Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
3
T
HE
C
HINESE
P
ERCEPTION
OF
W
ILDLIFE
Current trends in the utilization of wildlife in China continue a
tradition of satisfying material needs for meat, apparel, and medicinal
and other products. . . . Decisions about conserving or protecting
animals are therefore based largely upon utilitarian premises.
—C.E. Greer and R.W. Doughty
One crisp autumn morning in 1989, I found myself riding in the back of a rickety old truck
in southern Qinghai's Nangqian County, huddled together with about a dozen Tibetans
against the November morning chill. We were headed to the local Buddhist monastery
where a week-long celebration was in progress, marking the recent construction of a new
sanctuary on the monastery grounds. Some of the Tibetans were local pastoralists and
their families, others were employed as forest guards. That day all were there as pilgrims,
en route to pay their respects to their highly revered incarnate lama and to dedicate this
newest testament to their reemerging religion. Sitting up front with the driver was my
Chinese host, a zoologist with a wealth of experience on the Tibetan Plateau.
As I scanned the steep slopes rising from the road for signs of musk deer or blue sheep,
I suddenly noticed, up-slope from the road, a pair of wolves. They had evidently not heard
the truck coming and were quite close. Upon seeing the truck, the wolves immediately took
flight, but not before doors opened, men shouted, pistols and rifles emerged from beneath
robes and shawls, the truck lurched to a halt, and armed pilgrims strained to get shots off at
them. The bucolic scene was suddenly transformed into one of pandemonium: I scrambled
down onto the truck's wooden floor to avoid being inadvertently shot amid the chaos.
The wolves were too quick that day. They escaped unharmed, and we continued on to
our destination where several hundred other Tibetans had gathered from their far-flung tent
camps in celebration. But later I had occasion to discuss the incident with my zoologist host,
and the lesson I took from that discussion made a larger impression than the incident itself. I
began our conversation by noting that my host had seemed interested in helping the Tibetans
kill the wolves. “Yes, I would have taken a shot too, if I'd had a gun,” he said. Considering
myself far from naive about attitudes toward wolves in a livestock-growing area, I responded.
“Yes, I can see how the Tibetans would generally be ill-disposed toward wolves, given
the danger wolves obviously pose to their livelihood. So it would have been a neighborly
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