Movies on the web depicting the sweetness and perils of the Ailao Mountains, the once-hidden vary in Yunnan province, have piqued a wave of curiosity in latest months.
The subject “A chicken numbering only one,000 worldwide noticed within the Ailao Mountains” on the microblogging platform Sina Weibo drew many readers.
“The white-eared night time heron is tough to identify due to its small inhabitants and secretive habits,” mentioned Zhao Xuebing, a lecturer at Yunnan College’s College of Ecology and Environmental Science.
The chicken, categorised as endangered on the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature Pink Record of Threatened Species, has been given top-level safety by the Chinese language authorities.
The Ailao Mountains, in central Yunnan, prolong about 310 miles from northwest to southeast. The vary is house to China’s largest, least disturbed, and most intact subtropical montane moist evergreen broad-leaved forest ecosystem.
This pristine atmosphere is a house for a lot of lesser-known creatures. Many are uncommon and endangered animals, together with the western black-crested gibbon, the clouded leopard and the inexperienced peafowl.
There are estimated to be simply 1,000 white-eared night time herons within the wild. In early October one was discovered on the Jinshan Yakou Xinping chicken banding and monitoring station within the Ailao Mountain Nationwide Nature Reserve.
One of the vital elusive members of the heron household, it breeds in southern and central China and in autumn migrates to the China-Myanmar border and Southeast Asia.
“The primary discovery of the chicken within the Ailao Mountains was in 2006,” mentioned Zhao, who can also be the secretary-general of the Kunming Birdwatching Affiliation.
“After a few years of silence, since 2021 it has been discovered right here 4 years in a row, indicating that its numbers have reached a sure dimension.”
Over the previous 20 years Zhao, whose most important analysis curiosity is nocturnal chicken migration, has visited the Ailao Mountains many instances from September to November. On every go to he spends greater than a month working with station employees and his colleagues on chicken banding and analysis.
The Ailao Mountains are an necessary hall for migratory birds, he mentioned. The birds collect in decrease passes within the mountain vary to fly by means of.
The Jinshan Yakou Xinping banding station and Jinshan Yakou Zhenyuan banding station, the place Zhao works, are on both facet of a ridge on the border of Xinping county in Yuxi and Zhenyuan county in Pu’er, with a median altitude of seven,900 toes. In keeping with the station’s information, greater than 200 species of migratory birds seem in that space every year.
To guard the Ailao Mountains, many nationwide, provincial, prefecture-level and county-level nature reserves have been established inside its expanse.
Ailao Mountain Nationwide Nature Reserve, within the central and northern components of the vary, protects uncommon and endangered vegetation and animal assets and their habitats.
It spans 5 counties and county-level cities.
It’s house to 86 species of mammals, 65 species of amphibians and reptiles and 430 species of birds. Amongst them, 35 species are listed as nationwide first- and second-class protected wild animals. They embody the western black-crested gibbon, the grey langur, the stump-tailed macaque, the clouded leopard, the black bear, the inexperienced peafowl and the black-necked long-tailed pheasant.
Wu Fei, an affiliate researcher in ornithology on the Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese language Academy of Sciences, mentioned he’s most involved concerning the endangered inexperienced peafowl.
The inexperienced peafowl, measuring 70 to 90 inches in size, is the one native peafowl species in China and the most important of the nation’s wild pheasants.
The males, having vibrant blue-green plumage with a crest of feathers on their heads, look sturdy and terribly ornate.
Deep throughout the Ailao Mountains, in Shuangbai county of Chuxiong, a prefecture-level nature reserve named Konglong River was established in 2003 to guard the inexperienced peafowl.
“As a flagship species, defending the inexperienced peafowl additionally safeguards the river valley habitat and plenty of different uncommon and endangered species throughout the authentic habitat,” mentioned Wu. “It performs a vital position in sustaining the steadiness of the river valley ecosystem.”
