China

Asia

Capital: BeijingMarch to May

479

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China stretches from the Siberian taiga of the northeast to tropical forests in Yunnan and Hainan, and takes in the Tibetan plateau, the largest highland in the world, where Asia's great rivers rise and where the wild yak, the Tibetan antelope and the snow leopard live. The Hengduan Mountains, in the southwest, form one of the richest biodiversity hotspots on the planet, with deep valleys and a diversity of plants that stocked the gardens of half the world. To the south lies the karst of Guangxi and Guizhou, with limestone towers, caves and underground rivers. The Yangtze and the Yellow River organise densely populated plains where nature has been reduced to fragments, and the coast provides marshes crucial to the bird migration of the Yellow Sea.

The nature of China

National animal: The giant panda, the national animal and the emblem of conservation worldwide

Did you know?

The giant panda is a carnivore by anatomy and by digestive system that has given up meat entirely: it spends up to fourteen hours a day eating bamboo and needs between twelve and thirty-eight kilos daily because it barely digests it. To handle the stems it has developed a false thumb that is not a finger but a wrist bone, elongated and opposed to the others, an improvised evolutionary solution that lets it grip the canes precisely.

Biodiversity profile

Asia Oriental (pais megadiverso)Las areas protegidas cubren el habitat del 49,5% de las especies terrestres y el 59,7% de las especies marinas evaluadas (cobertura de especies, no necesariamente % de superficie territorial total)

Climate

•Continental humedo y subartico en el noreste
•Arido y semiarido (BWk/BSk) en el noroeste (desiertos de Gobi y Taklamakan)
•Templado de alta montaña en la Meseta Tibetana
•Subtropical humedo (Cfa) en el sur y sureste
•Tropical en el extremo sur (Yunnan, Hainan)

Main biomes

•Bosque boreal y estepa (norte)
•Desierto (Gobi, Taklamakan)
•Meseta y pastizal alpino tibetano
•Bosque subtropical humedo (sur y sureste)
•Selva tropical (Yunnan, Hainan)
•Manglares y arrecifes de coral (costa sur)
•Bosque de bambú de montaña
•Meseta tibetana
•Karst subtropical
•Selva tropical de Yunnan
•Marisma del mar Amarillo
•Taiga del noreste
•Desierto de Taklamakán

Marine and coastal ecosystems

•Extensas areas marinas con arrecifes de coral relevantes en el sur (Hainan)
•Manglares costeros

Flagship wildlife

•Panda gigante
•Tigre de Amur (Siberia/noreste de China)
•Grulla de cuello negro
•Mono dorado de Yunnan
•Leopardo de las nieves
•Delfin de rio del Yangtze (baiji, posiblemente extinto)
•Antílope tibetano
•Grulla de coronilla roja
•Ibis crestado
•Cocodrilo chino
•Yak salvaje
•Mono dorado de nariz chata
•Panda rojo
•Marsopa sin aleta del Yangtsé

Notable endemic species

•Panda gigante (icono mundial de conservacion, endemico)
•11% de los generos de vertebrados y 7% de los generos de plantas son endemicos
•Yunnan, con solo 4,1% del territorio nacional, concentra una porcion desproporcionada de la biodiversidad del pais ("Centro de Diversidad Vegetal" y Endemic Bird Area global)
•Dos tercios de las especies de anfibios de China son endemicas
•Mono dorado de nariz chata
•Cocodrilo chino
•Marsopa sin aleta del Yangtsé
•Salamandra gigante china

Notable threatened species

•Leopardo (declive del 81% en el area de distribucion historica del panda desde los años 60)
•Leopardo de las nieves (declive del 38%)
•Lobo (declive del 77%)
•Cuon o perro salvaje asiatico (declive del 95%)
•Aprox. 233 especies de vertebrados en riesgo de extincion y 15-20% de las plantas superiores silvestres en peligro

Notable protected areas

•Parque Nacional del Panda Gigante (27.134 km2, establecido en 2021, uno de los mayores hotspots de endemismo mundial)
•Reserva Natural de Wolong (Sichuan)
•Parque Nacional de Sanjiangyuan
•Parque Nacional de Wuyishan
•Reserva de Jiuzhaigou
•Parque Nacional del Tigre Siberiano
•Reserva de Poyang

Main conservation threats

•Cambio climatico proyectado a reducir el habitat adecuado del panda gigante entre 6,7% y 16,2%, y el del almizclero de bosque hasta 24%
•Fuerte declive historico de grandes carnivoros por perdida de habitat y conflicto humano-fauna
•Contradicciones persistentes entre desarrollo economico y conservacion de biodiversidad

Notable natural phenomena

•Migracion altitudinal proyectada del panda gigante y especies simpatricas hacia zonas mas elevadas y centrales de las Montañas Liangshan por el cambio climatico

Conservation

The Yangtze river dolphin, or baiji, was declared functionally extinct in 2006 after an expedition failed to find a single animal: it was the first cetacean lost to human causes. The giant panda, by contrast, moved from Endangered to Vulnerable in 2016 thanks to the network of bamboo reserves.

Where and when to watch wildlife

Sichuan between March and May for pandas and mountain birds. Zhalong in winter for red-crowned cranes. Sanjiangyuan in summer for Tibetan antelope and snow leopard.

Sources: BIOFIN - China | BioDB.com - China | PNAS - Strengthening protected areas for biodiversity China | ScienceDirect - Yunnan protected area network climate change | The Nature Conservancy - China biodiversity report

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