It's a slightly lengthy story, but it's true.
There is such a population, called The Tianxing Gibbon , the first ape species named by Chinese scientists , with fewer than 150 species, less than one-tenth of the giant panda population , distributed in the Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve in Yunnan and parts of the primary forest in Yingjiang County, Dehong Prefecture, and designated as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Skywalking gibbon activity scene. Photo by Ban Dingying
Yunnan is their only home in China.
In recent years, the relevant units in Yunnan Province have spared no effort to protect them together with the people, and strive to practice the ecological principle of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
Among the hard-working people was a young man named Li Ruxue. "May a thousand mountains be evergreen, and the apes roar." His attitude toward nature, like his name, was pure and beautiful.
The story I want to tell today happened to him.
Skywalking gibbon activity scene. Photo by Li Ruxue
Fate: Participate in the field population survey
On the morning of March 25, 2019, in the mountain forest near the Lamahe Villagers Group in Sudian Village, Sudian Township, Yingjiang County, located in the yuma of Da Niang Mountain, at an altitude of more than 1,700 meters, Li Ruxue was looking for the feces of Tianxing gibbons to understand their physical condition and better protect Tianxing gibbons.
Li Ruxue is a field research assistant at the Yunshan Biodiversity Conservation and Research Center (hereinafter referred to as the Yunshan Center) in Dali Prefecture, Yunnan Province. This is the only public welfare organization in China that focuses on the protection of gibbons, taking the protection of flagship species such as gibbons as a breakthrough to promote the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Li Ruxue's job on weekdays is to track and observe gibbons. Picking up ape dung is one of the jobs.
Before entering the mountain, Li Ruxue had been engaged in this work for two years - in March 2017, he had not yet graduated from Dali University with a major in biological sciences, and he went to the Yunshan Center for internship and embarked on a long journey to patrol the Tianxing gibbons.
As soon as he entered the center, one of the most basic and important tasks fell on him and his colleagues: in January 2017, the Skywalker gibbon was just named. The most important thing is to first determine the number of its wild populations.
In the past three months, the Dehong Prefecture Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Yunnan Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve and the Yunshan Center, and invited experts from a number of scientific research units to carry out the field population survey of Tianxing gibbon.
This experience gave Li Ruxue an overall understanding of the Tianxing gibbon.
"Before 2017, the Skywalker gibbon was thought to be the Eastern White-browed Gibbon, an ape distributed east of the Pro-Dun River in Myanmar." Li Ruxue said that through careful observation by experts, the males of white-browed gibbons distributed in Gaoligong Mountain and Yingjiang County do not have obvious "white beards", which is different from the obvious white-bearded features on the chin of males with eastern white-browed gibbons. According to molecular genetics, the Eastern White-browed Gibbon and the White-browed Gibbon of Gaoligong Mountain diverged about 500,000 years ago.
"Adult celestial gibbons are 60 to 90 centimeters long, and the length of their outstretched arms is about twice as long as their height; there are many types of edible food, there are flowers and fruits and leaves, of which the fruit accounts for more than 50%; the adult males are black, the females are brownish yellow, and monogamous; the baby gibbons move in the arms of their mothers about one and a half years ago, whether it is a small male ape or a small female ape, the color is similar to that of the mother when it is a child, and by the age of six or seven, the color of the little male ape will slowly change to the color of the father. The baby female ape will maintain the color of the mother's body. Li Ruxue counted.
Gibbon species, including sky-walking gibbons, have lower reproductive capacity. "Tianxing gibbons mature late, about 10 years old, and can only have a baby in 4 to 5 years." He continued.
It can be seen that in order to understand the Tianxing gibbon, Li Ruxue has made sufficient efforts.
Skywalking gibbon activity scene. Left Changsheng photo
Shock: "It is indeed a Skywalker Gibbon"
A few days before March 25, 2019, Li Ruxue and his guide had been walking around the pristine mountain forest around the Lamahe Villagers Group for more than ten days, confirming that there were 3 solitary apes and 5 family groups living near the village named after the river.
In the morning, armed with binoculars and a telephoto camera, he and his guide set off again. Li Ruxue remembered that two years ago, he had come to this place and witnessed a family group of Tianxing gibbons. At that time, he and another young man were also inexperienced, and they were walked around by the "father" of the family with a tiger away from the mountain.
"After we saw a family of four (a couple with two children), the male ape was scurrying around and yelling at us, and we followed him carefully, not realizing that it was deliberately leading us away to protect his wife and two children." Li Ruxue recalled.
This time, he and the guide successfully found the Tianxing gibbon by playing the gibbon recording, the two hid to observe, inadvertently glanced at it, found that the female ape seemed to have something on her chest, and looked carefully with the telescope, it was a baby ape.
"So lucky!" Li Ruxue couldn't help but whisper to the guide. Fortunately, for the less than 150 Celestial Gibbons, the birth of a new individual adds hope to the continuation of the entire population.
