Senior self-trained cameraman waded chest deep in snow to photograph the beautiful creatures in the wild.
Senior self-trained cameraman waded chest deep in snow to photograph the beautiful creatures in the wild.
? February 9, 2021 — An elderly self-taught photographer who had been looking for images of the heavy mountainous terrain for years through chest-deep snow has finally achieved success.
Wan Xingfu, 65, was in search of close-up images of a wide sable, which he has finally achieved followed by his success on Jan. 31.
“I was delighted when I finally managed to capture cute close-up shots of the wild sable in a snow-covered mountain after years of attempting,” said Xingfu.
A sable is a marten with a short tail and dark brown fur, native to Japan and Siberia and valued for its fur.
Sables inhabit dense forests dominated by spruce, pine, larch, cedar, and birch in both lowland and mountainous terrain.
The fur of the sable is called mink, which is only produced in Northeast China. It is also called “three treasures of Northeast China” together with “ginseng and deer antler”. It is widely distributed in Ural Mountains, Siberia, Mongolia, Northeast China, and Hokkaido, Japan.
The video, captured by Xingfu himself, of the sable was shot in the Changbai Mountain, located in the city of Baishan, in the north-eastern Chinese province of Jilin.
The Changbai Mountains are a major mountain range in Northeast Asia that extends from the Northeast Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang, Jilin, and Liaoning, across the border between China and North Korea.
Wan Xingfu started teaching himself photography late in life when he was 58 years old. He has mastered the art of wildlife photography.
The photographer refuses to interact with the wild animals in their natural habitat because he believes that would disturb their peace or could even bring harm.
“I’m shooting wild animals, but it’s difficult to shoot. Too far away is an opportunity,” said Xingfu.
The sable was only eight meters away from him when he managed to capture the rare close up shot from his hiding spot.
In the footage, the sable is staring directly in the camera which manages to catch all the delicate details like the snow on the fur and on the snout of the animal.
“After shooting wild sables for four years in the hope of the perfect picture, I finally got such cute close-ups!” said Wan Xingfu.
The cute animal is known to be an amazing hunter and it can detect its prey through smell and hearing.
Unfortunately, sables are often hunted down for their highly-valued dark fur, which is only produced in Northeast China.
Due to the variable appearance of the sable in different geographic localities, there has been some debate over the exact number of subspecies that can be clearly identified. Mammal Species of the World recognizes seventeen different subspecies, but other recent scholarly sources have identified anything from seven to thirty.
“Estimated populations of the species are 2.0 to 2.2 million in Russia, 18,000 in China, and 10,000 in Mongolia as per the IUCN Red List. The sable is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List,” states the animalia.bio website.
(Edited by Ritaban Misra and Shirish Vishnu Shinde)
