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Sichuan Basin Evergreen Broadleaf Forests
The Sichuan Basin evergreen broadleaf forests are a critically endangered WWF ecoregion. The ecoregion occupies the Sichuan Basin in China and covers an area of . The broadleaf forest habitat once covered the Sichuan Basin, but today is limited to mountains and preserved temple grounds in the basin and around the basin's rim. An especially well-preserved example of remaining forest exists on Mount Emei at the western edge of the Sichuan Basin. The original forests are thought to have been made up of subtropical oaks, laurels, and Schima. Much of the remaining Sichuan Basin has been converted to anthropogenic agricultural use in the last 5,000 years. Fauna Endangered and critically endangered animal species that have traditionally inhabited the Sichuan Basin evergreen broadleaf forests include: Amphibians * Boulenger's paa frog * Chinese giant salamander * Chinting lazy toad * Omei lazy toad Birds * Baer's pochard * Far Eastern curlew * Oriental stork * Scaly-sided mer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mount Emei
Mount Emei (; ), alternately Mount Omei, is a mountain in Sichuan Province, China, and is the highest of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China. Mount Emei sits at the western rim of the Sichuan Basin. The mountains west of it are known as Daxiangling. A large surrounding area of countryside is geologically known as the Permian Emeishan Large Igneous Province, a large igneous province generated by the Emeishan Traps volcanic eruptions during the Permian Period. Administratively, Mount Emei is located near the county-level city of the same name (Emeishan City), which is in turn part of the prefecture-level city of Leshan. It was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. As a sacred mountain Mount Emei is one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China, and is traditionally regarded as the bodhimaṇḍa, or place of enlightenment, of the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra is known in Mandarin as Pǔxián Púsà (). Sources of the 16th and 17th centuries all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baer's Pochard
Baer's pochard (''Aythya baeri'') is a diving duck found in eastern Asia. It is a resident bird in North and Central China, formerly bred in southeast Russia and Northeast China, migrating in winter to southern China, Vietnam, Japan, and India. Baer's pochard is a monotypic species. The holotype was collected in middle Amur. It has a distinctive black head and neck with green gloss not present elsewhere in ''Aythya''. But in poor light, it is likely to look completely black. It is very similar and closely related to the ferruginous duck, and they were previously considered to be a single species; Baer's pochard is differentiated by its white flanks when floating on the water, as well as its larger size and longer, more rounded head. Its breeding season varies by latitude and environment. The nest, built from sedges, reeds and other plants, is placed among emergent vegetation, usually in shallow water or on small islands or ridges. Its clutch size ranges from 5 to 14. Males usua ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palearctic Ecoregions
The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Siberian region; the Mediterranean Basin; the Sahara and Arabian Deserts; and Western Asia, Western, Central Asia, Central and East Asia. The Palaearctic realm also has numerous rivers and lakes, forming several freshwater ecoregions. The term 'Palearctic' was first used in the 19th century, and is still in use as the basis for Zoogeography, zoogeographic classification. History In an 1858 paper for the ''Proceedings of the Linnean Society'', British zoologist Philip Sclater first identified six terrestrial zoogeographic realms of the world: Palaearctic, Aethiopian/Afrotropic, Indian subcontinent, Indian/Indomalayan, Australasian realm, Australasian, Nearctic, and Neotropical. The six indicated general groupings of fauna, based on shared biog ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Panda
The red panda (''Ailurus fulgens''), also known as the lesser panda, is a small mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It has dense reddish-brown fur with a black belly and legs, white-lined ears, a mostly white muzzle and a ringed tail. Its head-to-body length is with a tail, and it weighs between . It is well adapted to climbing due to its flexible joints and curved semi-retractile claws. The red panda was first formally described in 1825. The two currently recognised subspecies, the Himalayan and the Chinese red panda, genetically diverged about 250,000 years ago. The red panda's place on the evolutionary tree has been debated, but modern genetic evidence places it in close affinity with raccoons, weasels, and skunks. It is not closely related to the giant panda, which is a bear, though both possess elongated wrist bones or "false thumbs" used for grasping bamboo. The evolutionary lineage of the red panda (Ailuridae) stretches back around , as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dhole
The dhole (''Cuon alpinus''; ) is a canid native to Central, South, East and Southeast Asia. Other English names for the species include Asian wild dog, Asiatic wild dog, Indian wild dog, whistling dog, red dog, red wolf, and mountain wolf. It is genetically close to species within the genus ''Canis'', but distinct in several anatomical aspects: its skull is convex rather than concave in profile, it lacks a third lower molar and the upper molars sport only a single cusp as opposed to between two and four. During the Pleistocene, the dhole ranged throughout Asia, Europe and North America but became restricted to its historical range 12,000–18,000 years ago. The dhole is a highly social animal, living in large clans without rigid dominance hierarchies and containing multiple breeding females. Such clans usually consist of about 12 individuals, but groups of over 40 are known. It is a diurnal pack hunter which preferentially targets large and medium-sized ungulates. I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Pangolin
