Chapter 3 Section 2 Exotic Animals

The Chinese terrestrial fauna includes two major zoogeographic regions, the Palearctic and the Oriental.The only countries in the world that straddle two borders are China, Mexico and India.There are more than 4,000 species of vertebrates in my country, accounting for 1/10 of the same species in the world.Among the more than 2,100 species of terrestrial animals, there are 450 species of mammals, 1,186 species of birds, 196 species of amphibians, and 320 species of reptiles. In addition, there are more than 2,000 species of fish and various other aquatic animals.Many of them are Chinese specialties and world-renowned rare birds and animals.According to the "National Key Protected Wildlife List" approved by the State Council of China on December 10, 1988, there are 96 species of first-class protected animals.For example, giant pandas, golden monkeys, white-lipped deer, alligators, Chinese sturgeon (xunxun), white-finned (qiqi) dolphins, wild horses, wild camels, elk, crested ibis (huanhuan), and red-crowned cranes are all rare animals under my country's first-class protection.

In order to save endangered biological resources, China has opened up 763 nature reserves of various types in 1994, 90 of which are national nature reserves.For example, Sichuan Wolong and Tangjiahe Nature Reserves established for the protection of giant pandas, Anhui Alligator Nature Reserve, Hubei Shennongjia Golden Monkey Nature Reserve, Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou, Changbai Mountain in Jilin, Dinghu Mountain in Guangdong, Wuyi Mountain in Fujian, Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang, etc. nature reserve.In these protected areas, a series of surveys have been conducted on rare animal resources and their ecosystems, and routine monitoring has been done on the habits and breeding of very precious fauna.Among them, nature reserves such as Changbai Mountain in Jilin, Wolong in Sichuan, Dinghu Mountain in Guangdong, and Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou have joined the World Network of Biosphere Reserves. Chinese and foreign scientists have cooperated to conduct positioning observation and research, making contributions to the protection of my country's rare animal resources.

The giant panda (Ailuropoda Melanoleuca) is a priceless treasure among Chinese animals, and also a rare animal loved by men, women and children in the world.Some people call it the giant panda, thinking it belongs to the bear family, while others list it as the cat family. In fact, it belongs to the class of mammals, the cat bear family, and panda is a common name.Pandas are docile, with round heads and short tails, fat bodies and beautiful black and white fur.White face, black ears, and two "eight"-shaped dark circles painted on the face.Most of the body is milky white, the limbs are black, the black forelimbs are connected to the center of the shoulders, forming a black ring, like a swaying "model" in a black and white suit, some people call it Miss Panda, don't forget, There is also Mr. Panda who often performs on stage.

Giant pandas and humans appeared on the earth almost at the same time. Around the middle of the Quaternary Pleistocene (600,000 years ago), giant pandas, stegodonts, and great apes often lived together in southern China, forming typical local animals at that time. group.Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Quaternary glaciers came, the climate was suddenly cold, and the living environment deteriorated. The living area of ​​giant pandas gradually shrank, and they were limited to the Hengduan Mountains in China, northwest Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi.Although the giant panda appeared on the earth very early, it has always been unknown. In 1869, the French priest David obtained the first giant panda specimen in Baoxing, Sichuan, and sent it to the French Museum of Natural History in Paris.It was not until the first live giant panda was caught in 1936 that it became famous all over the world, and it has a history of only half a century. In 1955, Beijing Zoo began to raise giant pandas artificially. In September 1963, the cubs were born for the first time, entering a new era of artificial breeding of giant pandas.Soon, artificial insemination was successful again.People can't help asking: Why are giant pandas so rare and delicate?

