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Man vs Nature

By Erik Nilsson in Yushu, Qinghai, and Hu Yongqi in Kunming, Yunnan | China Daily | Updated: 2014-03-02 07:47

Man vs Nature

A wild Siberian tiger attacks livestock in a pasture in Huichun city of Jilin province. Re Xue / for China Daily

Man vs Nature
Creatures of habitat
Baige, who like many Tibetans only has one name, lives about 300 kilometers from the nearest township of about 150 households.

Bear burglaries are commonplace, Yege township's head of human resources Resang says. A bear damaged the 41-year-old's TV.

Baige says he has lost count of how many times they've looted his food.

He places the fire damage at 350,000 yuan ($57,700) and says he was given 100,000.

"People tried to kill the bears, but the government wouldn't let them," Baige says.

"My younger brother and relatives have confronted the bears. They were lucky the bears ran away."

Wolves also take locals' sheep.

And feral mastiffs prowl in packs, sometimes biting elderly people and forcing children indoors at night. Students aren't allowed to walk a few hundred meters to the recently constructed latrine after sunset. They must relieve themselves outside, next to their dorms.

But such conflicts between wildlife and humans aren't confined to western Qinghai's frosty highlands.

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