bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

sponsorType

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

quizIds

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

paywallTypes

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

SCMP Reporter

As China marks World Wildlife Day on Saturday, Chinese conservation authorities have called for greater protection of endangered feline species even as it commended existing efforts.
“The numbers of giant pandas, crested ibis and Tibetan antelopes are rising, which shows remarkable progress in protection work of wildlife,” Li Chunliang, deputy director of State Forestry Administration, said.
“But due to the disturbance caused by human activities, large feline animals such as tigers and leopards face endangerment risks, and more work is needed to protect them. We will increase protection and cooperation with other countries and improve management.”
The first animals in space: Russian dogs, French cats and US monkeys
Li was speaking at a campaign for the World Wildlife Day in Guangzhou this week, Xinhua reported. World Wildlife Day, which celebrates wild animals and plants, is aimed at raising awareness about threats against them.

In China, species such as giant pandas, crested ibis, and Tibetan antelopes that were once extremely endangered are facing fewer risks.
The giant panda is the best known species to be brought back from the brink of extinction in China but there are a handful of others that are just as intriguing but much less familiar.
Their stories show the destructive influence of humanity but also how people can give many endangered animals a fighting chance at survival.

Crested ibis
In 1964, an ornithologist recorded what was thought to be the last crested ibis spotted in the wild in China. But Chinese researcher Liu Yinzeng was not so sure and after a six-year search stumbled across an adult pair with three chicks in Yang county, Shaanxi province. Guards were stations around the tree, and fertilisers, pesticides and shotguns banned from the area. Today, the area is a crested ibis conservation zone and the species’ population stands at more than 2,600.

Giant panda
Arguably the most famous – and best-loved – face of animal conservation efforts, the giant panda was downgraded from “endangered” to “vulnerable” status in 2016 after its wild population grew 17 per cent between 2004 and 2014 to 1,864. Global conservation body WWF attributed the recovery of the species’ numbers to science, political will and the engagement of local communities.

Golden snub-nosed monkey
Just as rare, but not nearly as famous, as the giant panda, the golden snub-nosed monkey can be found in snow-covered mountain forests in central and western China. In 1986, a survey in Shennongjia, a Unesco World Heritage Site in central China, found only 501 monkeys living there. But after decades of reforestation and a hunting ban, numbers had tripled to around 1,500, state-run Xinhua reported last year. The golden snub-nosed monkey is one of the five golden monkey species, which are highly endangered and have the highest protection.

Tibetan antelope
Estimated to have a population of 1 million or more at the start of the 20th century, the Tibetan antelope was poached to near extinction, prized for its wool used in luxury shawls known as shahtoosh. Numbers dwindled to less than 75,000 by the mid-1990s. It takes an average of four antelopes to make one shawl, which can fetch up to US$20,000 each. Conservation efforts seem to have paid off. In 2016, the species was taken off the endangered list and is now classified as “near threatened”, with 100,000 to 150,000 mature adults.
Chinese alligator
Once abundant in the lower Yangtze River, the Chinese alligator was driven out of its habitat by a people as wetlands were turned into rice fields, and cities encroached on the waterway. But in 2008, the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society reported good news: Chinese alligators that had been reintroduced to the Yangtze hatched 15 baby alligators on Chongming Island at the river’s mouth. Nevertheless, the species remains critically endangered, with just 150 in the wild.
Pere David’s deer
In the early 20th century, overhunting and loss of habitat nearly wiped out the Pere David’s deer in China. But in the mid-1980s 39 deer from a European herd – bred from specimens sent by a Catholic missionary priest a century or so earlier – were reintroduced into the wild in China. From this small group, the population grew steadily and a count in 2005 found 2,500 in three national nature reserves in China, including the Tianezhou Oxbow Wetland Reserve in Hubei province.
Przewalski’s horse
The Przewalski’s horse, also known as takhi, was thought to be the world’s last wild horse – meaning its ancestors were never domesticated – but a new study suggests that it descended from a breed of domesticated horses. Hunting, loss of habitat and interbreeding with other horses led to their extinction in the wild in the 1960s, but efforts to reintroduce the population to China and Mongolia have succeeded and the horse was reclassified as “critically endangered” in 2008, then “endangered” in 2011. WWF attributes the survival of the Przewalski’s horse to conservation programmes at zoos.
South China tiger
In the early 1950s, China had an estimated 4,000 South China tigers but that number dwindled to 200 at most in 1982, under pressure from hunting. Despite occasional, unverified reports over the years, the South China tiger is believed to be extinct in the wild. Breeding programmes have been successful, and efforts are under way to reintroduce captive-bred tigers to the wild. But big challenges remain, including a lack of space for the tigers to learn to hunt, degraded habitats, and a small gene pool.