This is because giant pandas are not only distributed in narrow and remote areas, but also limited by food sources.Pandas inhabit mountainous areas at an altitude of 2,600-3,500 meters, requiring a warm and moist climate, neither cold in winter nor hot in summer.The panda's food is mainly bamboo, and it eats a lot, so the distribution and abundance of bamboo affect the distribution and survival of pandas.Generally, the distribution of bamboo forests is isolated and scattered. If there is a sudden change in the growth of bamboo forests, such as a large area of ​​arrow bamboo blooming and dying in my country in the past few years, the food source of pandas will be cut off, resulting in the death or migration of a large number of pandas.Furthermore, the ability of pandas to reproduce is poor.Pandas are withdrawn, self-admiring, solitary, have few opportunities to court, and only look for them when they are in heat, and they don't know where Lang and Amei are?What's more, they are late in sexual maturity, and usually don't burst into puberty until they are six or seven years old. The estrus period is very short, and it is easy to miss the "good marriage", so the reproductive rate is low.If panda mothers give birth, they only have one or two cubs at a time. In nature, they can only support one, and the survival rate is also very low.Although the panda population has gradually transformed from a carnivore to a vegetarian animal in order to adapt to environmental changes in the competition in nature, and has won a place in Southwest China to survive, but it still cannot restore its declining fate.This priceless treasure has been extinct in many parts of our country. The surviving wild pandas are regarded as living fossils and are being rescued and protected by people. A pair of twins (one male and one female) artificially bred in Sichuan in 1991 survived at the same time and developed well.China refuses any country to buy or exchange pandas with other animals, and only presents animals as gifts to some friendly countries for display, so that local people have the opportunity to see giant pandas.

There are 18 species of apes domestically produced in China, six of which are special products of China, including the golden snub-nosed monkey, Guizhou golden monkey, Yunnan golden monkey, white-headed langur, Taiwanese macaque, and wool-faced macaque.The first three are called the three golden monkey brothers, and their reputation is second only to the giant panda.Since it has not been exhibited abroad so far, if the world wants to see this noble primate (zhang palm), they have to go to China to look for it in person. By chance, they may be able to see it. Golden snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus Roxellana) is a social animal.The strongest male monkey in the group is the monkey king, giving orders, leading and defending the monkey group. Whenever there is an invasion of foreign enemies, the monkey king is the first to issue a warning, and with a roar, the monkey group flees quickly.The golden snub-nosed monkey has a stout body, with its nostrils turned up to the sky, its face is sky blue, its shoulders and back are covered with long golden hair, and it has a long tail.The golden monkey has flexible limbs, climbs and plays in the trees, shouts loudly, jumps from one tree to another, whizzes past, and is fleeting. It is known as a high jumper and a fast runner. It is difficult to catch.During the day, they pick wild fruits, pine nuts, and young leaves from trees. They mainly eat vegetarian food. At night, they cuddle up on tree forks and sleep while squatting.Golden snub-nosed monkeys generally inhabit high mountains at an altitude of 2,000-3,500 meters, and are mainly distributed in the Minshan and Qionglai Mountains in Sichuan, the Qinling Mountains in Shaanxi, Motianling in Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu, and the primitive dense forests of Shennongjia in Hubei.The fur of the golden monkey is extremely precious, and the leather mattress made of it can prevent moisture and have the effect of treating rheumatism.

In ancient my country, there were long records of golden monkeys, and they were called "marmosets" (Rong Rong) in "Er Ya".The golden monkeys love the old, the young, the sick and the disabled. If a monkey is injured, they will gather together to help.The mother monkey is very loving and caring for her cubs. If she is frightened and flees, she must take the cub with her. When the hunter chases her, when the mother monkey sees no way out, she quickly pushes the cub down to escape, and waits for the cub to be caught.A record about "marmoset" in "Taiping Guangji" is very touching: when the female golden monkey was hit by an arrow, she immediately put down her cub.The little monkey was attached to its mother, and after walking not far away, it returned to the mother monkey's arms. The mother monkey reluctantly pushed the cub down to let it run for its life. The little monkey cried bitterly, and both mother and child died.Faced with such a desolate and moving scene, how could human beings have the heart to hunt and kill them!Golden monkeys have a low fertility rate. Female monkeys are in estrus and mate in spring. They usually have five to six months of pregnancy and only give birth to one cub. It is no wonder that female monkeys lick their calves affectionately.

