A Life Devoted to Protecting the Snub-nosed Monkey

Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys. Dixuan Uncredited photos by Yu Xiangjun

“In 2015, we installed infrared cameras in the wilderness, and captured images of legendary rare animals like the black bear, lesser panda, rhesus monkey, and white belly pheasant.” Yu Zhonghua always lights up at the mention of these unexpected bonuses. At the end of this busy season, Yu and his colleagues will collect the cameras they put in place in 2016. He is very much looking forward to seeing the pictures.

Changes in the village also give Yu Zhonghua hope. “Thanks to our country’s targeted poverty alleviation efforts, formerly poor rural households are now all equipped with wood-saving stoves and solar water heaters. Local people living in the nature reserve now also largely refrain from cutting firewood, and instead walk a longer distance to collect dry kindling,” Yu said. In the past villagers balked at burning rotten wood in their self-made stoves because of the difficulty in lighting it and the thick smoke it gave off. Since the government resolved the stove problem, villagers have willingly cooperated with its call for ecological protection.

Yu Zhonghua works six km from his home, and travels there by motorcycle. Apart from his work outside, he also goes to the office to complete investigation reports. “It perplexes me that my father has stuck to this work for 20 years. When ranging the forest, I find it hard to keep up with him,” Yu Zhonghua said. He has also witnessed other evident progress thanks to his father’s efforts. “In the past it usually took people a week to find a monkey, but now you have to fend off the colonies that surround you.”

In 2011, Yu Jianhua was named at a provincial environmental protection award event as one of 10 outstanding figures in this respect. It is one of the few awards Yu has garnered over the past 20 years. Holding the trophy, he said it serves as recognition of his work, but that one such token is enough.