On the Tibetan Plateau, there is a unique and critically endangered antelope, which is called "Beach Yellow Sheep" by local herders and "Przewalski's Gazelle" internationally. Ge Yuxiu, who won the Green Chinese, was the first person in the world to take a photo, and he insisted that the antelope be called the "Chinese diagonal antelope".
Picture 1: Ge Yuxiu photographs the Przewalski's gazelle. Courtesy of respondents
On June 4, Ge Yuxiu was interviewed by reporters about his indissoluble love affair with animals on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
First acquaintance with Przewalski's gazelle
"I have been in Qinghai for 51 years, I came to Qinghai in December 1970 as a soldier, photographed wild animals for 25 years, I just like it." Ge Yuxiu said.
In 1995, Ge Yuxiu heard that there was a species of Przewalski's gazelle.
"At that time, a classmate of mine in the college class told me that you had a good bird, and there was an antelope in Qinghai Lake that had a very small number of antelopes, and there were no photos, and you had better photograph it." Ge Yuxiu said, "I checked a lot of information, there are no photos, the only picture is drawn by hand, the following is recorded as Przewalski's gazelle, there are only more than two hundred in the world." In the past, it was distributed in Ningxia, Gansu, Qinghai, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, but now only Qinghai has it, which is distributed around Qinghai Lake. ”
Fewer than 300 Przewalski's gazelles remained at the time, and they were listed as critically endangered even rarer than giant pandas.
In late November 1997, Ge Yuxiu once again went to Qinghai Lake to photograph swans. At the mouth of the Buha River, 7 yellow-brown sheep-like animals were encountered, lined up and galloping across the grassland.
Fellow cadres of the Qinghai Lake Conservation Area shouted "Przewalski's Gazelle", and Ge Yuxiu hurriedly raised his camera to capture it. Later, experts determined that this photo filled the blank of the "Przewalski's gazelle" picture, and Ge Yuxiu became the first person in China and even the world to photograph the Przewalski's gazelle.
"It was taken on film, it was a scan, and although it is not clear, this photo has been on CCTV more than twenty times, and it has also been on television stations in the United States and Britain. This is the first photo of The Przewalski's Gazelle in China and the first in the world, and I accidentally became the first person to photograph the Przewalski's Gazelle. Ge Yuxiu said.
Ge Yuxiu lying in the snow photographing wild animals. Courtesy of respondents
Promote the title of "Chinese diagonal antelope"
Over the years, as people's awareness of conservation increased, the population of Przewalski's gazelle returned to more than 2,000. But Ge Yuxiu has always had a knot, because the Przewalski's gazelle is named after a foreigner, and he feels that this antelope, which is only distributed in China, should have a Chinese name.
"Przewalski's Gazelle" was first discovered by the Tsarist naturalist Przewalski in 1875. Przerwalski was also a professional intelligence officer who came to China four times in the name of expeditions, stole a lot of political, economic, and cultural intelligence, drew a road map to attack China, and killed 40 Tibetan compatriots.
"It's sad that I say that Chinese species are called foreign names, and the locals don't know it." Ge Yuxiu said.
After learning about this history, in August 2004, Ge Yuxiu consulted relevant experts and, with the support and encouragement of his friends around him, wrote an article calling for the Grant of a Chinese name to przewalski's gazelle - "Chinese Diagonal Antelope". "You see its horns are very symmetrical, and it is the most beautiful of the antelope. So, I call it the Chinese diagonal gazelle. ”
Over the years, Ge Yuxiu has been working hard to protect the Przewalski's gazelle, and has also been promoting the name of "Chinese diagonal antelope". Since 2006, he has successively submitted to the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Government 8 decision-making references, including "Establishing the Exclusive Protected Area of the Chinese Diagonal Antelope", "Designating the Chinese Diagonal Antelope as the Mascot of the International Road Cycling Race around Qinghai Lake", and "On Strengthening the Publicity, Protection and Utilization of the Chinese Diagonal Antelope".
In 2006, the Organizing Committee of the Fifth Qinghai Lake International Bicycle Race adopted Ge Yuxiu's suggestion and identified the Chinese diagonal antelope as the mascot of the "Lake Race" and made it into a cartoon "Duoji" image; in December 2007, the first "Chinese Diagonal Antelope Special Protection Zone" was established in Gangcha County, the northern shore of Qinghai Lake.
In view of Ge Yuxiu's contribution to the rescue and protection of the Chinese diagonal antelope, in December 2009, he was hired by the Gangcha County government as the "Honorary Station Manager of the Chinese Diagonal Antelope Conservation Station", and he was also affectionately known by many people as the father of the "Chinese Diagonal Antelope".
