Animal encounters

But numbers alone do not capture the drama that unfolds every spring.

Between March and April, Xiao and her team conduct intensive field monitoring during the panda breeding season. Since 2015, they have tracked courtship rituals and combative behavior, sometimes camping at nearly 3,000 meters above sea level.

In April 2025, she witnessed a first — three wild pandas appearing simultaneously in the same area. "In the past, we usually saw one or two," she said. "Three at once is very rare."

She remembered the sound — loud clashes echoing through the valley. "At 2,900 meters, you hear the fighting before you see them,"Xiao said.

One of the most fascinating behavioral patterns she documented was in 2024, when a female panda climbed into a tree during estrus. Below her, three males rotated positions, effectively "taking shifts" waiting for mating opportunities.

"The males start scouting about a week in advance," she said. "The tree the female chooses is usually one that allows her to observe the surroundings clearly."

In 2025, her team captured rare footage of two pandas successfully mating — an invaluable addition to long-term behavioral records.

Due to the familiarity of the sight, she said that seeing a wild panda no longer fills her with overwhelming excitement.

"Because we've recorded so many through infrared cameras. It's relatively easy to encounter them here," she said.

Tangjiahe's golden snub-nosed monkeys number around 800 and are organized into seven to 11 large social groups that constantly split and merge. Their activity altitude overlaps significantly with pandas.

In 2022, Xiao witnessed something that left a deep impression on her.

"A mother monkey carried her dead infant for two or three days," Xiao recalled. "She stayed at the edge of the group. Even when she searched for food, she held the baby."

Her facial expressions were unmistakable. "You could see grief. She avoided contact with the others. It felt no different from human mourning," she said.

Moments like this reinforce Xiao's belief that wildlife conservation is not "abstract management". "When you see that, you understand — life is life. The pain is real," she noted.

Tangjiahe's monitoring network now includes more than 400 infrared cameras. Xiao leads a small four-person research office overseeing ecological data management, supported by 36 field investigators in protection stations. Universities and research institutions assist in data analysis and publication.

Since 2019, she has shifted from front-line patrols to project leadership — coordinating data screening, managing monitoring systems and initiating research collaborations.

From mapping the full movement of individual pandas, to establishing continuous monitoring of golden snub-nosed monkeys, to expanding bird monitoring — including Sichuan's first dedicated bird monitoring station — and transforming infrared data into species interaction analysis and accessible public science education, her ambitions are clear.

"We have the data," she said. "Now we must use it better."