Wild lives with wildlife

While they may be far from other humans, these police spend much time in the company of the animals they protect.

Orphaned creatures like antelope are cared for at the Sonam Dargye Station, which is about 60 kilometers from Wudaoliang.

Workers who patrol around Zhuonai Lake during the antelope's birthing season bring orphaned fawns to the center, where they are cared for until they're old enough to return to the wild.

Workers like Lhundrub Gyetse bottle-feed them warm milk until they're mature enough to eat grass in the fenced-in pasture.

"We'd gradually reduce their contact with people so they can eventually return to nature," he explains.

The 28-year-old native of the Yushu Tibetan autonomous prefecture took the job at age 16, after he graduated from middle school.

His responsibilities included serving as a "crossing guard" for antelope passing over major roads during their migrations before he was transferred from Wudaoliang.

Lhundrub Gyetse and his colleagues would stop traffic a couple of times a day to allow the timid creatures passage. Officers also counted them.

"We learned with experience," he says.

"We'd only stop traffic when the leading antelope was nearly ready to cross. That way, we didn't waste too much of the drivers' time."

Some drivers today volunteer to help them set up barriers, he says.