Final Report - Asian Development Bank

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TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
B. Part 2: Fauna Monitoring Program in the Project Area and Qinling Mountains
The Qinling Mountains are one of 17 biodiversity key regions that are given priority conservation.
They have the rare and endangered national treasure mega-fauna like the Qinling Giant Panda
(Ailuropoda melanoleuca), Golden Monkey (Rhinopithecus roxellana), Takin (Budorcas taxicolor
bedfordi), Crested Ibis (Nipponia nippon), Forest Musk (Moschus berezovskii), and Clouded Leopard
(Neofelis nebulosa). There are also many lesser known but also unique and/or endangered wildlife
such as Taibai Stream Salamander (Batrachuperus taibaiensis), Oinba Salamander (Pseudohynobius
tsinpaensis), Ningshan Alpine Toad (Scutiger ningshanensis), Qinling Tree Toad (Hyla tsinlingensis),
Lump-anused Frog (Chaparana quadranus), Taibai Wall Gecko (Gekko taibaiensis), Qinling Smooth
Skink (Scincella sinlingensis), Ningshan Small-head Snake (Oligodon ningshanensis), Qinling Pit
Viper (Agkistrodon qinlingensis), Qinling Lenok (Brachymystax lenok tsinlingensis) and others. For
some species the Qinling Mountains represent the northern limits of their geographic distribution (e.g.
Giant Panda, the Alpine Toad family). For other species the Qinling marks their southern boundary
(for instance, Lenok). So the Qinling Mountains is an important natural barrier in the geographic
distributions of many species. So we should select a few common representatives of these smaller
and lesser known species from the Qinling Mountains to monitor their population numbers, changes
and habitat changes for many years, and provide all the concerned authorities of Chinese
governments and international biodiversity conservation organization with the protection monitoring
data. It may be play an important role for the Qinling Mountains and the whole world biodiversity
conservation.
The relationship is very close between vertebrate and the vegetation. People believe that the first
environment factor is the vegetation which affects the vertebrate’s distribution and diversity. With the
fact that the vegetation recovering and succession, vertebrate species diversity and distribution trend
will change. Many studies indicate that vertebrate diversity varies in different plant communities. The
forests in which vegetation succession has proceeded to climax communities that are mature and
those that are interrupted the least by human activities are often the richest in terms of vertebrate
species diversity. In contrast, in habitats that are degraded and highly disturbed, vertebrate species
diversity is lower. Since vertebrates are sensitive to environment changes, they are often regarded as
the indicator species of environment changes. For instance, in 1972 USA has ascertained that birds
and amphibian were the indicating animal which have significance to the environment changes. That
the vertebrate is used for environmental monitoring is mainly in two sides, one is to monitor
environmental pollution, the other is to monitor habitat overall and minute changes.
Considering the practical difficulties existing in monitoring large-bodied rare wild birds and mammals,
we suggest selecting larger populations of fish (Qinling Lenok Brachymystax lenok tsinlingensis),
amphibians (Lump-anused Frog Chaparana quadranus or Chinese Forest Frog Rana chensisensis),
reptiles (Bronze Skink Lygosoma indicum or Qinling Pit Viper Agkistrodon qinlingensi), birds
(Plumbeous Water Redstart Rhyacornis fuliginosus or Slaty Bunting Emberiza siemsseni), and
mammals (Field Mouse Apodemus peninsulae) in the Project Area (the Qinling National Botanical
Garden) and the other region of Qinling Mountains at the same time. By monitoring their population
quantity and the habitats environment changes (from water, land and air adding the vegetation
monitoring data), our goal is to monitor the ecology environment of the Project Area, even the Qinling
Mountains, in order to protect the Qinling Mountains biodiversity.
C. Part 3 Fauna Research Program in the Project Area or Qinling Mountains
Since the first nature reserve was established in the Qinling Mountains in 1965, with the help of efforts
over 50 years, there have been 27 nature reserves of various kinds established in Qinling Mountains.
And most of them are joined together in a contiguous nature reserve group. The establishing of these
nature reserve not only gives an effective protection to the rare and endangered animals such as
Qinling Giant Panda, Takin, Golden Monkey, Crested Ibis, Chinese Giant Salamander, Qinling Lenok
and their habitats, but also helps a lot with the all-around research to Qinling Giant Panda, Takin,
Golden Monkey, Crested Ibis, which are “national treasure level” rare and endangered wild animals,
using the methods of Ecology, Morphology, Reproductive Biology, Genetics, Cytology, Taxonomy and
Behavior Science. Many monographs on these 4 species have been published and distributed in
public.