Wolves were encountered several times during filming
One winter, at about 5:30 a.m., Ge Yuxiu came to a habitat of the Chinese diagonal antelope on the east bank of Qinghai Lake to lurk and unconsciously fell asleep.
"At that time, A wave of 'howl' woke me up, and it was a wolf howling. I once saw the remains of a sheep eaten by wolves nearby, and I was afraid. At that time, there was a black dot in the front and five black dots in the back. About 100 meters, I saw an antelope in front and five wild wolves in the back. Ge Yuxiu said that when the wolves chased the Chinese diagonal antelope from 30 meters from his lurking sand dunes, it was winter, and his sweat soaked through his clothes.
"I'm much better at catching than an antelopes." Many years later, looking back again, Ge Yuxiu was still afraid, "It was the Chinese diagonal antelope that saved me, and after that, I regarded the Chinese diagonal antelope as my own protective god." ”
Encounters with wolves are not the only ones.
On January 9, 2006, Ge Yuxiu went to Yushu to shoot the return trip. The car had just crossed the bayankara mountain pass at an altitude of 4824 meters, and suddenly found two wild wolves running from the bottom of the mountain not far away, and Ge Yuxiu decided to get out of the car to shoot. When the wolf saw someone get out of the car, he did not panic and walked forward without hurrying. Ge Yuxiu chased all the way, only about 80 meters away from the nearest time. A few years ago, he also photographed foxes and seven wolves in Maduo County, Goluo Prefecture, at an altitude of 4,300 meters.
Ge Yuxiu photographed the wolf. Courtesy of respondents
Ge Yuxiu actually had a reverence for wolves.
"Wolves still survive tenaciously in the harsh natural environment of qinghai's high altitude areas and under the pressure of humans. Wolves generally do not actively attack humans. From an ecological point of view, wolves can control the number of herbivores, play a role in maintaining the ecological balance of grasslands and forests, and wolves hunt mostly old, weak, sick and disabled, and also play a role in improving the quality of the population for herbivores themselves. Ge Yuxiu said.
The black-necked crane is recommended as the national bird
Ge Yuxiu also has a folk title - "Bird King of Qinghai Lake". "I consider myself a man born for birds, destined for birds."
In the early 1980s, a "seagull" dual-lens camera led Ge Yuxiu to the road of photography. In 1995, ge Yuxiu first set foot on the bird island of Qinghai Lake, and was shocked by the scene of thousands of birds singing.
"There is an island in the middle of Qinghai Lake, and I stayed for seven days and seven nights at the longest, without drinking a mouthful of hot water, only eating compressed dry food and cakes, and drinking mineral water. It was 1995, and no one knew about it without a cell phone, or even if I died on the island. I adopted seven little spotted geese there, and they lost their mothers, and when I left, they gave me three times. Ge Yuxiu still remembered the seven small spotted geese.
While filming on Qinghai Lake Island, Ge Yuxiu adopted seven small spotted geese. Courtesy of respondents
Over the years, in addition to promoting the "Chinese diagonal antelope", he has also actively suggested that the black-necked crane be listed as the national bird.
The black-necked crane belongs to China's first-class protected species, and is the only rare large bird in the world that migrates and lives in the Chinese plateau for life among the 15 species of cranes in china. In order to photograph the black-necked crane, Ge Yuxiu once fell into the swamp at Longbao Beach in Yushu Prefecture, 850 kilometers away from Xining and 4300 meters above sea level, and almost died.
"The black-necked crane is a national first-class protected animal, a provincial bird in Qinghai Province, with a wide distribution area, accounting for 53% of China's area, and is distributed in seven provinces and regions. I proposed that the black-necked crane be used as the national bird, and at last year's two sessions, some CPPCC members submitted my proposal as a proposal. Ge Yuxiu said that some people suggested that the red-crowned crane be the national bird, but the Latin scientific name of the red-crowned crane translates to "Japanese crane".
"We are far less familiar with wild donkeys, antelopes and black-necked cranes in our own country than we are with Zebras, cheetahs and giraffes in Africa, and what we see on TV are all foreign wild animals, such as several family treasures, but we know very little about our own animals." Is it that China is short of money? Is it because we lack good videographers? No, I think the past was not enough attention, so that people did not understand them. Even this species does not know, how to protect it? This is also a kind of sadness. Ge Yuxiu said.
Beijing News reporter Li Yukun
Edited by Zhang Lu Proofreader Liu Jun