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Cover news reporter Du Jiangxi
While everyone is focusing on "where the elephants go" in Yunnan, the Tibetan antelope have also reached the season of migration and calving in the Qinghai Coco Xili National Nature Reserve, more than 2,000 kilometers away.
This is a big thing on the ground. To this end, the staff of the reserve has been guarding the migration route of Tibetan antelope at an altitude of more than 4600 meters.
On April 20 this year, a herd of Tibetan antelopes marched towards Lake Zhuo Nai. Xinhua News Agency
At an altitude of 4479 meters, located at the Sonandaj Conservation Station on the side of National Highway 109, the one-year-old Tibetan antelope does not know this, and it is carried back with a placenta, and the iconic black horn is only the length of the middle finger, and the baby generally rubs the leg of the deputy station chief dragon boat. Such rescues happen every year. At the beginning, the dragon boat would add a name to the little Tibetan antelope that he took care of, and now, he would not do this for a long time, "they belong to Coco Xili, they do not belong to humans, with human names, the entanglement is deeper" "They are the real masters of Coco Xili".
In Coco Ciri, the sound of poaching guns has not sounded for more than a decade. The tibetan antelope population here has increased from less than 20,000 in the late 1990s when poaching was at its peak to more than 70,000 today. In early summer, on the vast plateau of bare yellow, Tibetan antelope mothers will travel all the way north from the winter mating ground to the summer lambing field. After a trek of about 300 kilometers, at Zhuo Nai Lake, Sun Lake and other places, this ethnic group will usher in a new life.
The grass is dry and green, and the animals are safe, just as for thousands of years, the order of this land, mysterious and calm, has not been disturbed.
Gold diggers, poachers, protectors
It's a process of mutual adaptation.
Sensitive Tibetan antelopes can run at speeds of up to 80 kilometers per hour, but when crossing the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, which is less than 10 meters wide, they tend to slow down and repeatedly "probe".
From more than 10 years ago, Tibetan antelopes wandered back and forth and tried for two or three days to pass the Qinghai-Tibet Highway, and now, sheep can pass smoothly in as little as ten minutes or as long as a few hours. This means that in Coco Ciri, people are strengthening the protection of animals, and animals are gradually adapting to the existence of humans and railways and roads.
On April 20 this year, Tibetan antelopes were active in the Coco Xili area of Sanjiangyuan. Xinhua News Agency
"The population of Tibetan antelopes has gone from less than 20,000 when they were endangered to more than 70,000 now. The population of rare wild animals such as snow leopards and Tibetan wild donkeys is also increasing year by year. Zhao Xinlu loves this place, and in 1997, when the Coco Xili Nature Reserve was established, he had just been demobilized from the army and became one of the first members of the team to enter the reserve. Today, he is the station manager of the Sonandaj Conservation Station, which houses the only Tibetan antelope rescue center in the peripheral protection station.
The sound of gunfire, in the empty and quiet wasteland, had not sounded for many years. Once upon a time, it was the most protrusive presence in the land.
Frenzied poaching stems from the enormous economic value of Tibetan antelope skins and cashmere. In the European market, Tibetan antelope cashmere is the raw material for the high-end fashion "Shatush" shawl. These shawls, woven with Tibetan antelope cashmere, can be passed through the middle of a tiny ring and sold at the world's top fashion stores for tens of thousands of dollars each. The raw material for a shawl requires the hunting of 3 to 5 Tibetan antelopes. In the mid-1990s, a Piece of Tibetan Antelope Skin sold for 300 to 500 yuan in Coco Siri or Golmud, and it could rise to 2,000 to 3,000 yuan on the borders of India and Nepal.
Zhao Xinlu, station manager of the Coco Siri Sonandaj Conservation Station, feeds Tibetan antelope cubs on December 7, 2020. Xinhua News Agency
For Zhao Xinlu, he will never forget, nor dare to forget, the silent pictures left after those crazy poaching.
The skinned Tibetan antelope, with its flesh and blood blurred, lay quietly, piled up layer by layer. A bullet pierced two sheep, some of which were skinned after being wounded, and there was a faint breath after the cruel ling, and slowly died. In a river of blood, the toddler struggled to find its mother's nipple and was eventually starved to death. More, it is the lamb that has been formed in the belly of the ewe, and there is no chance of the world.
Some people kill because of greed, and some people guard with their lives.
