"The old elephant came last night! Wang Shaokuan, a villager in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, could not hide his excitement. It turned out that a herd of wild Asian elephants had just visited the bean fields in the village.
The village belongs to Dadugang Township, close to the Mengyang Nature Reserve, here, "elephant haunting" is not an uncommon thing, but this time, the old elephants are very close to the village, and they have left a lot of traces of visiting!
Wild elephant footprints. Following Wang Shaokuan, the staff of the Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Conservation Association and the International Animal Protection Association walked along the steep and muddy path to the scene of the incident.
Before they got closer, everyone had already smelled a special stench, and Cao Dafan, who had many years of experience in Asian elephant conservation, soon found the smell of ** - a few piles of fresh elephant dung.
Looks like I came in the middle of the night last night! Cao Dafan pointed to the traces next to the elephant dung and said, "The toe prints are still very clear." ”
Fresh elephant dung.
The closer you get to the bean field, the more messy the scene becomes, in addition to the messy elephant footprints in the field, even the bean shelves are staggered by the reckless "big guys".
Put the shelves up, will these beans still have to be made? ”
Hearing the staff's questions, Wang Shaokuan smiled helplessly, "If the shelf is erected again, the beans will not survive." Although I feel a little sorry for the beans that are about to ripen, for Wang Shaokuan, who has been living here, it has long been a habit for the elephants to harvest crops in advance.
Fortunately, the insurance company will pay some compensation, plus beekeeping and photovoltaic projects supported by the first club, which can make up for some economic losses.
Wang Shaokuan took photographs of farmland destroyed by elephant herds.
There were probably five or six of the elephants that came yesterday, but fortunately we were warned in advance. ”
Wang Shaokuan said as he looked at the dense forest not far away, "It should be from there." ”
Wang Shaokuan's early warning is the Asian elephant monitoring and early warning system, which is a set of infrared camera automatic capture, cloud rapid intelligent identification, broadcast intelligent early warning of Asian elephant monitoring and early warning system, in the elephant frequent village around a total of more than 140 intelligent broadcast points, the system detects the traces of elephants, will notify the villagers in time through the broadcast.
With this system, human-elephant conflicts have been significantly reduced, and although elephant visits still cause economic losses to villagers, as long as the early warning prompts are followed, the threat to personal safety caused by chance encounters with elephants in the wild can be avoided as much as possible.
Early warning broadcasts. The harmonious coexistence of humans and wild animals is inseparable from the support of science and technology, and even more inseparable from the hard work of Asian elephant monitors. Dadugang Township has a special geographical location, belongs to the Asian elephant channel, and has become one of the favorite habitats and activity places for wild elephants due to its unique climate and species resources.
According to statistics, there are more than 40 wild Asian elephants in the jurisdiction of Dadugang Township all year round, and the largest number of Asian elephants is 70 a day. However, due to the large population, scattered distribution and wide range of Asian elephants, it has brought great challenges to the monitoring of local Asian elephants.
Elephant herds on the move.
At present, Dadugang Township is equipped with 4 Asian elephant monitors, 2 of which are part-time monitors, due to the small number of personnel, the monitoring equipment is backward, mainly according to the past way, relying on people to track and monitor the whereabouts of wild elephants, not only is it very difficult, but also there are huge safety risks.
Asian elephant monitors work in the field.
It is understood that in terms of strengthening monitoring and early warning, Dadugang Township hopes to equip the monitors with two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which can ensure that the monitors can track the traces of wild elephant activities more safely and efficiently, and timely warn or find wild elephants that need to be treated. Because, while protecting the elephants, we are also protecting the villagers and the monitors themselves.
Text: Cai Min, Author's Affiliation: Xishuangbanna Tropical Rainforest Protection Association).