Wolf Sightings Reported in Northern Village
Located in Qinglong Town, Qiaoyingzi County, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, Qiaoyingzi Town is a place frequently visited by the author and his friends. It is not far from the Great Wall, and in the past, several people would drive to Qiaoyingzi for sightseeing after sunrise, take pictures of the sunrise, and then drive to nearby areas to find food and take pictures of local cultural landscapes. However, recently, in the flourishing period of flowers, a message from Qiaoyingzi was quite surprising: ‘There are wolves roaming here.’
Is this news true or false? Local villagers, using mobile phones, took videos of the wolf pack and posted them online. The images were somewhat blurry, but upon closer inspection, it was clear that a group of animals were walking in the forests, which was frightening.
Subsequently, a notice issued by the Qiaoyingzi Town People’s Committee to all villagers in Prince Store Village spread online and on social media. The gist of the notice was: ‘In recent years, there have been multiple sightings of animals resembling wolf packs in some forests within the village. However, there has been no conclusive evidence to verify these sightings. On March 27, 2020, Party Secretary Xie Xinlong witnessed a wolf pack of over ten wolves while working in Jizigou, which provides conclusive evidence to confirm that all sightings of similar animals in the village’s forests are due to wolf packs.’
The most important item in the notice issued by the Qiaoyingzi Town People’s Committee is highlighted in black font: ‘Anyone is strictly prohibited from entering any forests within the village. No one is allowed to hunt, poison, or harm any wild animals. When working in the adjacent areas of the forest within the village, it is necessary to travel in groups.’
This shows that villagers’ understanding of wolves has evolved from the past’s simple killing and extermination to ‘anyone is prohibited from hunting, poisoning, or harming any wild animals.’ This is a significant cognitive progress.
‘‘The ‘wolf’ is here, and wolves really are here!’ As this urgent red notice issued by the People’s Committee of Qiaoyingzi Town became widely known in the surrounding areas, Qiaoyingzi Prince Store Village was well-known. The wolves are what kind of animal, will they proactively attack people, and why are they appearing in forests that have not been seen for many years? As this news spread, the mystery surrounding Qinglong area village was shrouded in mystery.
Located in the north of Qiaoyingzi Town, Qiaoyingzi Village, Qinhuangdao City, Hebei Province, it is 15 kilometers north of Qinglong County. The village has more than 700 households and nearly 3000 residents. Villagers mainly plant chestnuts. The area has many forests, which is also one of the reasons for the frequent reports of wolves appearing in recent years.
Wolves are wild animals with high wildness. For young people, they are ferocious animals that bite people and livestock. This is indeed a concern for the 50-year-old and above residents who live in mountain areas.
The author lives in the northeastern part of Hebei Province, and in the 1970s and 1980s, when he was young, the chickens in his home were usually placed in the courtyard, and every night seemed insecure, and there were often foxes and wolves coming to peck at the chicken coop. However, there was never a wolf bite. They were afraid of people during the day, and no one had ever said they had seen them coming out during the day.
Wolves gradually disappeared from the villagers’ sight, apparently after the 1990s. The elderly villagers in the village said that with the improvement of people’s living conditions, wolves no longer had to worry about food and drink, and they were not interested in chickens.
The first time the author saw a real wolf was when he went to the Ura Gate Scenic Area in Northeast Inner Mongolia, Erlianhot, where nearly 50 wild wolves, mainly Mongolian wolves, were raised in the forest. All the pictures in the article are taken there.
In 2013, French director Jean-Jacques Arno directed the film ‘Wolf Totem’ starring and. The film’s shooting location was in this area. The film made this mysterious grassland famous, and it was developed into a tourist area, attracting many tourists to this place to admire the true wolf.
Here, you can drive through the wolf pack to observe Mongolian wolves at close range, and you can also feed wolves through protective nets. People’s perception of wolves as ferocious and dangerous has been challenged. A driver who has come to this place many times and is familiar with these wolves, some wolves will shake hands with him, and they will proactively approach him, which makes people feel that these guys are just a group of dogs.
Recently, there have been reports of wolves appearing in Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province. Some say this is the result of ecological improvement, allowing wild animals to gradually return to people’s lives. Others say it is due to the excessive development of forests, which has reduced the habitat of wolves, leading them closer to human settlements. It remains to be studied by experts what the real reason is.
However, we remind anyone traveling to this area and surrounding tourist areas recently to avoid traveling alone, and it is best to travel in groups when climbing nearby the Great Wall for safety.”
Have you ever seen a real wolf? Do you think they will enter the village?
