The officers of Yuan’an County Forestry Bureau set three rescued wild animals free, letting them return to nature and thrive in the Taipingding Forest.

In April this year, the subordinate forest police station of Yuan’an Forestry Bureau received a tip-off saying that some villagers caught and kept wild animals. The forest policemen then acted immediately and successively rescued two masked palm civets and a red and white flying squirrel. According to the chief of Yuan’an Forest Police Station Tan Sichi, these wild animals have been injured to varing degrees after a long time capture in a cramped cage, and would be sold on the market or die if they haven’t be found and rescued in time.

After a careful and scientific treatment by the police of Yuan’an Forest Bureau, these rescued wild animals were already able to find food on their own and can be set free back to nature at present according to the disease monitoring. In order to protect them from being captured again, Yuan’an Forest Bureau chose to set them free in Taipingding Forest which is full of dense jungles, rich water sources and wildlife. It’s also a suitable habitat for wildlife since there are few people. After setting them free, Bureau staffs were arranged for constant supervision and inspection until they made sure the released wild animals have been adapted to the wild environment.

There are 132 families and 554 species of plants and 44 species of terrestrial protected wild animals in Yuan County. In 2015, the National First Class Protected Wild Animals, Chinese merganser and black stork passed the winter in this county. The rescued masked civets and red and white flying squirrel are Hubei Provincial Key Protected Wild Animals.

Li Ziqin, officer in charge of Yuan’an Forestry Bureau said that they will continue strengthening the management and protection of wildlife resources, increasing publicity, investigation and punishment to ensure the security of the wildlife resources. At the same time, they will call for more people to take part in the wildlife protection to create good habitation for wildlife. (Reporter Yang Chunyan, correspondent Xiang Juan, Gong Yalan)