On January 18, 1994, Jason Sonandaj and four team members captured 20 poachers, captured seven cars and more than 1,800 Tibetan antelope skins, and were attacked while escorting the poachers near Sun Lake. He died in a confrontation with a gun poacher and was molded into an ice sculpture in a snowstorm at minus 40°C. He was 40 years old.
Sonandaj's sacrifice brought the whole world to know Coco Siri and the Tibetan antelope.
Hada is homaged in front of the Monument to Jessan Sonandaj. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Wu Gang)
In order to protect tibetan antelope, Coco Xili was listed as a provincial-level protected area in 1996, a conservation agency was established in 1997, and it was promoted to a national nature reserve in the same year. The total area of the reserve is 45,000 square kilometers. This is one of the highest altitude and most abundant wildlife resources in China, known as the highland wildlife gene bank, and the first nature reserve set up for the protection of Tibetan antelope.
A symphony of fate
At the Kunlun Pass, the Monument to Sonandaj stands silently, receiving tribute from visitors. This is the only way to enter the Coco Siri Nature Reserve. To and from here, the staff of the Coco Ciri Authority, even when driving, will take off their hats to salute as they pass by.
At the foot of the snow-capped mountains, the prayer flag blows, and those stories have always been there.
After Sonandaj's death, his brother-in-law, Zaba Dorje, who was then deputy director of the Legislative Affairs Committee of the Yushu Prefecture People's Congress in Qinghai, took the initiative to apply for "demotion" to Zhiduo County as deputy secretary of the county party committee, recruited team members, rebuilt the Western Working Committee, and continued Sonandaj's road of protection. Further, he began to implement closed management in Coco Cili.
Three years later, Zaba Dorje died. Documentary filmmaker Peng Hui left an image of his life, a Tibetan man like a "wild yak", with a strong body and sweating, who spoke directly without turning. In a chat, Peng Hui asked him if the documentary would record his flawed side, including the skins he had sold in the early days to keep the protection team running, and he had broken the legs of poachers in anger.
Sonandaj Nature Reserve Station located in the Coco Siri region. (Photo by Xinhua news agency reporter Wu Gang)
"You know, he just slapped it in the face and said, 'This is the real me, what am I afraid of, shoot it.'" In the three years of filming, Peng Hui deeply entered the family, and he recorded that after losing two close relatives, Baima, the wife of Zhaba Dorje and the sister of Sonandaj, still sent her eldest son Pucuo Tso Tsering to the Coco Siri National Nature Reserve Administration to become a forest policeman; she supported her second son, Qiu Pei Tashi, after graduating from university, also entered the administration and became an auxiliary police officer at the protection station.
Today, Zhaba Dorje's two sons are the station chief of the Tuotuo River Protection Station and the other is the director of the Zhuo Nai Lake Protection Station. One guards the migration route of Tibetan antelope, and the other guards the main calfing area of Tibetan antelope.
When he was a child, sitting on the red motorcycle of his uncle Sonandajie, driving through the grasslands of his hometown, Qiupei Tashi thought that he would become a shepherd when he grew up, but he did not think that the fate entrusted to him was the Tibetan antelope. Now, Qiu pei Tashi's sons have grown up, but it is still difficult for him to face the departure of his relatives with the feeling of a hero in his family. In his mind, it was a loss that could never be replaced.
For many more, the enormous symbolic influence of Coco Siri, beginning with Sonandaj's death, has extended far beyond the region and the species of Tibetan antelope itself.
Station manager Zhao Xinlu (center) and teammates Deng Haiping (left) and Dacai patrol the management area of the Coco Siri Sonandaj Conservation Station on December 7, 2020 (drone photo). Xinhua News Agency
Dragon Boat Caijia remembers sneaking into the cinema as a student, when the movie he watched was related to Sonandaj. When he grew up, a job posting gave him a chance. After entering the Coco Ciri Administration, he first worked at the Wudaoliang Protection Station. When the old team member went out, he was the only one at the protection station. In winter, when the heavens and the earth were white, he took a telescope to verify whether the Tibetan antelope "little lamb kneeling milk" was real, and then watched the groups of animals running around on the wasteland.
The guardian of Coco Ciri, not alone.
Nearly 90% of the land area of Qinghai Province is included in the restricted and prohibited development zones. In the concept of firmly establishing that green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, ecological environmental protection has been regarded as the basic premise and rigid constraint of high-quality development. In the past 15 years, the water level of Qinghai Lake has risen by more than 3 meters and the area has expanded by more than 300 square kilometers.
