WUHAN, China, December 26, 2025 (EZ Newswire) -- A set of photographs taken on the banks of the Yangtze River in early winter has recently attracted widespread attention. In the images, hundreds of Milu forage on the river beach in the same frame as large cargo ships that pass by. “At least 400 wild Milu have gathered outside the reserve. This is the first time I have seen this in my seventeen years of tracking and photographing them.” The discovery by nature photographer Lei Gang opens a 40-year story of species recovery that spans two continents.

This rare species, once revered by ancient Chinese as the prototype of the auspicious “Kylin,” suffered a catastrophic decline in modern times. In 1900, the last wild herd at Nanhaizi, Beijing, disappeared, and the few remaining individuals ended up overseas. Because of the first scientific record by French missionary Père Armand David, the species was named Père David’s deer. “In 1898, my great-great-grandfather gathered the last 18 Milu in Europe at Woburn Abbey. That became the spark that kept the species alive,” recalled Andrew Russell, the 15th Duke of Bedford.

In 1985, China and the United Kingdom signed an agreement to bring Milu home. Twenty Milu travelled on an Air France cargo plane back to Nanhaizi. To receive these “returning wanderers,” China set aside 900 mu of land. People’s Liberation Army soldiers spent more than a month building over 3,500 meters of perimeter wall and turned pig farms and fish ponds into habitat. “To bring a species back with such precision to its last native site is unique among reintroduction projects worldwide.” Andrew Russell, who witnessed that moment, still remembers it clearly.

At the time of their return, Milu were listed by The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as extinct in the wild. An expert team then drew up a three-step conservation plan: strengthen separate subpopulations, establish new herds in other locations, and release animals into the wild after a period of rewilding. In only six years, the Nanhaizi herd grew from 20 to 203 animals. The land constraint pushed Chinese and British scientists to trace the original habitat along the Yangtze River. They finally chose the Swan Islet wetland in Shishou, Hubei province. This relic of the ancient Yunmeng Marsh is the place that the book, "Mozi," described as “full of rhinoceros, wild ox, and Milu”.

In 1993, 30 Milu were released at Swan Islet. The following year, they produced 10 calves. Then the catastrophic Yangtze flood of 1998 struck. 37 Milu were swept away, and the remaining animals were trapped on a broken embankment. “Eight of us stayed on that ‘island,’ rowing out every day with fodder. The only thought in our minds was that as long as we were here, the deer must survive.” Ranger Wang Jianfu recalled that his wife and child died when their boat capsized on the way back after bringing a meal, a loss that remains his deepest wound.