Yunnan Netnews (Reporter Zhang Marui) From October 27 to 29, the Creative Yunnan 2021 Cultural Industry Expo was held at the Kunming International Convention and Exhibition Center. On the morning of the 27th, the reporter came to Hall 1, where the Yunnan Asian Elephant Northward Search and Monitoring Action Exhibition was exhibited.
The exhibition scene was photographed by reporter Zhang Marui
In the spring of 2020, a group of wild Asian elephants set off from the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province and traveled all the way north, still on the road, attracting the attention of the world and triggering a boom in "national elephant viewing".
From May 27 to September 19, 2021, lasting 116 days, the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade completed the search and monitoring work during the migration of asian elephants moving north. The works presented in this exhibition show the natural living conditions of wild Asian elephants, tell the "elephant chasing stories" of fire commanders and fighters along the way, and call on the public to protect the environment with image culture.
Zhang Sijie, assistant to the command center of the Kunming detachment of the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade, told reporters that the 100 photographic works exhibited in this exhibition are selected from thousands of photos to reflect the living habits of the elephant group, "We want to use these photos to show the most natural state of the elephant herd, so that everyone can see what they eat, live and travel along the way, which is different from the elephants in the public's previous impression." ”
As the leader of the B group of the search and monitoring group, Zhang Sijie has a deep memory of the story on the road to chase the elephant, "Although the mission has ended, everything is vividly remembered, and seeing these photos will remind you of many details and past events." Pointing to one of the photos of Asian elephants eating in the cornfield, he told reporters that the photo gave him "a new understanding of elephants."
In the photo, two adult Asian elephants squeeze a baby elephant in the middle, "at that time, the adult Asian elephant only cared about eating, forgot the child next to him, and did not react until the baby elephant was squeezed out loud." At that moment, I felt that Asia was very human, just like people can be careless. Zhang Sijie recalled with a smile.
But on the way to chasing elephants, there are not only happy memories, but also tension and danger. Fu Cong, a member of the monitoring team, saw the photo and remembered the scene at that time, "At the monitoring point of Shiyantou Village in Shiping County, Honghe Prefecture, the distance between us and the elephants was 300 meters, 14 elephants came to our car, the whole figure has covered the car window, at that time I could only stand still, the whole process lasted for nearly 30 minutes." ”
Zhang Sijie said that it is a great honor to participate in the fair with photographic works of chasing elephants, "Through such activities, we can call on more people from all walks of life to improve their understanding of biodiversity conservation and better protect elephants." At the same time, as a forest firefighter, he also hopes that the public can participate more actively in forest protection actions and provide a better ecological environment for wild animals such as Asian elephants.