Source: People's Daily
Figures (1), (2), and (3): Red-crowned cranes in Jiangsu Yancheng Wetland Rare Birds National Nature Reserve. Profile picture
Red-crowned cranes in Heilongjiang Zhalong National Nature Reserve. Profile picture
In the central coast of Jiangsu, there is a beautiful coastal wetland - Yancheng Wetland Rare Bird National Nature Reserve. The wind blows from all directions, and the reeds dance with it. It is home to the red-crowned cranes that overwinter and are the southernmost point of their migration route.
In mid-to-late October, wild red-crowned cranes will continue to fly from north to south. Follow in the footsteps of the red-crowned crane to heilongjiang Zhalong National Nature Reserve. Here, the reeds swing directly into the sky, and the red-crowned crane, the white-naped crane, and the oriental white stork play in clusters, and the lingbo steps on and flaps its wings and flies.
"Why do the white clouds quietly shed tears, why the gusts of wind whisper, and a flock of red-crowned cranes, gently and gently flying by..." This familiar melody sounded in my mind. In the 1980s, the song "A True Story" was widely sung, telling the moving story of Xu Xiujuan, China's first environmental martyr, who protected wild animals and ran to the last moment of life.
"Their stories, the people of the village remember"
"Xu Xiujuan's sisters and brothers grew up in our village, and their stories are remembered by everyone in the village." Speaking of Xu Xiujuan, the voice of Cang Yiduo, secretary of the general party branch of the Zhalong Manchu Village in Heilongjiang, was somewhat choked.
"Their father, Xu Tielin, was a first-generation crane breeder and one of the founders of the Zalong Crane Domestication and Breeding Center, and his mother, Huang Yaozhen, also worked in the Zalong Conservation Area." The 56-square-meter Manchu house, once home to the Xu family, was also vacated by Xu Tielin for office space in the reserve.
In 1981, Xu Xiujuan, who had just turned 17, followed her father to work in the Zhalong Conservation Area, and on the third day of entering the crane farm, she was able to independently keep small cranes in captivity. In just over a year, she has mastered all the techniques of red-crowned cranes, white-naped cranes, and cranes raising, grazing, breeding, hatching, and brooding.
"In fact, the clever Juanzi followed her parents and became familiar with the habits of these birds since childhood." Next door to the Xu family's house, there is a crane house surrounded by reeds. "It's close to the chimney, next to the wall of fire, warm in winter and cool in summer." Cang Yiduo said, "Xu Tielin was originally a fisherman, and he would take home the injured birds found while fishing to heal his wounds and release them again. As soon as he whistled, some of the birds would fly back. ”
With her excellent work in the reserve, Xu Xiujuan quickly obtained the recommended qualification of the Wildlife Department of Northeast Forestry University. "I don't believe that women can't do a career!" Xu Xiujuan once wrote in her diary. During her studies, the original two-year course was compressed by her to one and a half years to complete; in order to communicate with international peers, Xu Xiujuan chose to take foreign languages, turned the only "English-Chinese Dictionary" to the side of the volume, and finally reached the level of being able to write a diary of Yanghe in English...
In May 1986, after graduation, Xu Xiujuan was sent to Yancheng to support the creation of a rare bird nature reserve. "She put 3 crane eggs into a handbag." More than 2,000 kilometers away, 3 days and 3 nights, Xu Xiujuan used an artificial leather bag, a warm water bag, half a pound of skimmed cotton, a thermometer, and carefully cared for 3 crane eggs. The train broke off the boiling water, and she carried the crane egg in her arms. In this way, the crane egg was successfully brought to Yancheng, Jiangsu Province.
In Yancheng, after Xu Xiujuan and her colleagues persevered day and night, 31 days later, a soft sound of "tuk" was emitted from an eggshell - the red-crowned crane hatched successfully for the first time in the wintering ground, filling the gap in this field in China. The three small cranes that broke out of their shells were named Dragon Dragon, Dan Dan and Sasha respectively.
As a "crane mother", Xu Xiujuan was even busier. In the summer, she squatted in the sweltering brooding room during the day to watch over the cranes, and at night, in order to prevent mosquito bites, she kept the cranes in her tent to take care of them; in the winter, she walked on the reed beach in the storm to forage for the cranes. On the morning of her eighty-third day, she took three small red-crowned cranes with her to learn to fly. The cranes suddenly soared into the sky while playing and soaring in the blue sky of the reserve.