Guizhou snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus Roxellana Brelichi) Guizhou snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus Roxellana Brelichi) is named after it is produced in Guizhou Province, China.It is only distributed in the virgin forest of Fanjing Mountain in Guizhou Province, across the three counties of Jiangkou, Yinjiang and Songtao, and belongs to the Wuling mountain area.According to preliminary surveys, there are about 300-500 primates, which can be said to be the smallest number of primates in the world.Except that it has been publicly exhibited in Beijing Zoo and Guiyang Qianling Park, there has never been such a rare animal in other zoos at home and abroad so far.Today, only the British Museum of Natural History has a monkey skin specimen abroad.

The fur of the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey is grayish brown, without beautiful golden threads, and there is a white spot on the back of the neck between the shoulders. Some people call it the white-shouldered snub-nosed monkey.It has the longest tail among the three golden monkey brothers, and its tail is much longer than its body.For example, the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey specimen named in 1903 has a body length of 730 mm and a tail length of 970 mm. It is generally lighter than the golden monkey, about 16 kg. Although the body of the Guizhou snub-nosed monkey is not as tall and beautiful as its big brother, the living habits are very similar.They live in groups in the evergreen and deciduous forest areas of Mount Fanjing.Usually, Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys are mainly active in the canopy of tall trees. They like to eat leaves, buds, bark and fruits on the trees. They forage, sleep and play on the trees. perch.Because this kind of monkey is fast and runs in groups, it is extremely difficult to catch. In September 1967, a female monkey was caught in Jinzhanping, west of Fanjing Mountain, Guizhou. In April 1970, a male monkey was caught in Panxi, south of Fanjing Mountain. Both were captured for stealing food down the mountain.They were sent to Beijing Zoo one after another. The female monkey mated with a common golden monkey from Shaanxi in 1969 and gave birth to a female cub in the second year.In the same year, the male monkey came to Beijing. The two lived together in love and hit it off. They formed a five-day family with their young daughter and took a photo of a precious mixed family. It was published in the first issue of the magazine in 1982 and caused a sensation at home and abroad.Unexpectedly, the good times didn’t last long, and the three monkeys lived separately due to unsuitable diet and poor health. The male monkey was exhibited in Beijing Zoo for only one month in 1971, and died after four years of artificial rearing. The female monkey only lived for three years , The "mixed blood" young girl died before the incense was continued.Although the artificial breeding of Guizhou snub-nosed monkeys has just taken the first step, it has gained some valuable experience.At present, a nature reserve has been established in Fanjing Mountain where the wild Guizhou snub-nosed monkey is located, and the ecological environment is well preserved.Many biologists at home and abroad often go to Mount Fanjing to look for traces of this rare monkey.

Yunnan snub-nosed monkey (Rhinopithecus Roxellana Bieti) Yunnan snub-nosed monkey is named after it is produced in Yunnan Province of my country, also known as black snub-nosed monkey, because the main body is black fur, with long black hair on the top of the head and back, and white on the chest, abdomen, arms and inside of the limbs .The locals call it the snow monkey or the white monkey because it lives on the alpine snow.Among the three golden monkey brothers, it climbs the highest and is the most cold-resistant.Generally in the alpine region above 3350-4000 meters above sea level, it mainly inhabits the alpine valleys of the Yunling Mountains in the north of Yunnan Province. Ping's alpine and cold coniferous forest belt.This kind of monkey eats usnea, pine needles, and tender tips of fir trees, and goes to the ground every May to July to eat new bamboo shoots and tender bamboo leaves.So far, China has not been able to breed and exhibit it, only a few specimens of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys have been obtained.

