Guardians of China's tiger and leopard park

Located at the junction of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park serves as a stable habitat for Amur leopards and Siberian tigers. Hunchun city in Yanbian Korean autonomous prefecture, Jilin, lies in the core area of the park.

Since the launch of its trial phase in August 2017, hundreds of conservationists from the park's Hunchun Management and Conservation Center have been regularly conducting field patrols and scientific monitoring to protect wildlife, and traversing the dense forests to safeguard the park's inhabitants. They are rangers from the center and various protection stations, as well as ecological patrolmen recruited from nearby villages.

"Patrolling mainly involves understanding the conditions in the mountains and forests and recording traces of wildlife activity," said Hao Ruiping, deputy director of the protection department at the center. "Although we now have infrared cameras, to truly understand the situation, we still need to patrol the habitats repeatedly."