Yuan Lei is an EDGE Fellow working to conserve the wild Bactrian camel in China. He works alongside one of our Mongolian EDGE Fellows, Adiya Yadamsuren, who studies the wild camels on the other side of the border.

Yuan Lei lives in Urumqi in the west of China. He got his Master’s degree at Xinjiang University in Nature Geography. Currently he works for the Xinjiang Lop Nor Wild Camel National Nature Reserve Centre, which belongs to Xinjiang Environmental Protection Bureau.

Yuan Lei is currently involved with wild camel monitoring in the reserve where he is trying to determine wild camel abundance while assessing the habitat and the impact of human activity in the reserve. The majority of the Bactrian camel population is distributed in the Lop Nor and Arjin mountain area in Xinjiang, China, so Yuan Lei’s project will focus on these areas.

Yuan Lei has developed and implemented a semi-structured questionnaire which he is using to interview local herdsmen. It is hoped that information can be gathered from these interviews on the number, distribution, hybridisation and potential threats to wild Bactrian camels in the areas. He also plans to collect data on water points, water quality and overall water/spring flow.

Yuan Lei aims to assess the impact of legal and illegal mining by establishing the distribution and abundance of mines in the camel’s habitat in China. The impact of legal and illegal grazing of livestock on wild camel populations in protected areas will also be determined, as will the affect of specific human activities such as hunting, tourism and archaeological exploration.

All the data collected will feed into a workshop that will establish a Conservation Action Plan for the Bactrian camel, and outline the steps necessary to ensure that this unique species is not lost.