In just one year and four months of working in the Yancheng Conservation Area, Xu Xiujuan wrote two papers, "Semi-scattered Breeding of Red-crowned Cranes in Wintering Land", "The Effect of High Temperature on Red-crowned Crane Chicks", and the essay "Grey Starling". At the third meeting of the Joint Crane Conservation Committee in 1986, the paper she read was praised by the old experts in the audience.
"Her life is frozen in eternal time, and her spirit becomes the continuation of life"
On September 16, 1987, this true story wrote a sad ending.
In order to retrieve the "dawn" of the white swan that flew away, Xu Xiujuan could not care about her body that had not yet healed, and insisted on looking around in the vast grass beach. When she heard the sound of swans in the west of the Fudui River, she quickly swam to the other side with her colleagues. When she was about to reach the middle of the river, she gradually felt physically weak. At this time, the two male colleagues had swum to the other side and immediately asked her to return quickly.
Concerned about the safety of the swans, how can Xu Xiujuan be willing to sit on the sidelines and wait for the news? When her colleagues were far away, she returned to the river alone. Facing this 30-meter-wide river, she jumped into the river again. However, the ongoing exertion did not allow her to persist to the other side, and the river ruthlessly devoured the young life of the 23-year-old. "Juanzi! Juanzi..." No matter how people shouted, they could no longer find Xu Xiujuan's busy figure.
"Xu Xiujuan's life is frozen in eternal time, her spirit is transformed into the continuation of life, and a monument of ecological environmental protection will always stand in people's hearts." Wang Futong, secretary of the party group of Jiangsu Yancheng Wetland Rare Birds National Nature Reserve, told reporters that on September 23, 1987, a memorial service for Xu Xiujuan was held in Xinyanggang Town, where the reserve is located, and nearly a thousand people came to mourn. She is also the first environmental martyr in our country to die in the line of duty.
When the news of Xu Xiujuan's death reached the other side of the ocean, Dr. George Archipold, then president of the International Crane Foundation, wrote to Xu Xiujuan's father: "I will never forget the excellent work done by your beloved daughter. Whenever I look at the crane in the sky, I always think of her freed soul. ”
After the death of his sister, his younger brother Xu Jianfeng gave up his work in the urban area and came to the Zhalong Nature Reserve for 18 years, from a crane guard to the deputy director of the crane breeding center in the reserve, he raised and bred hundreds of red-crowned cranes.
On April 18, 2014, Xu Jianfeng, as usual, waded 2 kilometers deep into the hinterland of the wetland to investigate the breeding of free-range red-crowned cranes, and was pleasantly surprised to find the crane nest of free-range red-crowned cranes. "Don't burn the crane's nest!" The next day, because it was the season of high wild fires, Xu Jianfeng dropped a sentence and rushed to the wetland early in the morning to take care of it. On the way back, Xu Jianfeng's motorcycle lost control and crashed into the ditch. After his sister's sacrifice for 27 years, Xu Jianfeng also died on the Crane Road, at the age of 47.
"I hope to be able to go to the grassroots level and fulfill the last wishes of my father and aunt"
Two family members have died in the same job, but the road of "raising cranes" continues. After Xu Jianfeng's daughter Xu Zhuo graduated, she returned to Zhalong and joined the ranks of her grandfather, father and aunt, becoming the third generation of "crane breeders".
Xu Zhuoben thought that after graduation, he would go to the south to work in horticulture. But the sudden death of her father, Xu Jianfeng, gave the girl born in 1993 a new belief. She decided to transfer to the College of Wildlife Resources of Northeast Forestry University, "hoping to go to the grassroots level and fulfill the last wishes of her father and aunt." ”
"There are no mountains and no greens, there are clear waters, the flowers are fragrant at four o'clock, and the birds are singing; the rivers and mountains are decorated with splendid embroidery, and the land is painted as Danqing." This is Xu Zhuo's oath when he entered school.
In one and a half years, Xu Zhuo completed the 3-year course of the new major. When she graduated, she obtained the postgraduate qualification of guaranteed graduate school with the sixth place in her major, but she chose to give up. "I want to go to work in the reserve as soon as possible, and I want to go back early to take care of my family."