How tourists in Africa can join patrols with rangers protecting endangered animals

Hong Kong to press on with premium food branding push, set up certification system

Use of plastic bags to fill holes on Hong Kong beach a travesty

Chinese basin may have been a refuge during largest mass extinction. Do we need another?

Conservation

Back from the brink: 8 endangered species inching away from extinction in China

These animals, brought back from the brink in China, live to celebrate another World Wildlife Day this year

Staff from the Chinese Alligator Propagation Research Center release a Yangtze alligator into a river in Xuancheng, east China's Anhui province, June 12, 2007. Chinese experts have warned that inbreeding could harm efforts to save the country's endangered Yangtze alligator, already decimated by environmental pollution in its native habitat, state media reported. REUTERS/Jianan Yu (CHINA)

(180120) -- YANGXIAN, Jan. 20, 2018 (Xinhua) -- A crested ibis stands on a tree branch at the Yangxian crested ibis ecological park in Yangxian County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, Jan. 19, 2018. Efforts to protect the crested ibis (Nipponia nippon) and its habitat have helped the population grow from only seven in the 1980s to over 2,600 today. (Xinhua/Liu Xiao)(wsw)

A ranger at a nature reserve in Qinghai release a young Tibetan antelope, or chiru, next to another which reserve staff rescued from a vulture's talons when it was a few months old. Chiru have been decimated by hunters seeking their ultra-fine wool, used to make shahtoosh shawls.

A herd of Pere David's deer, milu in Chinese, at the waterfront in a Hubei province national park. The 1,567-hectare nature preservation area covers a large piece of marshland, which has become a haven for these rare, water-loving herbivores. Did you know... the milu originated in northeastern China along the Yangtze river. The mammals feed primarily on grasses, but also eat water plants in summer. Unlike deer, milu love water and can swim well. In the early 19th century, they were spotted by a French missionary and naturalist Father David. Pere is the French word for father, which explains how the deer got their English name. They are endangered due to over-hunting and a diminishing habitat. Photo : Xinhua

(00120704)--Fuzhou, December 7 (Xinhua)--A tiger couple enjoy themselves in a cave in the newly-founded Meihua Mountain South China Tiger Garden built in the Meihua Mountain State Nature Preservation Zone of south China's Fujian province, December 7, 2000. Six tigers from south China have settled down in the zone since its opening recently. Being first-class animals under the state protection, South China tigers are in the danger of extinction. (Xinhua photo by Zhang Guojun) (CL)

(171218) -- CHANGDU, Dec. 18, 2017 (Xinhua) -- A combo showing Photo taken by infrared camera on Dec. 3, 2017 shows a snow leopard in the Nujiang River valley in Changdu, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Images of snow leopards were caught for the first time in eastern parts of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. Snow leopards are a Class A protected animal in China and are classified as "endangered" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. (Xinhua) (yxb)

Sichuan's Golden Snub-nosed monkeys, Qi Qi and Le Le with her baby at Ocean Park. 20MAY17 SCMP / Edward Wong

Giant pandas aside, there are a handful of other, lesser-known species in China that have been brought back from the brink of extinction. Photo: AP

News

China

People & Culture

These animals, brought back from the brink in China, live to celebrate another World Wildlife Day this year


Pandas