This group of Skywalking gibbons has 4 individuals, in addition to the female ape and the baby ape, there are two black gibbons. This group of gibbons is not a habitual group (habituation refers to the ability to quietly get along with people after long-term observation, no longer afraid of humans), after finding someone under the tree holding something strange (camera) to them, the female ape makes a few calls, and the two black gibbons leave with it.
The scene when Li Ruxue found the body of the male ape. Courtesy of respondents
Li Ruxue and the guide decided to continue to follow. When they reached the edge of a field of grass and fruit, the apes disappeared. Just as he was about to give up, two more cries rang out from the opposite side of the grass and fruit field. The two of them went down into the grass and fruit field and smelled a foul smell.
Ignoring them, the two continued to walk in the direction where the ape's voice came from, a cliff blocking the way forward, and the two prepared to go around. When you return to the grass and fruit field, you will smell the stink again. "There may be animal carcasses." The guide said casually.
"Could it be a chamois?" Li Ruxue asked.
"Wouldn't it be gibbons?" The wizard said.
Until they opened a blade of grass and fruit, the two saw the last thing they wanted to see: the guide said that it was indeed a gibbon corpse with some decay.
This is the first time that the Unsan Center has found unconventional gibbon carcasses in the wild.
Skywalking gibbon activity scene. Photo by Jia Xiang
The law: rats don't look up, apes don't land
The incomprehensible behavior of Li Ruxue that had just happened once again came to his mind.
"In the ape group, the first to sound the alarm is usually the male ape, and the female ape is holding the child and following behind, but this group is the exception, just yelling at us is the female ape, and two black gibbons follow behind." Li Ruxue concluded that the two black gibbons were the children of the female apes.
"Where did the male ape go?" At this moment, he understood. "Why did the female ape holding the baby ape lead us in this direction, just so that we could see the body of the male ape." Li Ruxue guessed.
After calming down a little, Li Ruxue and the guide carefully observed the scene. They saw long scratches on the ground, probably caused by the male ape's struggle before he died.
The two men descended the mountain to a place with a mobile phone signal and reported the news to the Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve in Yunnan. According to the arrangement, they carried the gibbon carcass down in plastic buckets and sent it to the conservation bureau for processing.
After looking again at the teeth and bones of the Tianxing gibbon, Li Ruxue analyzed that the male ape was at least 20 years old.
This inference is also corroborated by this inference: Tianxing Gibbon is sexually mature around eight or nine years old, gives birth to a litter every 5 years or so, and has given birth to 3 children with his wife, at least in his twenties. "With the limit that a Celestial Gibbon can live for 30 years, it has entered its old age." Li Ruxue said.
Moreover, gibbons have few natural enemies in the forest, basically ruling out the possibility of being harmed by other animals. "There is a high probability of natural death."
There is a local saying that "the rat does not look up, the ape does not land", "indicating that it is really old!" Some villagers said.
Wish: A thousand mountains are evergreen, and the apes are singing
After the incident, Li Ruxue was sad and worked harder with the relevant units to devote himself to the protection of the Tianxing gibbon.
The staff of the Management and Conservation Bureau of Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province, together with the Yunshan Center, often enter the village to publicize and give lectures to students at the school; on the walls of the village, the staff draws the outline of the gibbon and invites the villagers to color.
Many years ago, there was a phenomenon of cutting down trees in the village, affecting the habitat of gibbons, and the local party committee and government, including the forestry and grassland department, helped each household install solar energy through financial subsidies; each village had a fixed ranger, who regularly inspected the mountain forest from time to time.
In order to help the people increase their income and become rich, but without affecting the habitat environment of gibbons, the local industrial structure has been adjusted and the forestry industry such as grass and fruits has developed, and their life is getting better and better.
After the habitat was restored, the Skywalker gibbon slowly multiplied. According to observations, since 2018, every year, a Celestial Gibbon has been born. Li Ruxue was happy to see such a scene: "This is a hopeful beginning. ”
As the first ape species named by Chinese scientists, the Tianxing gibbon is taken from "Tianxingjian, a gentleman who strives for self-improvement", which means that the universe is constantly moving, and people should imitate heaven and earth and move forward forever.
The protection of wild animals, including The Celestial Gibbon, should also continue to move forward; the "gentleman" of the Tianxing Gibbon is also looking forward to being able to improve himself and survive tenaciously in the natural world under the protection of humans.
In December 2019, more than half a year after the discovery of the death of the male ape, Li Ruxue's colleagues saw that a male ape that had previously moved alone joined the broken family and formed a new family with the female ape and its three children.
At that time, the baby ape in the arms of its mother was at least 2 and a half years old, and she could run and eat by herself, but many times it was inseparable from its mother.
The father of the gibbon, who has been made into a skeletal specimen, is placed in the Tongbiguan Provincial Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province, so that more people can recognize the species of gibbon.
Li Ruxue prayed that in the land of hope on the Border between China and Myanmar, the new hope left by the father would thrive in this forest.
"May a thousand mountains be evergreen, and the apes roar." At the end, he said.