Zhong Tai (third from left) and the rangers are having dinner during the field patrol.
Photo by Yu Fengqin (People’s Vision)
Not long ago, Zhong Tai, deputy director of the Management and Protection Bureau of Yunnan Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve, retired. He was recruited into the reserve at the age of 17 and worked in nature conservation for 38 years in the snowy plateau.
Yunnan snub-nosed monkey with pink lips and big eyes is a national first-class protected wild animal. In the past 25 years, Yunnan golden monkey has increased from 1000 to 1500 in 13 populations to more than 3300 in 23 populations, of which about 60% live in Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve.
Travel around the mountains looking for monkeys.
"He can’t stay in the office. He runs to the mountains whenever he has time." Changlong Xinhua, the resource protection section of the Protected Area Management and Protection Bureau, said.
In 1983, Baima Snow Mountain Provincial Nature Reserve was established, and one of its original intentions was to protect Yunnan golden monkey. But at that time, no one in the reserve had seen Yunnan golden monkey, and the research could only be carried out according to the skin and skeleton. In the same year, Zhong Tai, a Tibetan youth who graduated from junior high school, was recruited into the reserve. Born in the rural area of Foshan Township, Deqin County, Yunnan Province, he told reporters: "My hometown Bamei Village is beautiful, and there is a group of Yunnan golden monkeys there."
Zhong Tai was assigned to Yeri Protection Station in Benzilan Town, Deqin County. When he got off the highway, he had to drive mules and horses with supplies for three days to get there. At that time, there was no office space in the protection station, and four staff members, including Zhong Tai, needed to ram the earth wall to build it themselves. At that time, there was no electricity in Yeri Village, and the firewood burned in winter had to be picked up in the back mountain. The reporter saw on the winding mountain road that the protection station in that year stood in a deep mountain valley, and the mountain where firewood was picked up was hundreds of meters vertically. The mountain was steep and it was very difficult to climb by hand.
It is more difficult to find monkeys. Yunnan golden monkey mainly inhabits forests above 3000 meters above sea level. A group of monkeys has a territory of dozens of square kilometers. Even if they are occasionally seen on the plateau with deep valleys and cliffs, they will disappear without a trace in an instant.
Since 1985, 10 people have been transferred from the reserve to carry out field research with experts such as Bai Shouchang from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. They walked in the mountains for ten days with many items that survived in the wild on their backs. On rainy days, the mountains are foggy and the visibility is only a few meters. They can only sleep under trees and rocks. And it is difficult to trudge long distances on the mountain at an altitude of about 4000 meters, panting and stepping …
In the past few years, although a lot has been paid, the Yunnan golden monkey is still hard to find, and everyone has quit one after another, but Zhong Tai has been silently sticking to it. In June 1985, he first observed the wild Yunnan golden monkey group at close range. At that time, under the guidance of an old hunter, Zhong Tai searched for monkeys alone and became the first staff member in the reserve to see Yunnan golden monkey. He followed it for five days and nights. Later, he sorted out the observed life habits of Yunnan golden monkey population and published a paper on the behavior habits of Yunnan golden monkey in combination with the research of researchers.
The long and narrow area from Mangkang County in Tibet to Yunlong County in Yunnan Province in the north is the activity range of Yunnan golden monkey, and it is also a hot spot of global biodiversity. Zhong Taihe, together with his colleague Xiao Lin, followed Long Yongcheng and other researchers from Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and traveled around 20,000 square kilometers of forests in the north of western Yunnan, and found more and more Yunnan golden monkeys, laying the foundation for the protection and research of Yunnan golden monkeys.
Six Jin, a retired employee of Lisu nationality in Benzilan Management Office of Management and Protection Bureau, told a reporter about an experience. In October, 2008, in order to make Wuyapuya population, a Yunnan golden monkey population that has been moving northward and overflowing the reserve, "go home", Zhong Tai and a dozen people tried their best to "persuade" the monkeys in the mountains. He and Liu Jin lost their way in the mountains, looking for monkeys, and Liu Jin also lost their equipment: tents, cookers, dry food and water were all gone! The night was steep in the black hills. After meeting by the light of a lighter, the two men spent a day in the mountains exhausted. Six pounds nearly fainted, and Zhong Tai pulled him over the mountain ridge and was finally rescued. "At that time, there was a serious shortage of water. Opening your mouth would make you thirsty. Closing it and opening it again would tear your lips. We were speechless. It was Director Zhong who saved my life." Six pounds said.
Explore the community condominium model
Mao Wei, deputy director of the reserve management and protection bureau, said that before, the protection of Yunnan golden monkey faced two key problems: one was to prevent poaching, and the other was to help villagers in and around the reserve develop their economy and reduce resource dependence and environmental damage on Baima Snow Mountain. He introduced that in that year, more than 70,000 people lived on the resources of the reserve, including firewood, building materials and land for agriculture and animal husbandry. In addition, the protected area has an area of more than 280,000 hectares, and there is not enough manpower to rely on more than 130 cadres and workers of the Management and Protection Bureau.
