Rangers' uphill battle to save mountain wildlife

Sun Jiali is deputy head of the station that oversees Xu's team. He has worked with Xu for 14 years, during which he has learned about the life-threatening incidents and other dangers and difficulties that frequently trouble the animal-feeding teams when they are in the mountains.

In spring last year, Sun and five other team members had just dropped off supplies at a feeding spot when they became aware of a bear standing near the riverbank about 20 meters away.

"My hair stood on end at the mere sight of it because I'd heard about a ranger from another team who nearly died after being attacked by a bear. We banded together immediately and shouted at it as loud as we could. Fortunately, it seemed startled and quickly left the area," he said.

In addition to the threat posed by wild animals, another regular challenge is getting lost in the mountains. That used to be a frequent occurrence, even for an experienced ranger like Sun.

"Before 2016 we were not equipped with GPS, so we often got lost in the forest even though we patrolled the same area every day. It was very easy to mistake one path for another. Often, we had to sleep in a tent and try to find a way out the next morning," he recalled.

Modernization

Now, both the rangers' equipment and salaries have improved. Every team is equipped with handsets, GPS devices, tents and down-filled sleeping bags. The rangers earn about 3,000 yuan ($446) a month, plus a subsidy of 20 yuan each day they leave base and trek in the mountains, according to the center.

However, compared with other, less arduous work, some new rangers say the salary isn't worth all the hardships they endure, so they quit and find other jobs