Guardian of hoolock gibbons in Mt. Daniang

At the end of December, 2020, a team of wildlife photographers saw a pair of skywalker hoolock gibbons foraging and playing together in the Xiangbai village of Yingjiang County, west Yunnan’s Dehong Dai and Jingpo autonomous prefecture. And it was confirmed by zoologists that the mother-child pair is the very same one spotted two years ago.

The little hoolock gibbon was born in December 2018, and now it’s two years old,” said Fan Pengfei, a professor at the School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-Sen University. Following its birth, the hoolock gibbon family had as many as six members, the biggest such family ever known in China.

As for other members of the gibbon family, Yu Zhongfu, a local Lisu ranger, has seen them all. A Xiangbai villager, Yu was hired as a ranger at the Tongbiguan nature reserve. And since then, he has watched the mountains and protected the forest and hoolock gibbons, becoming a gibbon guardian.

“Recently, a female gibbon of the family went down to live with another group, and she might get pregnant.” Upright and honest, Yu Zhongfu is usually reserved, but he would get talkative when it comes to the skywalker gibbons.

Yu noted that “Lisu ethnic folks live in the mountains from generation to generation, and since childhood we’ve been aspired to protect the mountains and forest.” He matched the words with his actions.

The skywalker hoolock gibbon is a wild animal under the first-class state protection in China, and it is the only anthropoid named by Chinese scientists. In the country, the hoolock gibbons mainly live in the Daniang Mountain in Yingjiang County and parts of the Gaoligong Mountain, with a population of less than 150.

Yu Zhongfu is responsible for the lush but challenging Daniang area that shares a long border with Myanmar. Without road access, it takes him a whole day to finish each patrol trekking, with his meals being a small pack of rice, some cured vegetables and a pot of hot water. During his prolonged patrol journeys day after day, Yu has worn out many pairs of shoes and sweated much, but he has never complained.

The seemingly scribbles on his patrol notebook are full of useful information: the sites of animal discoveries, the traces left by animals, the potential dangers, the animal trails, the whereabouts of the infrared cameras, and more.

Through various means, Yu has got known about the gibbon dispositions, recorded their daily routines and reported what has been noticed. In this way, he provided effective data in studying and protecting the skywalker hoolock gibbons. Meanwhile, Yu has brought into full play his linguistic advantage. By facilitating the policy publicity activities of the nature reserve among villagers, he has been chosen as the group leader of hoolock gibbon guardians.

Trekking through the thick woods and getting along with the gibbons all day long, Yu Zhongfu has concluded a set of ways to trace out the rare species. During a monitoring mission, Yu was guiding a scientist group in the mountain. When all of them were anxious about if they could finally see the gibbon, he made some special callings in the dark wood, which were soon responded by some hoolock gibbons. As the callings were resonated among the wild population, the scientists caught sight of the gibbon figures.

Besides monitoring hoolock gibbons, Yu also tried his best to protect their habitats. He led local villagers in planting the trees whose leaves are favored by the gibbon, so that a better living environment will be created for the species.

Fourteen years on, Yu has stuck to his original aspiration of “being a mountain protector,” safeguarding the immense vegetation and the cute skywalkers in the Daniang mountain.

Reporting by Yang Cunjuan (Yingjiang All-Media Center); Xinhua photos; Trans-editing by Wang Shixue