Northeast Tiger in Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park
Northeast Leopard in Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park
Information picture of Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park
Snoring soundly, resting in the warm sun, and taking a leisurely walk by the whole family … Wild Siberian tigers frequently appear in the dense forests in eastern Jilin, and almost every appearance can attract people’s attention. Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park, located in Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, is the only stable habitat and spreading source of wild Northeast Tiger and Leopard in China.
Tigers roar in the mountains and leopards leap in Qingchuan. As a predator at the top of the food chain, the survival state of the Siberian tiger directly reflects the dynamics of the regional ecosystem and is an indicator to measure the local ecological environment and ecological balance. Protecting the Siberian tiger is also protecting biodiversity and improving the ecological environment on which people depend.
General Secretary of the Supreme Leader pointed out that "it is necessary to speed up the construction of a nature reserve system with national parks as the main body and improve the red line supervision system for nature reserves and ecological protection." In October 2021, at the 15th Conference of the Parties to Biodiversity held in Yunnan, the list of the first batch of national parks in China was announced, and the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park became one of the first batch of national parks.
The frequent appearance of wild northeast tigers and leopards reflects that the ecological environment continues to improve and the ecosystem is gradually improved. For a long time, Jilin Province has strengthened the protection of the authenticity and integrity of the natural ecosystem, vigorously protected wild animals such as the Northeast Tiger and the Northeast Leopard, cared for green mountains and green rivers, and protected the natural ecology.
Ecological priority tiger and leopard reproduction
"When I first joined the work, I was still a worker in the forest farm." Zhao Yan, a staff member of the Research Monitoring Center of Hunchun Bureau of Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park Administration, said. In the past 12 years, with the arrangement of job transfer, Zhao Yan has changed from a forest farm worker to a patrolman, and now to a scientific research and monitoring post, which has witnessed the functional transformation of the forest farm from "logging" to "forest protection".
"When I received the transfer notice, I had no time to prepare too much, so I was arranged to follow the masters to the mountains for field investigation. In a blink of an eye, I have been guarding wild animals and deep forests for 12 years. " Zhao Yan said.
Chunhua Town, Hunchun City, Jilin Province, is located in the jurisdiction of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park. Here, warning signs of "Tiger and Leopard, Pay Attention to Safety" can be seen everywhere.
"When I was a child, I rarely saw wild animals, let alone tigers, leopards and bears. Twenty years ago, even the footprints of roe deer and rabbits were rare." Yu Dongxi, a villager in Tumenzi Village, Chunhua Town, said that in recent years, the environment has obviously improved, and the number of wild animals in the mountains has gradually increased. "If you go up the mountain in winter, you can see the footprints of many different animals on the thick snow."
In 2017, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park launched a pilot system, including 19 nature reserves such as Hunchun Nature Reserve, and the area under its jurisdiction was controlled according to the core protected areas and general control areas. The State Administration of Tiger and Leopard in Northeast China was established in the same year, and it uniformly exercises the management responsibilities of national parks and nature reserves within its jurisdiction.
Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park spans Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, with a planned area of about 14,100 square kilometers and a forest coverage rate of 97.74%. It is the historical natural distribution area of Northeast Tiger and Northeast Leopard in China and the only area with wild settled populations and breeding families.
In a short period of four years, great changes have taken place in the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park: the quality of the ecosystem has been further improved, human disturbance activities such as grazing have been continuously reduced, the population of herbivores such as sika deer has increased rapidly, the food chain has been rapidly restored, and the adult rate of Siberian tiger cubs has increased from 33% before the pilot to over 50% at present; The distribution range and quantity of butch and leopard population are growing rapidly. At present, there are stable activities of butch and leopard population in more than 50% areas of national parks, and Hunchun area in the core area of national parks is even more grand.
The achievements of wildlife protection are hard-won. "In 1997 and 1998, the first truly wild tiger population survey in the history of China was carried out in Jilin and eastern Heilongjiang. Researchers from home and abroad learned about the distribution and quantity of Siberian tigers in China through the winter line survey and snow traces. Only five traces were found in Hunchun, near the Sino-Russian border. Therefore, at that time, the researchers believed that there was no Siberian tiger population in China that could reproduce and maintain itself. " Feng Limin, an associate professor and doctoral supervisor at the School of Life Sciences of Beijing Normal University, said.
