"Listen, this call, is the dōng, a common bird in Chengdu, it comes to our front house in the summer, it will imitate a lot of sounds, such as the male crow hears you play the violin every day, it may imitate a little, and then go to the female to show off." Most of them migrated south this season, and some of the birds that may not have left just now are meeting to discuss migration. Sitting in front of the newly relocated office window of the Southwest Mountain Studio, Wu Jiawei talked about various things related to animals and plants. How long have you not seen flowers, plants, insects, fish, birds and beasts? Some people may say, why do I know so many flowers and plants? We have had enough to feed ourselves, and when we see that birds and beasts no longer think about how to fight and eat, we no longer have to hunt for food. So, what exactly do animals and plants have to do with us? In fact, the cognition of nature is the cognition of ourselves, even if we live in a steel forest, we can find our own world by caring for animals and plants.
You may not know that the southwestern mountains of China, where Sichuan is located, are one of the world's 35 biodiversity hotspots published by the international environmental group Conservation International. Southwest mountainous area, accounting for 1/10 of the land area, from the plain to the snowy mountains have an altitude of 500-7000 meters, here grow 1/3 of the domestic plants, 1/2 of the birds and animals.
Let's take a look at a set of pictures to understand the landforms and beautiful scenery of the Great Southwest.
Alpine meadow (July 29, 2007, Guangyuan, Sichuan)
Bush: In the morning after the rain in the summer of Gongga Mountain, the clouds and mist gradually dissipate, and the shrubs on the yang slope, the fir forest on the yin slope, and the villages in the mountains have all woken up... (June 24, 2015, in Aba, Sichuan)
Glaciers: Spring is always late in high altitudes, and the lakes and forests of the Dagu Glacier are still asleep... (March 24, 2016, in Aba, Sichuan)
Canyon: The Lancang River turns at the foot of Meili Snow Mountain, and the huge height difference of the canyon creates a typical mountain vertical landscape belt of the Hengduan Mountain System. (July 4, 2009, diqing, Yunnan)
Alpine tundra (December 24, 2016, diqing, Yunnan)
Mixed coniferous and broad-leaved forests: Sanjiang National Park in northwest Yunnan is the most polytropically diverse area in the world, and animals and plants always have strategies to adapt to altitude, and the forest types of Baima Snow Mountain in the region gradually transition from broad-leaved forests to coniferous forests from low to high altitudes. (October 23, 2009, in Diqing, Yunnan)
Lake (July 6, 2015, Dali, Yunnan)
Valley (May 2, 2015, nujiang, Yunnan)
Stream: A white band swings down from the colorful forest, and it goes straight to the sea... (Photo taken in Nujiang, Yunnan)
In 2004, bbs, qq group is very active, photographic equipment from film machine to digital camera transformation, everyone can pick up the camera to press the shutter, ecological photography enthusiasts are therefore out of control, get together to discuss ecological photography more and more people, Southwest Mountain came into being, then it was just a form of interest club. From nature conservation workers, zoologists, university teachers to photography enthusiasts, hundreds of people gradually gathered in the southwest mountains.
In 2015, the Southwest Mountain Studio was established, and Wu Jiawei, who graduated from Sichuan Agricultural University majoring in forestry, served as CEO, and they took root in Chengdu, hoping to promote the "Southwest China MountainOus Area", a globally recognized biodiversity hotspot, to become the focus of the world's attention.
Mountainous southwest China (Source: legacy.cepf.net)
Many people also learned about the various animals and plants living in the southwest mountains through the photos taken by Wu Jiawei and his partners. Really, in addition to the giant pandas, we saw so many beautiful flora and fauna for the first time.
Wu Jiawei first recommended the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve, as long as you are patient enough, you can encounter more than 20 kinds of animals such as giant pandas, hairy-crowned deer, golden snub-nosed monkeys, antelopes, ocelots, green-tailed rainbow pheasants and so on.
"A few years ago, we photographed Eurasian otters here, where the water quality is good, there are many fish, and the otters live very well here." The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has an Otter Expert Committee that specializes in different species of otters from around the world, and because of the Southwest Mountain Proposal, the 14th International Otter Congress in 2019 will be held in Tangjiahe, where experts from all over the world will gather. "We would also like to take this opportunity to reverse the perception of China's nature conservation efforts."
National second-level protected animals. The head is flat and broad, with small rounded lobes on the ears and nostrils, which are closed during diving; the limbs are short, there are webs between the toes, the fur is dense and shiny to waterproof and wet, the whole body hair is coffee-colored, the abdominal hair is lighter; except for a few subspecies, its throat has white spots; the tail is long and flattened, and the coat color is consistent with the body color.