During his work at the Zhalong Conservation Area, Xu Zhuo often wore large water dungs, sat on a water eight-wheel tractor, drilled reeds, waded through swamps, and did wilderness surveys.
In 2018, Xu Zhuo took half a year's leave and was successfully admitted to a working graduate school at Northeast Forestry University. "It is not enough to have love, but also to have solid theoretical knowledge." Xu Zhuo said.
"At that time, Xu Zhuo's eyes were always red." The sudden outbreak of new crown pneumonia in 2020 coincided with the eve of Xu Zhuo's graduation. "During the day, the work of the protected area is not delayed at all, and at night, I have to go to the epidemic prevention card point on duty, rush to write my master's thesis in the middle of the night, and send my sick grandfather to the hospital three or four days a week in the morning."
"They all have similar personalities. Don't find reasons for difficulties, only find solutions for difficulties. Xu Zhuo's graduate supervisor Wu Qingming said.
"The best way to pay homage to the martyrs is to better protect the homes of the red-crowned cranes"
In the lower reaches of the Uyur River, countless small shallow lakes are dotted with a large area of permanent seasonal freshwater marshland, overlooking what appears to be an emerald embedded in the songnen plain.
This is where the story begins– the Zhalong Wetland, the most complete, pristine and open wetland ecosystem preserved in the same latitudes of northern China. "The wetland reeds here are as high as 3 meters, which is difficult for humans to cross, and the abundant reeds, swamps and tatou moss grass create superior conditions for the survival and reproduction of precious waterfowl." Zhang Xianguang, deputy director of the Crane Breeding and Rewilding District Service Center of the Protected Area Administration, said.
With the advancement of technology, the management and protection of protected areas is developing to be refined and intelligent. According to reports, in the past two or three years, each management and protection station has been equipped with patrol vehicles and volunteer protectors, realized grid management, and also added patrol equipment such as locators and unmanned aerial vehicles.
"The best way for us to pay tribute to the martyrs is to better protect the homes of the red-crowned crane." Wang Futong introduced that in the Yancheng Wetland Rare Birds National Nature Reserve, three generations of breeding and environmental protection workers of the old, middle and young people jointly guard the "paradise of birds" and continue to write "A True Story". Among them are Lu Shicheng, who has worked with Xu Xiujuan, Chen Weihua, who has stuck to his post for decades, and Yu Qingfeng, a post-95 who brings the latest professional knowledge. After several generations of relay struggle, the series of artificial domestication, brooding and breeding of red-crowned cranes in the reserve have all been completed, and relevant scientific and technological achievements have filled the domestic gap for many times.
■ Excursion tips
Zhalong Ecotourism Zone
The Zhalong Eco-tourism Zone is a national aaaa-level tourist attraction, with dense lakes, reeds and trestles. Convenient public transport can be reached by bus from Qiqihar City, and there is free parking outside the park.
May to October is the peak season for visiting the Zhalong Ecotourism Zone. "Wild flying training" is a special activity in the tourist area, each time 20-30 red-crowned cranes are released, lasting 2-3 minutes. It is recommended to arrive at the release site in advance. The release time varies greatly between the off-peak seasons, and visitors can check the notice after entering the park to understand the time in advance. On the other hand, the cruise service in the tourist area is unique, allowing you to walk through the reeds and enjoy the scenery in depth.
Red-crowned crane wetland ecotourism area
The Red-crowned Crane Wetland Ecotourism Zone is located in the Yancheng Wetland Rare Birds National Nature Reserve, which is a national aaaa-level tourist scenic spot, as well as a national ecological environmental protection science popularization base and a national forest and grass science popularization base.
At the Red-crowned Crane Rescue and Breeding Center, located in the tourist area, artificially bred red-crowned cranes live all year round. Every day at 10:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m., at a distance of several meters, visitors can watch their field training.
In November, after the first wild red-crowned cranes arrive from the north, visitors will occasionally see them skimming overhead, and they can also go to the bird watching house for bird watching activities to observe them spread their wings and fly up close. (Reporters Zhang Yikai, Yao Xueqing, Hao Yingcan)
Typography: Wang Zheping
People's Daily (October 20, 2021, 19th edition)