An appearance in the camera
Infrared cameras record leopard cats, roe deer, wild boar, hog badgers, raccoon dogs, and forest birds. The images show who is present, but they cannot answer how a village should live with them.
Selected fieldwork
Entering the field with questions.
Ecology × Society × Culture
When a leopard cat comes down the mountain
“A thief,” Lao Huang said of the leopard cat, after a pause. “But not a truly bad one. Quick, beautiful, with a beautiful pattern.” The loss in a winter chicken coop is real. So is his feeling that the mountain is alive because these animals are there.
Infrared-camera image from Labagoumen Forest · leopard catThe loss in the coop
One farmer described four chickens killed in a single winter night. We looked at coops, fences, doors, and the ways families protect their animals.
An unfinished question of coexistence
Images, field observations, and local accounts each have limits. Together, they help us ask how both forests and villages can continue to live.
First encounters
Shahe, Nanhaizi, and a Little Owl we could not save
At our first group activity, the Little Owl did not appear. A Siberian Rubythroat, reed birds, and insects taught us how to begin observing together. Later, at Nanhaizi, members took turns approaching a Long-eared Owl, controlling group size and keeping quiet.
Lin Zhengyu found a Spotted Little Owl caught in a bird net and took it to the Beijing Raptor Rescue Center. It later died from severe injuries. “Respect animal welfare” became a question of professional rescue and human-caused harm, not only a rule for photography.