All creatures great and small

"The lake in my childhood memory has gradually disappeared, which has often worried me," Li says, adding that, in the 1960s, fishermen would frequently encounter finless porpoises and various other wild animals, such as barking deer and weasels.

Born in 1950, he has lived alongside the lake all his life and has witnessed how human activities, such as overfishing and illicit sand mining, have changed the lake and its environment.

A graduate of the Yiyang Medical College, in 1975, the then 25-year-old Li was allocated to a job at the Yuanjiang epidemic prevention station by the local government. Several years later, he attended the epidemiological investigation of leptospirosis (a widespread and prevalent zoonotic disease that can lead to organ failure) in the lake area.

During the investigation, Li made hundreds of taxidermied specimens of wild rats, which had been one of the sources of rodent-associated human infection. Once, on his way to collect rats for examination, he saw a dead thrush that had been killed by pesticide use. Taking it home, he prepared, molded and mounted the deceased bird.

Through his handiwork, he was able to make the bird look "alive "again, which was the moment Li realized what he could do to help his mother lake — to honor the deceased lake dwelling creatures and give them "a new life".

Over the past four decades, Li has created more than 1,400 specimens, from whole taxidermied animals to single pressed flowers, in his spare time. Some of the species in his collection of flora and fauna have since been pushed to endangerment or extinction. For Li, it is a "solemn "task.