High on the hoolock
By Chen Liang (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-11 10:08
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On the morning of May 15, Li left the station with his field rations, sleeping bag, tripod and camera as usual and came to a forested area where the hoolocks had been sighted recently. But, except for hearing their calls several times, he got nothing that day. He decided to spend the night in the woods and try his luck the next morning.
On May 16, he was rewarded by the sight of a buff-colored female and a black male. He clicked away, happily. Those are the first recorded pictures of the animal in the wild in China.
"I was (at that time) still unfamiliar with the landscape in the 2,000-hectare forest under our patrol station," says the man of medium build. "But since then, I have been to most of the valleys and ridges of Nankang."
He has captured the life of four hoolocks - a family of three and a single female - living in that part of the Gaoligong reserve in more than 1,200 photos and 100 minutes of video footage. Through these, researchers have figured out that a baby gibbon was born between October and November, 2005 and that the couple mated in February, 2008, producing another baby in November, 2008. The first gibbon left the area in early 2008.
After tracking, monitoring and photographing the primate for more than a year, Li now knows that gibbons live together in pairs, and stake out territory. Their calls are meant to locate family members and warn off other gibbons from their territory. Their diet consists mainly of fruits, insects and leaves. "The hoolocks are good weather forecasters," he says. "You know it is going to rain when their calls increase dramatically."
Besides the gibbons, Li has also photographed five other primate species and birds distributed in the area.
"Of the 24 primate species distributed in the country, six can be found in Nankang," Li says. "Besides hoolocks, there's the Phayre's langur, Assam macaque, stump-tailed macaque, Tibetan macaque, and slow loris. I have photos and videos of all of them."
Thanks to the efforts of Li and his colleagues, Nankang has become one of the foremost areas in the country for primate research. While the number of gibbons remains stable, the numbers of other monkeys have increased. "For example, the population of Assam macaques has increased from about 20 in 2005 to nearly 50 last year," he says.
In January, 2007, a hoolock gibbon research center was established at Nankang, and in February of that year, the Gaoligong Nature Park, including the center, was opened to the public.
"We hope the park can serve as our base for scientific research, environmental education, and conservation," says Ai Huaiseng, director of the reserve's Baoshan administration.
Li is now the park's manager and says that on the first day of the Spring Festival, more than 1,000 people visited. Many of Li's photographs are displayed at the entrance.
Li continues to work as hard as before. He rarely returns to his home in Baoshan city. "I go home only because I have business in Baoshan. My wife, a teacher, visits me during her holidays," he says.
He still goes searching for the hoolocks almost every day.
"After all these years, they are still a mystery to me," he says.