Secondly, you know, Wolong Nature Reserve is only 130 kilometers away from Chengdu City. The meaning of this sentence is that when you are shopping on Chunxi Road, you can see a sculpture of a giant panda upstairs. And just over a hundred kilometers away from you, there is a group of wild giant pandas eating bamboo; there are snow leopards chasing rock sheep in the mountains; there are golden eagles falling from the sky, and its target may be a unique Chinese bird - the green-tailed rainbow pheasant (everyone is a national protected animal, why bother).
Wild giant pandas, no bamboo shoots to eat bamboo leaves, no bamboo leaves to nibble bamboo poles, although can not taste the meat, but the giant panda will still occasionally open the meat, such as eating antelope carcasses.
Giant panda pee to do odor marking (giant panda is multi-female and multi-male, the estrus period is very short, estrus under captive conditions is more difficult, the female panda estrus period is only a few days in a year, after mating, it is separated, and the cubs are raised by the female alone. ）
Large chickens, 75 to 81 cm long, feed mainly on the young leaves, buds, young shoots, young shoots, young shoots, fine roots, bulbs, fruits and seeds of plants. The breeding period is from April to June, and it is single-formulated.
Well, there is also a very close choice, Sichuan University Wangjiang Campus has a small forest, which should be a sacred place in the hearts of bird watchers around the world.
Chengdu, Sichuan, Wangjianglou Park Xue Taoting
According to incomplete statistics, there are already more than 200 species of wild birds here, compared with 1,300 species in China. Orange-headed ground plover, white-browed plover, blue-throated fairybird, mountain blue fairybird, black-throated singing plover, golden forest plover, brown-bellied grebe, chestnut-headed warbler, small scaly-breasted wren, red-throated singing grebe... All here awaits you.
Brown-bellied big fairy, this bird has come to Chuanda several times.
This bird looks ten times better with the naked eye than in photographs, and its feathers reflect in the sun.
The Golden Forest Plover is so beautiful!
The chestnut-headed ground warbler is a little cute, this photo was taken in Chuanda, it came once
It also often comes to the Sichuan University Wangjiang Campus.
The animal documentaries we see on TV are lax and fun, and in fact, behind the staff's years of squatting shooting. Wu Jiawei said that their team has a principle when shooting, opposing the blind pursuit of beautiful pictures, and overuse of feeding, broadcasting, landscaping and other means. "Animals are born actors, but out of control. We have to be very familiar with them when we shoot them, but we don't interfere with their lives, we just wait and record."
In order to shoot the white-tailed rainbow pheasant, the partners of the Southwest Mountain built a log cabin in the mountain, climbed the mountain for more than an hour every day to shoot, each time they went to live for 20 days, and then returned to the city to sort out the material, and then went to the squatting point to shoot as needed.
Squat point to photograph the white-tailed rainbow pheasant
The nest of the white-tailed rainbow pheasant is built on the edge of the rock wall, and after the birds are hatched, they will fall directly into the meadow under the rock wall, well, the kind of meadow that is very elastic. Then they don't need to go back to the nest, they go out with their mothers during the day to forage for food, and at night they sleep under the bushes.
The white-tailed rainbow pheasant has been included in the list of wild animals under national key protection and a national first-class protected bird. Large chicken, 58 to 68 cm long. It feeds mainly on the leaves, stems, young shoots, and roots of plants such as wild lilies, ferns, tiannanxing, banxia, cliff flower sea tree, and alpine arrow bamboo, and occasionally eats a small amount of animal food such as worms and insects. The breeding season is from April to June.
"In order to shoot this falling shot, our photographer squatted in the mountains for many days, and as a result, the nest of birds did not hatch this year, and they squatted in vain. For one reason or another, there are still many cases of squatting for 20 days in vain. Sometimes even if you see some behavior of an animal that is worth recording, you may miss the film because you are not fully prepared." For Wu Jiawei and his partners, there is only one motivation to support them to continue to do this, and that is from the heart of love.
For the sake of shooting, hard-working photographers
In the process of filming, Wu Jiawei himself also encountered a lot of dangers, once in Dujiangyan Zhao Gong Mountain filming survey birds, walking on the ridge he did not follow the guide, took the wrong road, the result stepped into the cliff covered with dead branches and leaves, fortunately fell down and rode on a tree, he climbed up along the branches himself. Without that tree, the consequences would be unimaginable. Such a thing, outdoor photographers will encounter from time to time, they can only continue to enrich their outdoor knowledge, improve the ability to adapt.
