin recorded during the patrol
As the rangers of the reserve, most of them are villagers in the villages at the foot of Gaoligong Mountain, they do not have the knowledge reserve of professionals, but in the long-term mountain patrol monitoring process, they also follow the professional stewards of the reserve and the animal and plant research experts who come here to carry out field investigations, and learn many species identification skills, and many rangers have contributed to the discovery and research of new species.
Yang Shenpin, 34 years old this year, is a typical representative of this. In 2009, he joined the Datang Pipe And Protection Station of the Tengchong Branch of the Baoshan Management and Protection Bureau of the Reserve as a ranger at the Datang Management and Protection Station. In March 2015, Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau Tengchong Branch for the first time to do gibbon survey, Yang Shenpin also participated in the survey, a day of investigation is very hard, after returning, the expert teachers of the same colleagues to go out to do two climbs investigation, Yang Shenpin took the initiative to ask Miao to participate in the two climbs at night investigation work, he said: "Can study two crawls with teachers, not only their hobbies, but also can learn more about the knowledge of two crawls with teachers, I feel that the fatigue of the day has disappeared." ”。 In the course of their investigation by the river, they overheard a special chirp by the river, so he and his teacher followed the sound to look for it, and finally found a toad in the dead leaves under the forest, he had never seen this animal before, and although the fellow teacher did not make a rash judgment at that time, he was sure that it was a good thing according to some morphological characteristics, which was later identified as a new species of amphibians.
Yang Shenpin turned over the stone to find the frog
Yang Shenpin and colleagues do fieldwork at night
Speaking of this guidance teacher, two climb expert Yang Jianhuan, and Yang Shenpin can be described as a friend of Mo Reverse, he is two people with the same surname and the same age, the first time the two met, Yang Jianhuan was very appreciated by his down-to-earth and hard-working strength, and affirmed his strong interest in exploring the two climbing classes. Yang Shenpin often asked Teacher Yang about amphibians and reptiles on WeChat and telephone, he went deep into the mountains to investigate, and Teacher Yang provided him with technical guidance. In this way, Yang Shenpin, under the guidance of Teacher Yang, carried out ecological research on the breeding period of Tengchong toad. Most amphibians and reptiles come out at night, and in the spring and summer, before nightfall, Yang Shenpin and his colleagues drilled into the ravine of Gaoligong Mountain as soon as they had time, accompanied by a frog sound, and began to monitor and record: the law of the call, physical characteristics, spawning place, the way of hugging... After the busy, it is often one or two o'clock in the morning.
The joy of revealing the new species makes Yang Shenpin full of energy. Fate always seems to favor people with hearts in life, in June 2017, Yang Shenpin, as usual, observed all the way on the way to the patrol, saw something new and photographed it, so the Tengchong toothed toad staged an encounter with Yang Shenpin, a ridge patrol, when passing the head of the nettle river, in a small ravine in the bamboo woodland, Yang Shenpin heard a very small frog cry, he suddenly stopped, the fellow rangers inexplicably forgot him, watched him open a few stones, "Is a toad, I have never seen!" At that time, Yang Shenpin was not sure what kind of species it was, so he took a photo and collected a specimen, and reported the photo to the Tengchong Branch of the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve, which was later identified by experts as a new species, and this species was named Tengchong Toothed Toad.
"Using your own efforts to find out the habits of species in an unknown state, try to discover new species, let more people know, and effectively protect it, this sense of accomplishment is unattainable by other work." Yang Shenpin said that the sense of accomplishment gained in the process of serving as a ranger allowed him to find his own life value.
Ten years of grinding a sword Hard work finally became a book
These two discoveries made Yang Shenpin and amphibians form an indissoluble relationship, after which he ran to the mountains and small rivers to see as soon as he had time, and it was common to come back after 12 o'clock in the evening, sometimes staying overnight, it was precisely because of Yang Shenpin's long-term unremitting observation, the habits of many amphibians in the Tengchong area were basically mastered by him, including tengchong pseudo-toad and Tengchong toothed toad, Yang Shenpin became a veritable local expert, and later with his assistance, some papers on Tengchong pseudo-toad and Tengchong tooth toad were published. Although it is a new species that has been discovered in recent years, there are also some data on these two species in China, of which Yang Shenpin is indispensable. "Tengchong toothed toad has very high environmental requirements, only in high altitudes of about 3,000 meters, the habitat is cloudy all year round, and only breeds at the end of the creek, at the water source, where the water is very clear. It's the sound of frogs from above the clouds! "When Yang Shenpin introduced these species to us, there was light in his eyes.
