On long trip, flying friends well protected

In addition to boars and roe deer drinking by the river, one can watch from the mountain top predator birds soaring, and "thousands of" migratory birds, such as common cranes, flying by during migratory seasons, a scene that is "very beautiful and spectacular", Li said.

Common cranes, as well as swans and black storks, are the birds that Black Leopard focuses its work on, Li said. The black stork is a wild species that enjoys first-class State protection.

The Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau says there are only about 3,000 black storks worldwide, of which about 1,000 are in China.

Black storks inhabit the reaches of the Juma River in the Fangshan district of Southwest Beijing, as a result of the region's "superior natural conditions", the bureau said. In 2014 the China Wildlife Conservation Association conferred on the district the title "the hometown for black storks in China".