Gerelchimeg Blackcrane, hailed as "a son of nature". [Photo provided to China Daily]

"I write fiction, but all the details I write are borrowed from the real world, and they tally with nature's rules," says Blackcrane.

"I never impose human imagination and emotion onto the animal characters. Otherwise, the works will be called fables or allegories, not animal stories," he adds.

Speaking about the impact of his stories, he says: "Views on nature can shape the lives of our children. Mine were shaped when I was very young, and I know that in nature, everything has its position."

He also does not avoid writing about death.

He recalls how his grandparents told him about how wild wolves had fatally injured his beloved foal.

"They said it was taken by the heavenly dog. And I know they were trying to teach me to accept what nature brings," he says.

Blackcrane was born Bao Tiejun in Daqing in 1975. But he was sent to the grasslands in Inner Mongolia at 4.

"In the pasturing area deep in the grasslands, I, a kid from the city, was at first lonely until I got a handmade Mongolian gown and learned to ride horse," he says.

He was also given two ivory-white wolf dogs.