Over the years, Jilin Province has invested a lot of manpower and material resources to carry out arduous restoration and protection of forest ecology. In 2015, Jilin completely banned commercial logging of natural forests. In the deep snow, the sound of chainsaw logging is far away.
"In 2015, a highway and a high-speed railway planned and built in Jilin Province will pass through the hot spots where wild northeast tigers and leopards inhabit and migrate. Once completed, it will become an insurmountable barrier on the road to the return of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard. " Feng Limin said that after learning about the situation, the research team made suggestions. "Jilin Province attaches great importance to it, and does not hesitate to sacrifice economic interests to make way for the ecology and the protection of tigers and leopards. It cancels the planned expressway and diversions the high-speed rail, which has well maintained the integrity of the key habitats of tigers and leopards and the smoothness of the diffusion route."
According to the monitoring data of Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park, by the end of 2021, the number of wild Amur tigers and leopards in the park had increased from 27 and 42 at the time of the pilot to 50 and 60 respectively, and more than 10 newly bred cubs and more than 7 cubs were monitored.
Scientific monitoring and full-time protection
"Communication depends on snoring, patrol depends on walking, cold protection depends on shaking, and safety depends on dogs." This is a true portrayal of nature conservation management in the past. "The area where the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park is located is mostly mountainous, with remote geographical location and weak transportation infrastructure." Feng Limin said that more than a decade ago, people were more dependent on entering the forest, then installing and maintaining equipment, and conducting sample lines and sample plots surveys. It takes a lot of time to collect data and replace equipment batteries in the mountains, but in a short time, only small samples can be obtained in a small area. "Traditional scientific research monitoring methods, theoretical systems and protection practices are difficult to keep up with the actual needs of national park construction."
In 2006, Feng Limin, who was studying for a doctoral degree at Beijing Normal University, came to the snowfield of Linhai in the northeast to pursue the trail of the Northeast Tiger.
"For more than ten years, as the head of the field investigation team, I led the team members to trek in the mountains and forests. In 2005, we purchased a batch of trigger infrared cameras and completed the erection. In this way, after people leave, wild animals will leave images in front of the camera without interference, so that researchers can obtain accurate information such as the time, place and behavior of the target. " Feng Limin introduced.
Through the infrared camera, in 2007, the team harvested the first photo of the wild Siberian tiger; In 2010, the first photo of Northeast Leopard was harvested; In 2012, the first Siberian tiger breeding family was discovered. "From 2012 to 2014, we obtained thousands of video data of tigers and leopards, and identified at least 27 Amur tigers and 42 Amur leopards in China, confirming for the first time that there are breeding populations of Amur tigers and Amur leopards in China." Feng Limin said.
On this basis, after several years of experiments and demonstrations, the research team has integrated modern communication, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, big data analysis and other technologies to form an integrated monitoring system of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park. This monitoring system can not only monitor the activities of wild animals such as tigers and leopards in Northeast China in a long distance and in a large area, but also obtain information on biodiversity, various ecological elements and human activities in real time.
At the beginning of this year, a wild Siberian tiger video was "screened" on the Internet. A wild Siberian tiger cub is sleeping soundly in the clear snow and deep in the forest. The tiger mother waiting by lies on the snow and basks in the sun lazily. The warm picture was sent back through the integrated monitoring system of heaven, earth and air in Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park.
With the full-time monitoring of the integrated monitoring system of heaven, earth and air, protectors can get the latest situation in the national park, but many specific tasks need to be completed by rangers in the vast forest.
"This step is relatively short, and the width of the palm pad is between 8.5 and 9.5 cm. It should be a female Siberian tiger." "According to the comparison of the side torso patterns, these videos are not the same Siberian tiger." Look at the footprints of tigers and leopards and distinguish between males and females and the route of travel; Observing the surrounding environment and judging the hidden position of the hunting set … Working outdoors all the year round, Zhao Yan has long been familiar with the habits of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard.