China is the country with the most species of deer in the world. There are 17 genera and 38 species in the world, of which 10 genera and 18 species can be found in China, accounting for about half of the world.For example, the Sibuxiang (moose [mimi] deer) with extraordinary background, the white-lipped deer on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Hainan Eld's deer, the sika deer, and the small yellow muntjac. The scientific name of "Four Different Elephants" is Elk (Elaphurus Davidianus), which has long been recorded in ancient books and is a special deer species in China.Because its tail looks like a horse but not a horse, its horns like a deer and not a deer, its hooves like a cow's and not a cow's, and its neck like a camel's but not a camel's, so it is commonly called "four different images".This kind of deer is about two meters long and more than one meter high at the shoulder.Bucks are larger and can weigh up to 200 kg.Fur grayish brown.The male deer has horns, while the female deer has no horns. The limbs are thick and powerful, the main hooves are wide and can be separated, and they run with noise.In ancient Chinese novels, it was mentioned "four different images". When King Wu defeated Zhou Dynasty, Jiang Ziya, the commander-in-chief of the Zhou Dynasty, called "four different images" on his horse, and described it as "Lintouzhi [zhi] exhibits his body like a dragon". It can be seen that the ancients appreciated the elk.According to the unearthed fossils, its footprints were found in the north and south of the Yangtze River, and it gradually decreased in the Qin and Han Dynasties.The dynasties of the past dynasties used elk as hunting objects, or raised them in deer parks for royal and noble hunting purposes. In the book "Mencius", there is a description of "(Liang Hui) Wang stood on the marsh, Gu Hongyan, and the elk"."Natural History" written by Zhang Hua in the Western Jin Dynasty once recorded: "Hailing County (now Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province) has many elks, tens of millions of them." This further shows that wild elks were widely distributed from North China to the coast of East my country in ancient China.With the change of time and the change of stars, the green sea and the mulberry fields extended to the Qing Dynasty, and the wild elk had disappeared, and there was only one artificial breeding ground, that is, the Royal Hunting Garden of Nanhaizi, Beijing. The imperialist powers invaded in the middle of the 19th century, and the only remaining Chinese elk was also doomed and displaced. In 1866, a French priest took two elk skins and two elk heads from Nanhaizi and sent them to Paris. In the 10 years to 1876, the British, French, German, Belgian envoys and missionaries in the Qing Dynasty managed to get dozens of them from Nanhaizi. An elk was transported back to China for an exhibition, and the "four different images" were exiled abroad. In 1900, the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded Beijing, and the Yongding River flooded again, making the last herd of elk in China disappear without a trace.And those elk that once wandered abroad passed on to the next generation in the garden of Ubang Temple Villa near London, England.There are thousands of moose in the world at present, and they are all descendants of the moose in Beijing Hunting Garden. In the spring of 1956, the London Zoological Society donated two pairs of elk to China. In 1985, another 20 came back from the Ubang Temple in the United Kingdom. Now the elk garden is being rebuilt in Nanhaizi, Beijing, and they are welcome to return to their hometown and settle down. In 1986, under the promotion of the World Wildlife Fund, London Zoo provided 39 elks free of charge and stocked them in Yancheng Nature Reserve, Jiangsu Province, so that the descendants of the "Four Different Elephants" who returned and migrated could rebuild their homes on the land of China. White-lipped deer (Cervus Albirostris) is a rare deer species in my country's plateau.It is mainly distributed in the high mountains of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an altitude of 3000-4000 meters, including most of Tibet and Qinghai, central and southeastern Gansu, and western and northern Sichuan.The white-lipped deer has a pure white lower lip, the sides of the snout are also white, and the ears are long and pointed.The body length is two meters, the shoulder height is 1.3 meters, and the weight can reach 75 kilograms.The fur is brownish yellow with pale floret spots, and the fur is dark brown in winter.Bucks have flat horns, divided into four or five forks, and a small tail of only three centimeters.The white-lipped deer is usually led by a big male deer and haunts alpine meadows and alpine bushes.They are not afraid of severe cold and wind and snow, and feed on the young branches and leaves of mountain grasses and shrubs. In the 1970s, my country presented Sri Lanka with