Enter into the Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve

Photo taken at 11:23 on May 17, 2021 shows a black-necked crane couple stand at their nest calling into the sky. Built on a meadow about one square meter in the swamp, the nest is surrounded by a round swamp with the depth of about half a meter, where is a good place to avoid their natural enemies. Photo provided by Xu Junquan

Tianshannet - Xinjiang Daily news (Reporters: Wang Qiming, Nie Ning, Zhao Mei, Huang Lingyan): On May 16, 2021, Xu Junquan, the deputy director of the Plateau Ecological Environment and Nature Conservation Research Office of the Administration of the Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve, together with other researchers, installed an infrared camera near a nest of black-necked cranes to track and shoot their habits of breeding and foraging. On July 29, 2021, the infrared camera he retrieved recorded precious images of black-necked cranes, a kind of rare bird, incubating their eggs, and a wolf, their natural enemy, breaking into the nest territory.

Photo taken at 11: 23 on May 17, 2021 shows the black-necked crane couple stand by the nest, guarding two eggs in the nest. Photo provided by Xu Junquan

Photo taken at 21:30 on May 16, 2021, the night the infrared camera installed, shows a black-necked crane moves by the nest. Photo provided by Xu Junquan

Photo taken at 11:02 on May 17, 2021 shows a black-necked crane is incubating peacefully in the nest. From the dynamic video, we can see the crane bents down carefully and moves gently. It is not until the feathers completely cover the eggs that the eggs are incubated at ease. Photo provided by Xu Junquan

Photo taken at 6:21 on July 20, 2021, before the dawn, a wolf breaks into the nest territory of the black-necked cranes. This is the figure of the wolf by the infrared camera set outside the nest to monitor the surrounding area. Photo provided by Xu Junquan

Photo taken on July 28, 2021 shows a black-necked crane couple forage at the meadow near to the Yixiekpatti Lake Central Management and Protection Station in the Altun Mountain National Nature Reserve, northwest China’s Xinjiang. Photo by Xinjiang Daily/Wang Qiming