Once, Zhao Yan and his colleagues strayed into the territory of a tigress with a cub. "Suddenly, I heard a deep roar from the forest. When I looked up, I saw the shadow flash and disappear into the Woods. " Recalling the experience of passing by the Northeast Tiger, Zhao Yan still has a lingering fear. "Lao shifu, this may be a strong warning from the tiger, and I’m afraid I will be attacked if I go any further. We quickly turned back, and without going out of 200 meters, we found traces of a female tiger with three cubs. "
Daily cleaning, supplementary feeding in winter, and cracking down on poaching … Whether it is midsummer or winter, the patrolmen constantly shuttle through the dense forest and track for shadows, just to protect tigers and leopards. The rangers divided the forest area into grids, and searched and cleaned the hunting covers, hunting clips, sticky nets and poisonous baits in the area in a carpet way. During the mountain cleaning operation, members of each group should keep a safe distance, and record the GPS waypoint information and image data in detail and accurately to ensure that "one piece is clear and one piece is clean". In this unique habitat of wild Siberian tigers and leopards in China, more than 6,800 patrolmen guard it day and night.
After experiencing the ecological restoration, under the long-term propaganda of the patrol, more and more local people have joined the protection team to protect the forest at home.
Co-construction, Sharing and Harmonious Symbiosis
"The Siberian tiger is a rare and endangered wild animal under special protection in China, a flagship species for biodiversity protection and a symbol of the health of temperate forest ecosystems." Kong Weiyao, an expert from the Ecological Protection Department of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park Administration, said, "The living state of the Northeast Tiger directly reflects the dynamics of the regional ecosystem and is an indicator to measure the local ecological environment and ecological balance. The restoration of the natural population of the Northeast Tiger requires rich forest vegetation and prey population and a better social surrounding environment. "
"The protection of tigers and leopards has never only protected tigers and leopards, but involved the improvement of the entire forest ecosystem." Feng Limin holds the same view. He said that "the protection of top species such as the Northeast Tiger and Leopard is a very challenging undertaking all over the world. An adult Siberian tiger needs a very large territory area, even reaching thousands of square kilometers. "
Green mountains and clear waters make tigers and leopards flourish. According to statistics, since the pilot, Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces have restored and cultivated 400 hectares of top forest communities, planted 2,000 hectares of Korean pine under forests, built 3 wildlife passages, and closed 19 mining enterprises. 2,243.21 hectares of forest (ginseng) land have been reclaimed, 620.91 hectares of mine ecological restoration and 741 hectares of ecological restoration area, and the habitat environment of wild animals has been further improved.
"At the end of October every year, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park will launch a six-month special campaign to clear the mountains and crack down on illegal activities such as poaching. By the end of 2021, we had carried out more than 40,000 anti-poaching patrols, with a cumulative patrol mileage of more than 160,000 kilometers, and the encounter rate of hunting sets decreased by 97.67% compared with that before the pilot. " Kong Weiyao introduced to reporters.
The vast forest, people and tigers coexist. Coordinating protection and development, Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park will jointly protect the rights and interests of residents and avoid "human-tiger conflict". In recent years, with the promotion of many parties, positive progress has been made in industrial green transformation and development, "human-tiger safety" protection and people’s livelihood projects, and people and nature have achieved harmonious coexistence.
In 2021, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park introduced an insurance mechanism to solve the problems of ecological compensation and damage compensation. Initially establish a wildlife damage insurance mechanism, entrust Anhua Insurance Company to set up special insurance subjects, and the insurance company will compensate the masses for the damage caused to wildlife in the area according to the maximum amount of five times the premium. Prior to this, the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park has co-ordinated funds to fully guarantee the compensation for animal damage.
"In Yanbian Prefecture, Jilin Province, we guided the local area to carry out the work of cattle going down the mountain to avoid the damage of grazing to the ecological environment. Eight centralized breeding sites of yellow cattle were selected and housed in captivity. In 2021, the number of loose cattle in national parks decreased by 16,000, a decrease of 18.6%. " Kong Weiyao told reporters, "At the same time, we focus on developing ecological experience and nature education, providing special visitor reception services, and realizing local residents’ job transfer."
The relevant person in charge of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park said, "From now until 2025, we will integrate nature reserves and state-owned forest farms, carry out habitat protection and restoration projects, build the Northeast Tiger and Leopard Ecological Corridor, enhance the suitability and connectivity of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard habitats, and realize the stable reproduction of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard." (People’s Daily reporter Zhu Sixiong Meng Haiying Zheng Zhiwen)