The water level of Qinghai Lake continues to rise, which is conducive to the humidity and warming of the surrounding climate, and to a certain extent, it has improved the habitat environment of local wild animals, plants and birds and the ecological environment of the entire lake area.
Coco Ciri was not disturbed
"Protecting qinghai's ecological environment is the 'greatest country.'" In June this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed during his inspection in Qinghai that Qinghai is a strategic place for safeguarding national ecological security, and it is necessary to undertake the major mission of safeguarding ecological security, protecting the source of the Three Rivers, and protecting the "China Water Tower".
The thick soil of the mountains, the great beautiful picture scroll, slowly unfolded.
In Coco Xili, the frozen soil area reaches more than 90%, and glaciers and permafrost become huge solid reservoirs and resources, which are the "kidneys" and "lungs" of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and also the magnificent animal kingdom. There are greedy people who have spent most of their centuries trying to conquer. There are also those who choose to use generations to insist on protection and restoration. Here, you can clearly see how a person, a group of people, and a generation are protecting in the struggle, giving nature a rest in awe, and constantly looking for a balance between man and nature.
A corner of a wildlife rescue center outside the Coco Siri Sonandaj Conservation Station taken on December 6 last year (drone photo). Xinhua News Agency
It is the season of Tibetan antelope calving, and the team members of the Zhuonai Lake Conservation Station will guard until the Tibetan antelope leaves with their sons. Zhao Xinlu was once the station manager of the Zhuo Nai Lake Conservation Station, and in the two-month isolation of the world, only he and another partner were facing each other day and night. Every morning when I got up, the outside of the tent was full of Tibetan antelopes, and they walked among the sheep in shorts, not disturbing each other.
Having encountered brown bears and wolves, Zhao Xinlu would avoid or drive away with his partners. And when a beast attacks a Tibetan antelope, they don't have any intervention.
"This is the law of nature, and we humans cannot interfere." In fact, every time he saw the wolf biting the little Tibetan antelope and throwing it around, playing with the prey, listening to the wailing of the lamb and the mother of the sheep, Zhao Xinlu would be sad, but in the Coco Xili Administration, the consensus of everyone was that the animal's affairs should be solved by the animals themselves.
Thus, at the Sonandaj Conservation Station, the rescued wild animals will be given the independence of the animals.
This is a Tibetan antelope released into nature photographed at the Wildlife Rescue Center at the Coco Siri Sonandaj Conservation Station on July 7 this year. Xinhua News Agency
In fact, it is a seemingly contradictory and difficult process.
Dragon boat Cai Jia once wrapped the small Tibetan antelope with a placenta in a blanket and carried it back to the protection station, this young man who had not held a baby, with a small Tibetan antelope who did not have a full moon, ate and lived with him, 3 times a day 3 months ago, twice a day at half a year old, a day after 10 months, and after one year old, he no longer fed. The activity area of the Tibetan antelope, as it grows older, has gradually expanded from a small fence of 5 acres of land to a three-story area of several hundred acres, until it can be rewilded and released.
"The Tibetan antelope is very spiritual and follows me every day." At first, the dragon boat would give them names, "Dolma, Nyima, Huihui, Yanyan, all taken." ”
But slowly, he never did this again, he was worried that after the lamb was released, he would habitually be close to people, defenseless, and felt that after taking the name, he would be more deeply involved with himself.
On July 7 this year, at the Wildlife Rescue Center of the Coco Siri Sonandaj Conservation Station, five Tibetan antelopes, two males and two females, were released into nature. This is the custom of the Coco Xili mountain patrol team to apply ghee to the forehead of the Tibetan antelope to express blessings. Xinhua News Agency
"They don't belong to humans, they're the real masters of Coco Ciri."
The protection station is busy at all times, even in Coco Xili, which is free of the sound of poaching guns, it still faces the heavy responsibility of ecological protection and scientific research. For these guardians, starting from Golmud, driving along National Highway 109 in the direction of Lhasa, the altitude gradually increases, and the snow-capped mountains stretch on both sides. On a large area of extremely flat land, the meadow is still yellow, the turf is cracked into a lump, and there are small black holes distributed, which is the "masterpiece" of the pika. There was silence between heaven and earth, Tibetan antelopes were busy migrating, Tibetan wild donkeys were slowly flicking their tails, and occasionally a Tibetan wild fox ran by quickly, bringing up some dust, and the wild yaks not far away snorted.
This is the most beautiful picture in their minds, and everyone believes that it will get better and better here.
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