The Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve in Deqin county within the Diqing Tibetan autonomous prefecture, north-west Yunnan province is known as a paradise for the black snub-nosed monkey, one of China’s first-class protected species.
According to a green book on the protection of black snub-nosed monkeys published in April 2021, the number of endangered black snub-nosed monkeys in Yunnan now surpasses 3,300. In fact, the total population of this primate species has continually increased since the late 1980s, and by 1996, the number stood at between 1,000 and 1,500.
The favourable conditions for the monkey’s population would not have been achieved without years of diligent protection efforts as taken by local residents. Yu Jianhua and his son, Yu Zhonghua, are two of the many individuals who have dedicated themselves to the protection of the animals.
The rangers have followed a work schedule that includes such activities as patrolling the forests, protecting animals, eliminating illegal poaching and preventing wildfires. Not all of them were rangers at the beginning, and in fact, some of them used to make a living by hunting, such as Yu Jianhua.
After Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve was established in 1983, residents of Xiangguqing village in Weixi county, a nine-hour drive from the provincial capital of Kunming, bid farewell to hunting, with some of them transforming into rangers.
In 1997, the local forestry authority persuaded Yu Jianhua to stop hunting and become a ranger. Yu was paid 180 yuan (about 28 U.S. dollars) a month at first. It was not an easy job for the full-time ranger as he often got up to work at 4 am.
As he had been a hunter, Yu knew very well where traps had been placed and how to avoid them. He would dismantle a lot of traps so that the forest could became a safer place for the monkeys. Furthermore, after observing the monkeys for a long period of time, Yu became capable of determining at what point the monkeys had passed by and where they were likely heading for by taking note of their droppings and tree leaves on the ground as clues.
Inspired by Yu, more and more villagers became rangers. But as he grew old, Yu became concerned about who would take over his responsibilities from him. Forest ranging was a dangerous and boring job that paid low salaries. Moreover, one had to withstand long periods of loneliness and even face complaints from their families while away.
Yu Jianhua thought his son, Yu Zhonghua, was a perfect candidate. He did a lot of work to persuade his son to quit his job and come back to his hometown. The younger Yu, who was younger than 20 years old then, returned home in 2003, without knowing what was waiting for him.
However, after knowing that he was going to be working with his father to protect the black snub-nosed monkey, Yu Zhonghua accepted the offer without hesitation. “The monkeys are an endemic species in our locality, so I thought I was doing something meaningful by protecting them. Two years later, I fell deeply for the monkeys,” Yu expressed.
Yu said he had taken a lot of pleasure in his work. For him, walking 40 to 50 kilometers a day, eating wild vegetables, and sleeping in nature are like travelling nonstop.
Over the past years, Yu has assisted a research team to study the black snub-nosed monkeys, rescued two trapped monkeys, and worked as a tour guide to relay knowledge about the monkeys to visitors.