Tengchong toothed toad
Tengchong toad
Back to Yang Shenpin's daily life, Yang Shenpin will go to the mountains to do amphibian and reptile surveys as long as he is fine, in recent years, Yang Shenpin has accumulated nearly three hundred specimens, for a specimen, sometimes a squat is a few hours. "When Shen Pin made specimens, he was careful and serious with his tweezers, which was really admirable!" Yin Zhengfeng, an employee of Datang Station in Gaoligong Mountain Conservation Area, also told us, "Shen Pin often reads books at night and sees very late, and almost always sleeps after 12 o'clock." Later, when we asked him what books he read, he told us, "Look at some animal and plant atlases and check the relevant information on your phone." "It's hard to believe that a person with only a junior high school degree can be so studious and serious.
Only the first Chinese, with his own efforts, he has made extraordinary contributions to the reserve, and in November 2017, he was awarded the title of "Advanced Individual for Patrol and Monitoring" by the Tengchong Branch of the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province; in August 2018, he was awarded the "Advanced Award for Resource Management and Development and Construction Work" by the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of Yunnan Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve; in 2019 and 2020, he was awarded the annual "Advanced Worker Award" by the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve in Yunnan. In 2019, because of his outstanding achievements, Yang Shenpin was promoted to a technical ranger and became one of the backbone members of the protection station.
Living in the mountains for a long time, we are not afraid of hardship, and we do not give up on low treatment
Yang Shenpin also shared with us an interesting thing in the process of collecting specimens, when collecting the fiber tree frog, because its breeding period is in the tree hole at the height of the tree, jumping back and forth between the trees, the sound is erratic, it is very difficult to catch it, Yang Shenpinnu tried a lot of methods, worked hard for more than a year and failed to catch it, where he learned a method in the two climbing experts, filled with some bamboo tubes, tied it to the tree, this frog may jump into the bamboo tube when it reaches the breeding period, Every ten days and half a month Shen Pin climbed to the tree to see, this method really worked, successfully caught one of these frogs, which made Shen Pin overjoyed.
In addition to Yang Shenpin's basic understanding of the types of amphibians and reptiles in Tengchong, he also participated in the monitoring of gibbons in the station, and now, the number, population distribution, and habits of gibbons in datang jurisdiction have been basically figured out by Yang Shenpin. "Shen Pin is down-to-earth and hardworking, and he can seriously complete any work assigned by the station, and now there are not many young people like him." Ma Xuejun, an employee at datang station of the Tengchong branch of the Gaoligong Mountain Conservation Area, said.
In June 2014, Yang Shenpin officially joined the party and became a party member, in 2016 Shenpin was elected as a villager representative by his village, which made Yang Shenpin have more responsibility in his heart, he not only actively assisted the village committee to complete the work, but also often used the opportunity of the villagers' meeting to publicize the relevant laws and regulations on the protection of wild animals and plants, the regulations on the protection of nature reserves, etc., and improved the protection awareness of the masses. In October 2019, Yang Shenpin also signed up for the adult college entrance examination, and in March 2020, he was admitted to Southwest Forestry University for further study, majoring in forestry, Yang Shenpin said: "When I was a child, I did not receive a good education, engaging in our profession still needs certain professional knowledge, I don't want to be eliminated myself, I want to continue to study more and more in-depth things." He even thought that once he graduated from college, he would continue to study for a bachelor's degree.
Yang Shenpin is a technical ranger in the reserve and a father of two children, perhaps influenced by his work, Yang Shenpin also especially loves to take a group of children in the station to play by the small river and stream, so that they can enjoy the gifts of nature. He was particularly patient, and when he had time, he took the children to know a variety of species, and he had to answer questions about the children, and the children of the staff of Datang Station were affected by him, and they were not afraid to see the snake, "It doesn't matter, let Uncle Shen Pin come to catch and make specimens", the child said with innocence.
In recent years, with the rise of the price level, during the period of many rangers because of low wages, turned to engage in other production and operation activities, Yang Shenpin chose to stay, when asked the reason for staying, Yang Shenpin always said softly: "When working abroad, I once saw a happy family destroyed because of excessive deforestation, mudslides and landslides, I want to guard Gaoligong Mountain, guard this green water and green mountains, and this job can bring me a sense of accomplishment. I feel happy to be able to do the job I love. Yang Shenpin is still learning day after day, enriching himself, he hopes that he has new breakthroughs and discoveries, and expects him to make more achievements in his field.
Text: Xu Meng Gong Zujin Chen Yingzhao