Wildlife guardian captures photos of birds, butterflies inside nature reserve in SE China's Fujian

Photo shows an Elliot's pheasant, which is under first-class state protection in China, at the Tianbaoyan national nature reserve in southeast China's Fujian Province. (Photo/Liao Jinpeng)

"Look! It's an Elliot's pheasant," Liao Jinpeng says excitedly. He then quickly pulled over and took pictures of the flying bird with a camera. "This bird is under first-class state protection in China, and was rarely spotted here in the past," said Liao.

Liao is a wild animal monitor who works in the Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve in Sanming city, southeast China's Fujian Province. With the continuous improvement in the ecological environment in the nature reserve and its surrounding areas, Liao has been able to see the bird more often than in recent years.

The 55-year-old first came to work for the nature reserve in 2014. The following year, he started to take pictures of birds that inhabit the nature reserve. Nowadays, he monitors and takes pictures of birds and butterflies inside the reserve and helps to carry out surveys of biological resources inside the reserve.

Photo shows a female golden Kaiser-i-Hind butterfly, which is under first-class state protection in China, at the Tianbaoyan national nature reserve in southeast China's Fujian Province. (Photo/Liao Jinpeng)

With a forest coverage rate of 97.16 percent, the Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve preserves large areas of primitive forests and is filled with rich biodiversity, and has been dubbed "a species gene bank."

Liao spends more than two-thirds of his time in the mountain in the course of a year. To get pictures of the wild animals, he would wait patiently at the monitoring site, sometimes for up to 8 or 9 hours before the animals appear. In the hot summer, he is always soaked in sweat after taking pictures for the whole day. In winter, he rolls down his car windows to better observe the birds despite the cold winds.

Photo shows a yellow-cheeked tit at the Tianbaoyan national nature reserve in southeast China's Fujian Province. (Photo/Liao Jinpeng)

To date, Liao has taken pictures of 200 species of wild birds, including 44 newly-recorded species, as well as pictures of 292 species of butterflies, including 130 newly-recorded species, in the nature reserve.

"Only by collecting accurate information on the wild animals through pictures can we know how many species are living inside the nature reserve and then better carry out conservation of the biodiversity," Liao said.

In recent years, the management bureau of the Tianbaoyan National Nature Reserve has compiled two illustrated handbooks introducing the birds and butterflies inside the nature reserve. Half of the pictures used as illustrations were taken by Liao.