intrinsic value of the wild animal itself, remarked: ‘Now people are looking up
to Wolong. It has millions of RMB in its budget from the national government.
We need to use more appropriate methods’.^28
The crested ibis is one of the world’s most endangered birds. This red-faced,
white-feathered species lives in rice fields and feeds on aquatic insects. Its
range once extended throughout East Asia – including sections of Russia,
China, the Korean Peninsula, and Japan. Thought to be extinct in the region,
it was rediscovered in the Zinling Mountains of southern Shaanxi Province of
China in 1981.^29 The numbers have remained quite low however, hovering
around 200. (AChina Dailyreport in 2005 mentioned a population total of
750.)^30
The threat to the crested ibis is largely to its habitat. Contamination of
breeding and resting areas by chemical fertilizer and pesticide run-off has
endangered its survival. In response, authorities have established several
staging and breeding habitats, and monitored the species during the breeding
season. Since 2004, a few crested ibis have been returned to their natural
habitat.^31 A few natural wetlands have been restored to provide hunting areas
for the ibis too.
Tigers are the largest carnivores in China but the population, just 100 in the
wild, has become nearly extinct. China has four subspecies of tigers. The
Bengal and Amur (or Siberian) tigers have peripheral habitats in China, with
the primary habitats in the Indian subcontinent and the Russian Far East
respectively. The South China and Indo-Chinese (usually called ‘Indian’)
tigers are found in southern Tibet.^32
Tigers are an economically valuable species, both for their pelts^33 and for
their use in traditional Chinese medicines;^34 they continue to figure in the
illegal wildlife hunting and trade of China, India, and Southeast Asia. Habitat
for tigers includes coniferous forests, broad-leaved forests, mangrove swamps,
and tropical forests. Again, encroachments of human settlements, agriculture
and deforestation all contribute to this species’ endangerment.
A number of zoos have bred tigers in captivity, and two breeding centers in
the northeast – the Hengdaohezi Tiger Breeding Center in Heilongjiang and
the Northeast China Tiger Park at Harbin – have had some success in captive
breeding, to the extent that the artificially bred tiger population today exceeds
the wild population.^35 In addition, the state has established more than two
dozen nature reserves for the purpose of protecting the species.
The golden-haired monkey is endemic to China and is found in Yunnan,
Guizhou, and Sichuan provinces. There are 13 populations of the species and
about 2000 individuals. In the judgment of one specialist: ‘In one place of its
range, the population has increased; in several, the population has been
extirpated; in most places, it has stabilized’.^36
The species is valuable for its fur, and like the panda and tigers has been
Current status of species and ecosystems 51