Rangers' uphill battle to save mountain wildlife

Dangers

The center, in Antu county, Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, employs about 350 people who form 27 teams of rangers across nine stations.

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.