The Taxkorgan Nature Reserve (officially spelled Taxkorgan Natural Reserve) is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, or features of geological or ...

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 Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

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 Taghdumbash Pamir ( or historically ) or Taxkorgan Valley is a ''pamir'' or high valley in the south west of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, in Xinjiang, China. It lies to the west of the Karakoram Highway. It is inhabited by Wakhi, Kirgh ...

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 The Marco Polo sheep (''Ovis ammon polii'') is a subspecies of argali sheep, named after Marco Polo. Their habitat are the mountainous regions of Central Asia. Marco Polo sheep are distinguishable mostly by their large size and spiraling horns. T ...

and Tibetan

argali The argali (''Ovis ammon''), also known as the mountain sheep, is a wild sheep that roams the highlands of western East Asia, the Himalayas, Tibet, and the Altai Mountains. Description The name 'argali' is the Mongolian word for wild sheep. I ...

. It has since also served to protect other species such as the

snow leopard The snow leopard (''Panthera uncia''), also known as the ounce, is a Felidae, felid in the genus ''Panthera'' native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia, Central and South Asia. It is listed as Vulnerable species, Vulnerable on the IUCN Red ...

Landscape and vegetation

The reserve is situated in westernmost China in the border area to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

and

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. It is also bordered by

Khunjerab National Park Khunjerab National Park () is a national park in Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan. Khunjerab National Park is Pakistan's third largest national park, and is adjacent to the Taxkorgan Natural Reserve in China. Etymology ''Khun'' means "blood" and ' ...

in Pakistan and

Wakhan National Park __NOTOC__ Wakhan National Park is a national park in Afghanistan. Established in 2014, the park comprises the entire district of Wakhan, extending along the Wakhan Corridor between the Pamir mountains and the Hindu Kush, bordering Tajikistan t ...

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

. 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 Ungulates ( ) are members of the diverse clade Ungulata which primarily consists of large mammals with hooves. These include odd-toed ungulates such as horses, rhinoceroses, and tapirs; and even-toed ungulates such as cattle, pigs, giraffes, cam ...

species. The most prominent is the

. 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 The Siberian ibex (''Capra sibirica''), also known as the Altai ibex, Central Asia(n) ibex, Gobi ibex, Himalayan ibex, Mongolian ibex or Tian Shan ibex, is a species of ibex that lives in central Asia. It has traditionally been treated as a subs ...

and the

blue sheep The bharal (''Pseudois nayaur''), also called the blue sheep, is a caprine native to the high Himalayas. It is the only member of the genus ''Pseudois.'' It occurs in India, Bhutan, China (in Gansu, Ningxia, Sichuan, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia), ...

. Another ungulate, which was present originally in the area is the

kiang The kiang (''Equus kiang'') is the largest of the ''Asinus'' subgenus. It is native to the Tibetan Plateau, where it inhabits montane and alpine grasslands. Its current range is restricted to the plains of the Tibetan plateau; Ladakh; and north ...

. Large predators are represented by

wolf The wolf (''Canis lupus''; : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been recognized, and gray wolves, as popularly u ...

and

brown bear The brown bear (''Ursus arctos'') is a large bear species found across Eurasia and North America. In North America, the populations of brown bears are called grizzly bears, while the subspecies that inhabits the Kodiak Islands of Alaska is kno ...

. 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 dhole The Tian Shan dhole (''Cuon alpinus hesperius''), also known as the Siberian dhole, Western Asiatic dhole,Fox, M. W. (1984), ''The Whistling Hunters: Field Studies of the Indian Wild Dog'' (Cuon Alpinus), Steven Simpson Books, p. 40, or northern ...

s (''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