In the crisp autumn, the reporter came to the Shusong Village Committee of Benzilan Town to connect with the water pile group, but saw farmers scattered all over the mountains and valleys. The 53-year-old villager Zha Shiding was embarrassed to mention the past. He said that in the past, charcoal was burned and sold in the village. After the natural forest was banned, the villagers secretly cut wood and transported it out with tractors to sell it to nearby brick factories.
In the eighties and nineties of last century, the surrounding villagers began to pick up pine mushrooms and sell them for money. Tongdui Shuiren also thought it was faster to cut wood and sell them for money. In order to solve the problem, Zhong Tai began to explore the road of "community condominium". He chose Tongdui water as a demonstration, "gnawing at the hardest bones", specially took people to station in the village and held a villagers’ meeting for 7 days to ask everyone’s thoughts. The villagers talked about the difficulty of draught and the lack of mountains. With the help of project funds, Zhong Tai led the villagers to divert water and build terraces. "Director Zhong’s farm work is no worse than that of the villagers, and something will be discussed with us." Mr. Zha Shiding said, "The difficulties in the village have been solved. The villagers have stopped cutting wood and planted a forest spontaneously, and they take turns to patrol the mountains voluntarily every year."
Zhong Tai began to explore "community condominium" in 1999. For more than 20 years, he has always regarded it as his duty to help local people get rid of poverty and become rich. Under his influence, the eldest son Nimali also entered the reserve to work, and now he is the director of the management office of Benzilan. Nima told reporters here: "My father’s generation can bear hardships and have a good relationship with the people in the community. Now many ordinary people see me and call me’ Zhong Tai’s son’."
Form an important scientific research platform
After years of protection and research work, Zhong Tai has become a forestry engineer and an expert in the research and protection of Yunnan golden monkey, and has published more than 10 articles in domestic and foreign journals. This is not only due to his long-term field patrol experience, but also related to his exchanges and cooperation with scientific researchers and rich management practice.
In November, 1991, a snow mountain observation camp was established here. Scholars conducted a three-year field study of Yunnan golden monkey. Zhong Tai, Xiao Lin, Long Yongcheng and the guide Pei Chu formed a team, and the camp was built on a mountain at an altitude of 4,300 meters.
How did you persist at that time? Zhong Tai told reporters: "One is young, and the other is always thinking about learning more knowledge." Moved by his sincerity and eagerness to learn, with the help of experts such as Yang Yuming of Southwest Forestry College at that time, in July 2000, Zhong Tai finished college majoring in resource management in Southwest Forestry College Nature Reserve, and the credits of this course were not bad.
In 2008, Zhong Tai was transferred to the director of Weixi Branch of the Management and Protection Bureau to take over the management and protection of the Yunnan golden monkey Xiangguqing display population-at that time, the health of monkeys deteriorated and experts from all walks of life were at a loss. Zhong Tai asked the local Lisu villagers how to treat diarrhea in domestic animals, and he and his colleagues found a way to treat Yunnan golden monkey with sumac seeds and pumpkin seeds, and patiently guided Yunnan golden monkey to eat eggs to supplement nutrition, which expanded the range of monkey activities and showed that the population was becoming more and more prosperous. Since the beginning of this year, 11 little monkeys have been born in this population.
In the Xiangguqing villagers’ group in Tacheng Town, Weixi Lisu Autonomous County, the ranger who was in charge of caring for and displaying the monkeys told the reporter: At that time, Zhongtai ate and lived in Xiangguqing, and he also distributed the monkeys to specific rangers to take care of them, and the responsibility lay with people. Rangers have been with Yunnan golden monkeys for a long time and can name each monkey. Showing monkeys in Xiangguqing has become an important platform for the scientific research of Yunnan golden monkey in China, and many researchers from scientific research institutions and universities will come here to work.
Zhongtai’s 38-year protection experience also witnessed the construction process of a relatively complete protection system from scratch. At present, the protection system of Yunnan golden monkey in Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve has three parts: resource management and protection, scientific research and helping community villagers develop.
In 2013, Zhong Tai was named the eighth national "Civil Servant Satisfied by the People". In 2015, when he learned that he was nominated for a wildlife protection award, he gave the opportunity to Yu Jianhua, a local farmer who used to hunt and now protects monkeys. In Baima Snow Mountain National Nature Reserve, colleagues and villagers sincerely respect Zhong Tai. Speaking of her husband, Zhong Tai’s wife said: "He has so many people in the reserve who are respectful and willing to listen quietly when he speaks. We are satisfied."
People’s Daily (14th edition, November 01, 2021)