Liu Detian, a 53-year-old journalist with Panjin Daily, had never thought that his life would be closely linked with birds. Since his first report on red-crowned crane was published in 1987, Liu has been following the road of rare-bird protection and never thinks about turning back. He was the first journalist to cover the breeding ground of Saunder's gull in Panjin, northeast China’s Liaoning Province, and the organizer of the Saunder's Gull Protection Association of Panjin. During the passed 16 years, he wrote more than 300 stories on bird- and environment-protection. For his contribution to environmental protection, Liu Detian was awarded both the sixth Earth Prize and Ford Motor’s Environmental Protection Prize in 2002.

From red-crowned crane to Saunder's gull

“It’s by accident that I throw myself into environmental protection,” Liu Detian said, as he accompanied this reporter to the Shuangtai Hekou National Nature Reserve in Panjin to watch Saunders' gulls.

In 1987, George Archibald, the Canadian chairman of the International Crane Foundation, came to Shuangtai Hekou for investigation. From Archibald, Liu learned that it was Archibald who established the International Crane Foundation. When Archibald worked on his doctorate thesis, he found the world's crane family was facing a fatal depopulation, and thereafter, he made up his mind to save the cranes.

From then on, Liu began to involve himself in the protection of red-crowned crane, too. Liu wrote a series of reports under the title “The Story of Red-crowned Crane,” which made quite a stir in Panjin. After reading his stories, many local people realized that the bird popularly known as “black pants” was a rare bird that needed careful protection.

Nowadays, visitors to Panjin find many shops, stores, restaurants and hotels having He, the Chinese character for crane, in their names, an indication of the local people’s recognition and care of the birds. Liu was the first person to propose Panjin to be called Home of Crane. “Maybe I should have asked for patent charge,” Liu joked with a smile.

In 1990, an expert from the International Nature Fund came to Panjin and confirmed that the Shuangtai River area was the very breeding ground of the endangered Saunders' gull, which scientists had been looking for over the past century.

It was midnight when Liu Detian returned home after his interview with this expert. Immediately, hidden in the bathroom for not disturbing his family who were already in bed, Liu wrote the story “A Hundred-Year-Old Riddle Solved: Breeding Ground of Saunders' Gull Found in China,” which was carried on the front page of the next day’s Panjin Daily.

In 1871, a French missionary collected a sample of this kind of gull in Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province. Thereafter, the gull became known as Saunder’s gull, following the name of its discoverer. Since then, no trace of the gull had been detected, though it was known that the bird found winter shelters in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The discovery of Panjin as Saunder’s gull’s breeding ground was of great significance for the protection of this endangered species, which had only a population of about 2,000 in 1990.

Now Liu was deep in love with the Saunder’s gull, as he understood it needed better care than the red-crowned crane. Liu visited the reserve repeatedly and became familiar with every path, stream, beach and reed marsh in the area. While we were driving on the muddy road from Panjin to the nature reserve, Liu said, “The road would become more rugged in winter, and cars often sunk in the mud. I went through several accidents, and some of them might have cost my life.” Liu joked that he survived probably because he was working for the environmental protection. Difficult transport was not the only problem for Liu. In summer, he had to deal with the massive aggressive mosquitoes. To take a good picture, Liu had to stay motionless for a long time for not disturbing the birds.

Liu knew how to use his advantageous position as a journalist. By writing stories, he called for attention to environmental protection from the government as well as the public. “It’s like when someone falls into water,” he said. “You have to call ‘help’ to let people know what is happening and how they can help you.” But shouting is not enough for Liu. “There must be someone diving into the water to save the person,” he said. “If everybody stands by as an onlooker and nobody jumps into the water, the person will be drowned.”

Thereby, Liu established the Saunder’s Gull Protection Association of Panjin in 1991. With the joint efforts from the local authorities, environmental protection administration, oilfields around the gull’s habitat and the media, by the end of 2002, the number of Saunder’s gulls in Shuangtai River area had reached 5,020, occupying 75 percent of the species’ wild community in the world. It was a great encouragement for Liu and all the people of Panjin, though the number was far behind the required 10,000 to bring the endangered species out of the danger of extinction.