The Chinese pangolin (''Manis pentadactyla'') is a pangolin native to the northern Indian subcontinent, northern parts of Southeast Asia and southern China. It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2014, as the wild population is estimated to have declined by more than 80% in three pangolin generations, equal to 21 years. It is threatened by poaching for the illegal wildlife trade. Characteristics The Chinese pangolin has the appearance of a scaly anteater. Its head and body measure about and its tail measures about . A mature Chinese pangolin weighs from . It has 18 rows of overlapping scales accompanied by hair, a rare combination in mammals. It has a small, narrow mouth and a little, pointed head. Also its claws grow in as it grows older. The female gives birth to a single offspring at a time. A newborn pangolin weighs about , its length is about . The Chinese pangolin reproduces in April and May when the weather warms. The young are born ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Forest Musk Deer
The dwarf musk deer or Chinese forest musk deer (''Moschus berezovskii'', ) is an artiodactyl native to southern and central China and northernmost Vietnam. The species name is after the collector Mikhail Mikhailovich Berezovsky. On June 14, 1976, China entered the dwarf musk deer onto its endangered species list. Four subspecies are recognized: *''Moschus berezovskii berezovskii'' Flerov, 1929 *''Moschus berezovskii bijiangensis'' Wang & Li, 1993 *''Moschus berezovskii caobangis'' Dao, 1969 *''Moschus berezovskii yanguiensis'' Wang & Ma, 1993 Parasites As most animals, the dwarf musk deer harbours a number of parasites. In 2021, a study showed that ten species of Eimeria ''Eimeria'' is a genus of apicomplexan parasites that includes various species capable of causing the disease coccidiosis in animals such as cattle, poultry and smaller ruminants including sheep and goats. ''Eimeria'' species are considered to be ..., which are apicomplexan protozoans living in the diges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silver Oriole
The silver oriole (''Oriolus mellianus'') is a species of bird in the family Oriolidae. It breeds in southern China and winters in mainland Southeast Asia. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest where it is threatened by habitat loss. Taxonomy and systematics The silver oriole was originally described as a subspecies of the maroon oriole. Along with the black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have o ..., black-and-crimson and maroon orioles, it belongs to a clade of red and black orioles. Alternate names for the silver oriole include Mell's maroon oriole, Mell's oriole, Stresemann's maroon oriole and Stresemann's oriole. References silver oriole Birds of South China silver oriole ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sichuan Partridge
The Sichuan partridge (''Arborophila rufipectus'') is a bird species in the family Phasianidae. It is found only in China where it is classified as a nationally protected animal. Its natural habitat is temperate forest. It is threatened by habitat loss. Taxonomy There is still little known about the species' genome, but it is distantly related to the turkey. It is thought that it branched away from other genera with Phasianidae 39 million years ago, which is much earlier than others within the family. Behaviour Breeding Males are territorial and monogamous. Males will stay away from the females before mating and during the incubation period. At all other times, males will roost alongside the females. While females are brooding on the ground, the males will sit near the ground for two weeks and then leave to roost elsewhere. The breeding season is late March while the hatching season is mid-May through mid-July. Once paired, males will guard females 24 hours a day. When it comes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scaly-sided Merganser
The scaly-sided merganser or Chinese merganser (''Mergus squamatus'') is an endangered typical merganser (genus ''Mergus''). It lives in Manchuria and extreme Southeast Siberia, breeding in the north and wintering in the south. Description This striking sea duck has a thin red bill and a scaled dark pattern on the flanks and rump. Both sexes have a crest of wispy elongated feathers, reaching almost to the shoulders in adult males and being fairly short in females and immatures. The adult male has a black head and neck, white breast and underparts, and blackish mantle and wings, except for the white innerwings. The scaling is also black, while the tail is medium grey. The female has a buffish head and otherwise replaces the male's black with grey colour. The legs are orange-red and the irides dark brown in both sexes. Ecology Their breeding habitat is rivers in primary forest in the southeastern Russian Far East, perhaps in North Korea, and in two locations Changbai Mountains a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oriental Stork
The Oriental stork (''Ciconia boyciana''; Japanese: コウノトリ ''Konotori'') is a large, white bird with black wing feathers in the stork family Ciconiidae. Taxonomy The species was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1873. It is closely related to and resembles the European white stork (''C. ciconia''), of which it was formerly often treated as a subspecies. Description It is typically larger than the white stork, at long, tall, a weight of and a wingspan of .''CRC Handbook of Avian Body Masses'' by John B. Dunning Jr. (Editor). CRC Press (1992), Unlike its more widespread cousin, the Oriental stork has red skin around its eye, with a whitish iris and black bill. Both sexes are similar. The female is slightly smaller than male. The young are white with orange bills. Distribution and habitat The Oriental stork is found in Japan, Manchuria, Korea and Siberia. It was once extirpated from Japan and the Korean Peninsula. However, in May 2007 a hatchling was reported ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