There is less and less grass for cattle and sheep to eat on the grassland, and some people will think that the pika on the grassland has robbed the food of the cattle and sheep, so they poison the pika. But scientists have found that the pika's renewal of the grassland is helpful, in fact, the reason for not eating enough grass is that there are too many cattle and sheep. Scientists will thus propose more reasonable ways to manage grassland.
Ruoerge has abundant grassland and meadow resources, and is also a favorite environment for animals. Taken in Ruoerge, Sichuan
It expresses the calcification landscape of QuanhuaTan and the vegetation conditions around it. Photographed in Kangding, Sichuan Yulong Xiquan Huatan
River wetlands are very suitable as habitats for some water birds. Taken in Luojishan Scenic Area, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province
As an important part of the domestic habitat, taiga forests inhabit and grow a wide variety of flora and fauna. Photographed in Ruoerge Baozuo Nature Reserve, Sichuan
The summit is snow-white, and the bottom of the mountain has not yet been covered by snow, as if two seasons have passed through time at a glance. Photographed in Tangjiahe Nature Reserve
When autumn arrives, the leaves of some deciduous trees slowly change color, forming the colorful deciduous broad-leaved forest in front of you. Taken in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan
The taiga in winter is covered with rime. Photo taken in Shimian County, Ya'an City, Sichuan Province
Pingwu County, where Sichuan Wanglang National Nature Reserve is located, is located in the northwest of the Sichuan Basin, where the climate is mild and the precipitation is abundant, and it is known as the "first county of giant pandas in the world". Wanglang National Nature Reserve belongs to the Himalayas-Hengduan Mountains, one of the core areas of global biodiversity, which maintains a complete natural ecosystem, is an important corridor for the habitat of giant pandas, and also lives many ornamental flowers - orchids.
The plant is 15–35 cm tall and has a thick, short rhizome. The stem is erect, glabrous or covered with short soft hairs at the proximal segment of the upper part, with several sheaths at the base, usually with 3 leaves above the sheath, rarely 2 or 4 leaves.
The deeper we know about the natural world, the clearer our thinking will be and the more harmonious we will be with it.
Wu Jiawei said that all along, the southwest mountain has wanted to convey the concept of biodiversity and spread naturalism. Naturalism is an ancient science of human dealing with nature, which refers to the macroscopic observation, description, classification, etc. of animals, plants, minerals, ecosystems, etc. Naturalistics, rich in connotation and long history, is one of the four traditions of natural science research.
Various natural science books published in the southwest mountains
Nowadays, we are facing environmental, ecological and resource problems that are becoming increasingly prominent. Protecting the earth and protecting the homeland of mankind has become the strongest voice of the times, and these need to be more holistic than partial, macroscopic, and deeper theoretical elaboration. Protecting the earth, maintaining biodiversity, loving the environment, in a word, loving nature, living in harmony with nature, what is the basis? First, we need to experience nature and know what is concrete there, even if it's just a small part.
Giant panda footprints
Giant pandas have unique feces
Brown giant panda (The giant panda family has a color photo, it is really not p out, the "Dan Dan" who died in 2009 is the world's first brown giant panda to be discovered. ）
Having been exposed to so many animals and plants, Wu Jiawei's own favorite is the crow family, no wonder his English name is jay, which is the English name of a class of crows. Currently, he is writing a book of crows.
"These birds are particularly intelligent, for example, the black-headed crow, a unique species in the southwest mountains, which can observe human behavior to decide what to do, understand food choices, and cooperate in groups." I used to go bird watching in Yunnan, saw small-billed crows, pulled walnuts off the trees, and then put them on the highway to let the car crush them, and then picked up the walnut kernels to eat. It may have happened to see such behavior and learn such a process. It learned that it might teach the other crows of the family. Wu Jiawei talked about these animals like he was praising a child.
China's special birds, small crows, body length of 29 ~ 32 cm. It mainly feeds on insects such as scarab beetles and beetles, but also eats bird eggs, spiders and plant fruits, seeds, young shoots and other plant foods. The breeding period is from May to July, and the nest is between the branches at the top of the tree, and each nest lays 2 to 2 eggs.
Why should we care about flora and fauna? Because that's also caring about ourselves.
Biologist Ms. Jane Goodall said: Only by understanding can there be care; only by caring, there is action; only action, life can have hope. Wu Jiawei said that next, the Southwest Mountain will photograph the interaction between animals and people in the city, so that more people can see them, those who are originally around us.
Text: Fan Shu
Photo: Cao Hongyu, Southwest Mountain
Edit: Tangxi
Man Chengdu small editor WeChat: jinshanmama2014