I have a wildlife zoo

After a while, Fang Ye finished his hamburger and sat down to complain to Gu Shi, "Mr. Gu, when I just came out of the airport, I saw that all the pictures along the corridor were of blue peafowls, but Yunnan, home of the peafowl, is known for green peafowls. Why would they put up images of a foreign peafowl at the airport?"

Gu Shi couldn't be bothered to correct the way he was addressed anymore, "It's quite normal. When I was doing research in a Xishuangbanna stockade village before, there were blue peafowls walking everywhere in the village, as well as statues of blue peafowls. I showed them pictures of both blue and green peafowls, but the Dai people who dance the peacock dance didn't recognize the green peafowl.

They believed the blue peafowl is the indigenous peafowl of Yunnan, a totem they have long worshipped."

"Only a very few elderly people recognized the green peafowl!"

Fang Ye couldn't help but feel sad upon hearing this, "Ah... the number of green peafowls is indeed too small now! There are only about five to six hundred left, facing the disaster of extinction. It's possible that future generations will only know of the blue peafowl and not the green one."

Gu Shi revealed a wry smile, "Where are there 500 of them?"

Fang Ye said in shock, "What? Even fewer? I read a paper before assessing there were five to six hundred."

Gu Shi responded, "The five to six hundred you're talking about is the situation from several years ago. Now with hydropower constructions, the number has drastically decreased even more. We are currently conducting a survey on this, and although the results are not completely out yet, it is assessed that there are only about 200 left."

He sighed and continued, "Back in '95, the survey found 800-1100. But actually, looking back, we know there were issues with that number because back then transportation was inconvenient, and some places might not have been accounted for; the actual number might have been even higher."

"Damn..."

The urgency of the matter couldn't even be described as hair-on-fire critical. Fang Ye hurriedly gobbled up his hamburger, "Let's go, let's go, let's go!"

...

They first went to Gu Shi's place to gather some things they would need in the mountains, like tents, and medication for mosquito bites and snake bites.

Then they took a bus all the way to Xinping!

The fan who had emailed Fang Ye was named Li Shi. Fang Ye had sent him an email before boarding the plane, so as they got off at the Xinping station, Li Shi was already there to pick them up.

Li Shi's village was in the mountains, and the roads were not so good – it would take half a day to get there by car.

And since it was already late today, Fang Ye and his company decided to stay at a hotel for the night.

The next day, they got into a dilapidated pickup truck that Li Shi had borrowed from a villager. The road at the beginning was alright, but later it turned into a bumpy dirt path.

The surrounding trees were lush and dense, making one feel far from any human habitation.

After a bumpy half-day ride, going past a field, they finally arrived at the village.

Around them were bamboo houses with distinctive Dai characteristics, looking like large tents perched high up. Although they appeared a bit old, they still exuded a poetic and picturesque charm.

In fact, it wasn't just for aesthetics; in the mountains of the south, where humidity is high, the houses are raised several meters above the ground to prevent dampness from rising.

There were also chickens roaming freely on the ground, strutting with their heads held high, occasionally pecking at food and looking completely at ease.

Fang Ye jumped out of the truck and rubbed his slightly sore butt from the bumpy ride, exclaiming, "Ah, finally here!"

Li Shi proudly pointed to a bamboo house and introduced, "That one there is my home! How about it, pretty nice, isn't it?"

A villager with a basket on his back was about to head out. Seeing Li Shi, he broke into a grin, revealing uneven yellow teeth, then glanced at Fang Ye and his companion and greeted them with a thick local accent, "Amao is back, bringing friends to visit, huh?"

He greeted them warmly, gave Fang Ye and his companions a sincere smile, and was ready to leave.

Fang Ye noticed that the villager's face was lined with wrinkles, he might have been around fifty or sixty years old, so Fang Ye started to ask him about the green peafowl, "Villager, can I ask you something? Do you know about the green peafowl?"

"Why are you asking about the old peafowl?" The villager looked a bit wary, his gaze towards Fang Ye and his friends turned unfriendly.

Li Shi hurriedly reassured the villager, "They are experts! They came here specifically to protect the old peafowl, not to hunt them." Find your next read at empire

Fang Ye was a bit confused, "Old peafowl?"

Gu Shi explained, "These villagers, they call the wild green peafowl 'old peafowl,' there's also the term 'golden peafowl.'"

"Oh!" the villager relaxed, "Nowadays, it's very rare to see the old peafowl!

Thirty or forty years ago, there were lots of these old peafowl and pheasants, they often flew into the village, competed for food with our chickens. Pheasants liked to crow in the morning, and old peafowl at night, making a lot of noise. Later, when many trees were cut down and replaced with rubber plantations, the old peafowl and pheasants became less and less common.

It's still possible to occasionally see pheasants, but old peafowl are really rare."

Talking about the old times, the villager felt uncomfortable standing with his back basket on and squatted down, and Fang Ye and the others hastily squatted too!

"Twenty years ago, there was an old peafowl that used to come to the fields to eat, we didn't chase it away. Every day while working in the fields, we could watch it moving around at the side, sometimes it would even spread its feathers for us, so beautiful. Ah, ah.

We all liked it a lot, it made us very happy to see it while we were working! It's a pity that we never saw it again later on!"

Speaking of this, he showed a somewhat melancholic expression!

He stood up and said to everyone, "Come to my house, I'll show you a photograph!"

Fang Ye exclaimed, "You have a photograph of the green peafowl!"

"Back then a photographer came here, took many photos of the old peafowl! After the photos were developed, he gave me two of them."

Talking, they arrived at the villager's home!

He carefully took out two somewhat faded and wrinkled photographs from the cabinet, "Here, these are it!"

One photo was taken from a distance, only showing the head of the green peafowl peering out from the fields.

The other photo was clearer, showing the green peafowl elegantly standing in the golden wheat field, its green neck, coin-like scales, upright feather clusters, and long tail. Although the photo had faded a bit, it still didn't detract from its beautiful grace!

The villager gently stroked the photo with his rough fingers, sighing, "I've heard that you can still occasionally see old peafowl by the riverbanks, but with this hydropower station being built, our stockade village, our farmlands will all be drowned. We can leave, but where can these old peafowl go?"

Listening to the villager's words, which were thick with reluctance, everyone fell silent for a moment!

Leaving the villager's house, Gu Shi said, "The villager mentioned that the number of green peafowl drastically decreased thirty to forty years ago. Besides the loss of habitat, poisoning was another reason.

In the past, no pesticides were used in the fields, but since the '80s they started using highly toxic pesticides, and many green peafowl that went to forage in the fields were poisoned to death."

"Ah..."

Fang Ye and his group conducted some inquiries in the village, looking for clues about the green peafowl.

Then they had Li Shi drive them in the old pickup to have a look at the hydropower station area.