Rescued monkey joins ranger team after recovery

A little rhesus monkey has become a new member of the ranger team after being rescued, joining the forest patrol in the Shennongjia National Park, Hubei province.

The Shennongjia National Park, covering over 3,000 square kilometers, is a protected primary forest renowned for its biodiversity. With 96 percent forest coverage, the park is home to over 5,000 species of wild animals.

To protect the forest and its wildlife, rangers from different stations are assigned to patrol various forestry areas.

The young rhesus monkey was found alone in August during a routine patrol by Zhuang Youyi, a ranger at the Longxi ranger station. It had severe injuries to its hind legs and was unable to climb. Zhuang took it to the park's national key protected wildlife monitoring station located at the Baicaoyuan ranger station in the Wenshui forestry area.

Over the past three months, Tan Mingkuan, a ranger at the Baicaoyuan station, has been caring for the monkey. It has been given a name: Houjian. "The name carries the hope for good health and no sickness," Tan said.

Tan has learned wildlife rescue techniques through online resources and has worked tirelessly to aid Houjian's recovery. He has been giving the monkey medicine, massaging its legs and teaching it to walk. He feeds it a diet of milk, goji berries and dried berries to ensure it receives proper nutrition.

Thanks to Tan's care, Houjian has now recovered and joins him on daily patrols. While patrolling the forests, the ranger has been teaching the monkey essential survival skills, including how to get wild fruits to eat, how to climb trees and how to escape predators.

"Since the monkey is still too young and lacks the ability to escape predators, releasing it now would be dangerous," Tan explained. "It is essential to continue strengthening its survival skills until it is ready to live independently in the wild."

The Shennongjia national key protected wildlife monitoring station and the wildlife rescue and release adaptation field project, located at the Baicaoyuan ranger station, were launched earlier this year.

So far, the station has captured over 50 images of golden monkeys and has rescued more than 10 species of wildlife, including golden eagles, rhesus monkeys and sika deer. Rescued animals there undergo pre-release acclimatization training. They are released into the wild when they meet the necessary conditions for survival.

Li Shangyi in Beijing and Liu Kun in Wuhan contributed to this story.