a pair of small white-lipped deer, which was the first time they went to the world.There is no such rare and precious animal in other countries.In recent years, white-lipped deer have been domesticated in deer farms in Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan. Hainan Eld's Deer (Cervus unicolor hainana) is named Hainan Eld's Deer because it is produced in Hainan Island.The most prominent feature is that there is a large and curved eyebrow branch at the corner, which is connected with the curved main branch at the back to form an arc.Hainan eld's deer are distributed in northern and mountainous areas of Hainan. Due to long-term hunting and indiscriminate killing, there are only dozens of them left in Datian in Dongfang County and Bangxi in Baisha County.This kind of deer has white spots on its body, the ribs and legs are khaki, but the abdomen and chest are white, and there is a black midline on the back. It is about one meter tall.Bucks weigh more than 100 kilograms.The velvet antler produced is of good texture and is a high-quality medicinal material.A nature reserve has been established in Datian, Dongfang County to rescue and protect this endangered and rare animal. Baiji dolphin (Lipotes Vexillifer), also known as Baiji dolphin, is a small toothed whale belonging to freshwater dolphins.There is a description in the note of the ancient Chinese book "Erya": "The body is like a 鱏 [xun xun], and the tail is like (fish chrysanthemum) [juju] fish. The belly is big, the beak [huihui] is small, sharp and long, and the teeth are round. Live, biting each other up and down. The nose is on the forehead, can make a sound, less meat and more ointment, viviparous, and eat fine fish. The big ones are more than ten feet long, and there are many in the river." It can be seen how much the ancients observed this kind of finless porpoise subtle.In view of its hasty appearance and gray-blue shadow that cannot be reached, it is praised as "Bai Ji, the Goddess of the Yangtze River".There is an article called "Bai Qiulian" written by Pu Songling, a literati in the Qing Dynasty. It is a beautiful and moving love story drawn from "Bai Ji". You may as well take the opportunity to read it. According to scientific research, Baiji dolphin is a precious water animal in the Yangtze River, referred to as Baiji or Baiqi, which is a homonym with Baiji.It is fish-like in shape, but has no gills, breathes by lungs, and has a pointed mouth like a duck.There are more than 130 conical sharp teeth in the mouth, but they cannot chew food, but swallow it whole.Its eyes are as small as two mung beans inlaid on both sides of the forehead, the dorsal fin is triangular, the two pectoral fins are palm-shaped, and the nose is a small round air hole on the top of the head, sticking out of the water every 10-13 seconds to change gas.Generally, they swim in groups of three or five to look for food in the river, and sometimes they come in pairs.The mating period is late winter and early spring, and the pregnancy period is about one year. Each litter only produces one cub. The cubs grow up by sucking milk, and the reproductive rate is low. Although the baiji dolphin has degenerated ears and eyes, it has a radar-like sonar system in its body, which can identify objects, detect food, communicate with partners, and seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.This finless porpoise has a more developed brain than gorillas and chimpanzees, and is a smart water animal.Baiji dolphins used to be widely distributed. From the mouth of the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges area, they often appeared or disappeared, entered Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, and were even found in Qiantang River and Fuchun River.In recent years, it has only been seen in Dongting Lake and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.Whenever the water level is high in summer, they swim to the lake to look for food, and swim back to the deep water area of ​​the Yangtze River in winter to spend the winter.So far only two specimens exist abroad. In 1980, fishermen in Yueyang, Hunan Province caught a live Baiji dolphin and named it "Qiqi".After four years of careful maintenance, the injury was cured, the body length grew from 1.43 meters to 1.9 meters, and the weight grew from 26.5 kg to 92.5 kg.The baiji is of great value in the field of scientific research because it belongs to the group of freshwater dolphins, the oldest of the modern surviving cetaceans.What is interesting is its shape, structure and diving function, which have important reference value for military science, bionics, shipbuilding and improving artificial sonar systems. Dugong (Dugong Dugon) There are many legends about mermaids in the world. Sculptures of mermaids' heads, fish bodies and fish tails can be seen in many cities and gardens in Europe.This legend mostly originated from the sailors on long voyages. They wandered in the vast