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(cont.)
Entering the world of wild animals
Since China's reform and opening up in the mid 1970s, many international wildlife institutions and conservation organisations requested academic exchange with China. However there was a lack of systematic studies, and a nationwide faunal survey became necessary. With its rich fauna, Guangxi was among the first batch of survey areas.
Silver Pheasant, Lophura nycthemera |
In 1976, the then Head of the Forestry Department of Guangxi, Mr Zhang Hua, invited Wu to undertake the survey. "I told him I had only received eight hours' training on forest wildlife in the university, and saw animals I couldn't identify when conducting plant surveys, so was afraid I could not take up the mission. Yet Mr Zhang interrupted me saying I was already better qualified than him! He asked me to think over the task for a few days and let him know if I had any difficulties or needed anything."
Wu then began again, in the world of zoology. Guangxi was the only province where surveys were conducted by the Forestry Ministry - in other provinces, the work was mainly carried out by scientific research institutes, like the South China Institute in Guangdong. Most provinces already had the basic information, therefore only some focused surveys were required. Without a foundation, the work in Guangxi had to start from scratch which doubled the difficulties.
Wu asked to visit the animal research centres in southern China, Kunming and Beijing to learn about wild animals and the skills of specimen making. The Forestry Ministry allocated 3,000 RMB for purchasing vehicles and other equipment for conducting field study. (At that time, Wu's monthly salary was around 60 RMB and the air ticket from Guangxi to Guangzhou was about 40 RMB.)
A team was lined up and the first task was to hunt animals. "When we talked about wild animals in front of government officials, specimens were the most convincing scientific proof."
Wu has collated several hundreds photos of rare plants and animals taken in the wild, to facilitate the public education in schools |
According to Wu, the task of hunting animals was far more difficult and dangerous than collecting plants. If a tree was very tall, he could seek help from others; to research animals, he had to bring along guns and knives. If either people or animals got hurt, it could be a big problem. When tracking an animal, you don't have much time to think, and this was particularly dangerous. "Different types of gun have different ranges. Usually we would shoot from 60m away at a target of only 1m2. But we needed to use different guns for hunting animals of different sizes..." To me, it sounded complicated enough. To Wu, who had not used a gun before, that was the easiest part of his mission. To hunt animals, you need to know where they are.
Research can definitely help. Wu visited animal skin
warehouses in different districts in order to get an idea
what species and how many skins they purchased each
year. "Since they didn't have the expertise, various types
of skins were categorised under the group miscellaneous'.
Only the expensive ones like Leopard Cat4 were
differentiated from others." Wu then asked the experienced
buyers about the origin of the skins. "They could tell me
which production team from which village of which
district was the biggest supplier, and that was a clue." After
further analysing the information from those warehouses,
Wu could get a general picture of the distribution of
various animals and quickly track down all those on the
wanted list.
"Usually it took two weeks to one month at most in a
forest to get the animals. But without a background search
beforehand, it was like looking for a needle in a haystack."
Wu has compiled some baseline data, such as the quantity
and types of animal skins purchased, figures of hunters,
guns, hunting dogs, and production teams of every county
in past years. He hopes further analysis can be conducted
in future in which some interesting trends and issues of
scientific significance can be identified.
Nowadays many wild animals are protected and so hunting
them is illegal. Yet according to Wu, the truth is "wild
animals are without masters. So who hunts them, can
have them." When Wu and his team conducted a survey
in a forest, on the first night, they would call a "hunters'
gathering". Participants were villagers nearby. "They are
excellent hunters. Although they may not be able to call
out the name of the animals or may mistake some species
like the pheasants, they can identify 80% of them with
the help of photos or pictures." Sometimes, Wu gave them
promotional materials on forest conservation. Yet usually
the hunters would use them for fire making. Reading?
Not interested!
Wu among the collection of over
1,600 specimens. 600 of there
are now kept in Guangxi Normal
University, while the remaining
are in the specimen room where
Wu works, including this Greater
Spotted Eagle (Aquila clanga). |
Guided by local villagers, it would not take long to locate
promising habitats. The survey team then looked carefully
for signs including scats, footprints, scratches, etc. "All
creatures leave marks. For instance, civet scats contain
feathers or hair from their prey, like birds and rats. Since
they are active among rocks, we could target some spots
and wait for their appearance."
When hunting, although Wu didn't yet have any strong
conception about "conservation", he stuck to the principle
enough's enough'. For instance, when they spotted a
group of three Sambar Deer5, they would only shoot
one of them. "Over-hunting would cause damage to the
environment. Besides, if we hunted many animals, the local
villagers would think we were hunting for food. Therefore,
we wouldn't take more than enough." Yet Wu admitted
that sometimes they had to be realistic. "When working
in a mountain without food, we had no choice but shoot
animals like Silver Pheasant6."
Good relations
In a decade, Wu and his team completed an 800,000-km
odyssey. They conducted non-stop surveys across 96
counties and cities including numerous remote areas. As a
result, they successfully got a general picture of the animal
resources in Guangxi. They collected more than 1,600
specimens, surveying over 600 species of birds and animals.
Many were newly discovered in Guangxi or protected
species like the Silver Pheasant and Hume's Pheasant,7 or
rare endemics like the White-headed Leaf Monkey8 and
Chinese Crocodile Lizard.9 Based on the data collected,
a total of 56 protected areas were also established. "All
this helped promote education about conservation and
ecological balance, and spur leaders who knew nothing
about wildlife to do a better job," said Wu. The specimens
also caught the attention of scholars in the U.S., Japan
and Vietnam. They flew in to carry out collaborative
research which facilitated international academic exchange
afterwards.
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