The Taxkorgan Nature Reserve (officially spelled Taxkorgan Natural Reserve) is a
nature reserve in
Kashgar Prefecture
Kashgar Prefecture, also known as Kashi Prefecture, is located in southwestern Xinjiang, China, located in the Tarim Basin region (roughly the southern half of Xinjiang). It has an area of and 4,499,158 inhabitants at the 2015 census with a pop ...
,
Xinjiang,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. It is situated around the
Taghdumbash Pamir of
Pamir Mountains
The Pamir Mountains are a mountain range between Central Asia and Pakistan. It is located at a junction with other notable mountains, namely the Tian Shan, Karakoram, Kunlun, Hindu Kush and the Himalaya mountain ranges. They are among the world ...
and
Karakorum Mountains
The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
. It covers about was established in 1984
mainly to protect the rare
Marco Polo sheep and Tibetan
argali. It has since also served to protect other species such as the
snow leopard.
Landscape and vegetation
The reserve is situated in westernmost China in the border area to
Afghanistan,
Tajikistan and
Pakistan. It is also bordered by
Khunjerab National Park in Pakistan and
Wakhan National Park in Afghanistan. Half of its size is above 4,500 m and encompasses the northern edge of the Karakorum, the western edge of the Kunlin and the eastern offshoots of the Paimr mountains. To the south the reserve is bordering
Khunjerab National Park in
Pakistan. Most of the landscape is dominated by open, alpine vegetation. Trees are only present in some valleys below 3,400 m.
Fauna
The reserve is home to three wild
ungulate species. The most prominent is the
Marco Polo sheep. In the 1980s there were about 150 of these large wild sheep in the reserve.
Today, the population has increased to about 1,000 animals. The other two ungulate species are the
Siberian ibex and the
blue sheep. Another ungulate, which was present originally in the area is the
kiang. Large predators are represented by
snow leopard,
wolf and
brown bear. About 7,750 people with 70,000 domestic animals inhabit the reserve. The livestock has a strong impact on the reserve's vegetation.
During 2011–2013, the
Tien Shan dholes (''Cuon alpinus hesperius'') have been spotted by the local people in the reserve.
References
External links
Summary of the Park in Chinese State Forestry Administration
{{authority control
Parks in Xinjiang
Nature reserves in China
Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County