sea for many years, missing their relatives in their hometown.When they looked at the bay in the distance, they seemed to find a topless "mermaid" fish with cubs in its arms, floating and sinking in the waves.There are similar legends in ancient China. The most famous one is the record in "徂 [cu Cu Yangping] Yiji" in the Song Dynasty: "The Chadao envoy Goryeo saw a woman in red clothes, with a chaotic bun [jihuanjihuan], behind her cheeks Slightly exposed red mane [lie bad], life supported in the water, begging hands to feel love but not gone—it is a mermaid.” In addition, "Ji Shenlu" also records that someone saw a "mermaid" with a head like a woman's tail like a fish on the sea .The legends about mermaids in the East and the West, although there is a romanticism that is both real and illusory, there is indeed a strange water beast on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, the South China Sea, and the waters of Australia. middle.According to scientific research, this animal that was mistaken for a mermaid is a mammal similar to a manatee. The transliteration of the Latin scientific name Dugon is called dugong [gengenqu]. Although it is not unique to any country, it is found in southern Taiwan Province of my country. There are dugongs in the coastal areas of Guangdong and Guangdong.Therefore, it is listed as a national first-class protected rare animal. Dugongs belong to the order Manatee, Dugongaceae.Its image is not beautiful, its head is small and its body is big, its weight is 300-500 kg, its length is 2.7-3.5 meters, its skin is gray with yellow sparse short hairs, its ears have degenerated and only two ear holes are behind the eyes, and there are two dull little circles. The eyes still shed tears constantly to protect the eyeballs from being damaged due to dryness.His face was wrinkled and his beard was unshaven.The nose is even more peculiar. It has a fleshy cover that opens inward. When breathing is needed, the cover opens inward and closes when diving to prevent choking. It is an excellent diver.Dugongs are aquatic beasts living in groups, ranging from 10 individuals to dozens of individuals swimming in sunny shallow seas or estuaries where algae are abundant.Floating to the surface at dawn or dusk, it is no wonder that sailors wandering in the vast sea are in a trance, and regard the female dugong who is breastfeeding the young with its pectoral fins as a mermaid. The alligator (Alligator Sinensis) is produced in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. This section of the Yangtze River is also called the Yangtze River, hence the name alligator.It belongs to the same genus as the crocodile produced in the Mississippi River in the United States, and it is also a temperate crocodile and amphibian. The Chinese alligator was called Tuo [tuo] in ancient China, and this word appeared as early as in the oracle bone inscriptions of the Yin and Shang Dynasties.It is recorded in the famous "Book of Rites" that it is regarded as a kind of dragon, called Zhu Polong, also known as Earth Dragon.According to research by some scientists, the dragon is actually the incarnation of the crocodile.It has a big mouth, huge teeth, distinct armor, four-legged long tail, amphibious, all in line with the image of a dragon.Li Shizhen of the Ming Dynasty called it the dragon.In short, it is a kind of ancient animal, which is the descendant of the reptiles of the Mesozoic Era like the turtle, and can be said to be the relative of the dinosaur.From the skin to the teeth, the bone structure still retains the characteristics of the dinosaur era, and it is a living fossil of ancient animals.At present, the number of Chinese alligators in the wild is very small, and it belongs to the national first-level key protected animals. The International Organization for Nature Conservation has listed it as a first-level endangered animal, and it is an endangered species that is prohibited from trade.The Chinese alligator is not only very precious because of its ancient age, but also the only temperate crocodile that hibernates among more than 20 kinds of crocodiles. It is active for half a year and dormant for half a year.When the temperature drops below zero in late October every year, it enters the cave and goes dormant, and comes out of the cave in the middle and late April of the following year.The average temperature in the cave is about 10°C. When it starts to sleep and is about to wake up, it will be conscious and respond to stimulation, and it will be in a dead state for a long time in the middle of the dormancy period.After a long sleep, the Chinese alligator stretched and crawled out of the cave. Facing the bright spring in the south of the Yangtze River, the alligator focused on foraging, looking for fish, frogs, shrimps, crabs and aquatic insects, especially snails.The Chinese alligator is no more than two meters long and weighs up to 50 kilograms.Unlike the large crocodiles in Africa