To achieve this, Liu not only suffered all kinds of hardships but made sacrifices in his personal life. In 1994, Liu found that the Saunder’s gull was not in the “List of Wildlife in China,” because the relevant authorities didn’t know that the bird had been found in China. In order to have Saunder’s gull registered in the list, Liu decided to go to Beijing. But when his train was approaching Beijing, he received a long-distance phone call from his family and was told that his eldest sister was terminally ill.

Liu’s parents died when he was a child, so he was brought up by the eldest sister. Liu got back to Shenyang immediately. When he reached the hospital, his oldest sister was having her last breath. After saying good-bye to the dead at the funeral home, he stepped onto another train to Beijing. As there was no seated ticket available, he stood through the way to Beijing and arrived in his destination with swollen legs.

Saunder’s gull is a migratory bird, who breeds in Chinese mainland, and flies to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Korea and Vietnam for the winter. To protect them, it’s necessary to establish an information network. In order to achieve the goal, Liu visited Jiangsu Province’s Yancheng, Japan and Korea at his own expense. This year, he organized an international workshop for protecting Saunder’s gull in Panjin, and again, with his own money. The workshop was successful but Liu owed the hotel more than 10,000 yuan (US$1200) in debt.

No Sauder's gull should be missing

In July this year, a Japanese ornithologist came to the Shuangtai Hekou Nature Reserve and found only 2,930 Saunder’s gull there, a decrease of 2,090 from last year’s 5,020. Liu was shocked and terribly worried.

On the afternoon of July 10, we entered the core area of the nature reserve, Nanxiaohe, which is the largest habitat of Saunder's gull at present. The tidewater had just ebbed, leaving mottled sand behind. "Look, in every hole here there is a crab, making the sand an ideal dining table for the gulls," Liu told me excitedly. Through Liu’s telescope, I saw some 30 Saunder’s gulls moving about in a swampland not far away. Some of them were looking for food, while others were taking a rest.

Liu pointed at a large water area in distance and told me that it was originally a place for Saunder’s gulls to build their nests and hatch their babies, but after shrimps were raised here, the wetland disappeared. It was estimated that 500 to 600 nests were destroyed. There were 4,170 gulls living in this area last year, but only 2,660 have been found this year.

The Saunder's gull is a typical beach bird who relies on beachhead and in particular likes to stay in places grown with erigeron. However, with the agricultural development in the Dawa Delta and the construction of the coastal bank, the Saunder’s gull has lost its favored habitat; on the sand where erigeron used to grow, there were reed groves, which had greatly affected the gull's breeding.

In 1990, most gulls lived in the eastern bank of the Liaohe River, with only two nests found in the western bank. In 1998, after a reservoir was built, the birds were forced to move to the western bank of the river. At present, not a single nest could be found in the reservoir area. Obviously, Liu said, the birds are loosing their last homestead on the western bank.

But not all the relevant authorities accept Liu’s point of view. When he reminded the staff members of the nature reserve about the loss of the breeding ground, they told him that after the old one is gone, a new one will come into forth.

“But the speed of destroy is much faster than the speed of restoring. Can the gull wait for the destroyed environment to be restored?” Liu said, shaking his head, “After all, human is the main enemy of the gulls.”

While saying so, Liu showed me a photo he had taken. “Look, someone is picking up bird’s eggs,” he said, pointing at a man in black in the photo. “When I was watching the birds in my camp this year, I found this guy was picking up eggs. I rushed out to chase him, but was blocked by a river. All I could do was taking this photo. I estimated that he had gotten over 40 eggs.” Liu hopes that workers at the nature reserve will do a better job while on duty so as to avoid this kind of happenings. “We should let people understand that to protect nature is to protect us human beings. It is possible to save an endangered species with our efforts,” Liu said.

At 4 p.m. on July 10, we reached a well-drilling platform. Liu looked into the Bohai Sea in distance and said: “Environment protection is a lonely undertaking. You come to know the significance only when you reach the nature reserve yourself.”

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