and South America, which devour birds and kill humans ferociously, they are mild animals.According to historical documents, there are many lakes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and along the river, such as Yueyang and Changde in Hunan, Jiangling, Wuchang, Huanggang and Hankou in Hubei, Jiujiang in Jiangxi, Anqing, Wuhu and Dangtu in Anhui, Zhenjiang and Yangzhou in Jiangsu. Find.In recent years, it has been transferred to the hilly areas of southern Anhui, Xuancheng, Nanling, and Jingxian along the Qingyi River, a tributary of the Yangtze River, and then to Nanning, Langxi, and Guangde.There are two main reasons why the alligator is endangered. One is the construction of water conservancy to reclaim farmland, and the ecological environment of the alligator has been destroyed by reclamation of lakes. The other is wanton hunting, thinking that it looks like a monster. Cut off its food source and cause it to die.The current work of protecting and rescuing the endangered alligator has achieved results. In addition to establishing a nature reserve in Xuancheng, Langxi, Guangde, Nanling and other counties, Xuancheng County has also established a breeding farm for artificial breeding, which has achieved great results . Through scientific research, it is interesting to observe how the alligator reproduces.The male and female call and call for courtship. During the hatching process of wild eggs, the ratio of male to female is 5:1, with fewer males and more females.According to the experiment of artificially hatching eggs, the sex is restricted by the temperature: if the temperature is below 30°C and above 26°C, it is female; if the temperature is above 31°C and below 36°C, it is all male; between 31°C and 33°C, there are males. There are males and females, and there are more females than males. If the temperature is below 26°C or above 36°C, they cannot hatch.Observed in the field, the temperature of the nests in dry places can reach 35°C to hatch males, while most nests are built in swamps, the temperature is only 30°C, and only female crocodiles can be hatched.This situation is not limited to alligators, other crocodiles also have this special reproduction phenomenon.Chinese alligators mate in early to mid-June and in the water at night. Nests are selected in July. The caves are constructed with weeds and soil, and then eggs are laid. 10-30 gray-white shell eggs are laid at a time, covered with thick grass, and hatched for more than two months using the heat of plant decay and fermentation.When the shell is about to break, the female crocodile picks up the grass to help the young crocodiles climb out of the nest, guides the children into the pool to learn to forage, and runs away after "laying eggs", which is more maternally loving than other crocodiles.However, the elimination rate of young alligator alligators is very high, and the hibernation period is approaching shortly after birth. Their own nutrition and eating conditions are the key to their survival. my country has carried out artificial breeding of Chinese alligators since the early 1980s, and has made breakthroughs. In 1982, it solved the problem of artificial feeding of young alligators. In 1983, it achieved success in laying eggs and multiplying offspring under artificial breeding conditions.Crocodile nests were built on the sunny and shady slopes of the artificial breeding farm in Xuancheng, and gratifying results were achieved by adjusting the ratio of males and females with different incubation temperatures. On the vast northwest prairie and the desolate Gobi desert in China, there are two remaining wild buddies with hooves—wild donkeys and wild camels. The wild donkey (Equus Hemionus) is often mistaken for a wild horse because its shape is similar to a wild horse. The wild horse has been extinct in China so far.The wild ass was neither the ancestor of the horse nor the present-day domestic donkey.It looks like a mule, its hooves are smaller than those of a horse, but larger than those of a donkey, and its sound is close to the neighing of a horse but different from the braying of a donkey.The mane on the neck is short and straight, the hair is dark brown, the underside is white, and there is a black line in the middle of the spine that reaches the root of the tail.Wild donkeys are typical animals that live in groups in the desert. They go to places with water sources or pastures in groups during the day, and are brought back to the desert by a jackass in the evening to spend the night.The Chinese wild ass is a first-class national key protected wild animal.It is mainly distributed in the deserts and wastelands of Xinjiang, northern Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, and arid and semi-arid regions of northwest Sichuan.Wild donkeys live by chasing water and grass. They mainly eat knotweed, trichosanthes, mugwort, wild onions, and reeds, and drink bitter water with a salty taste.When the winter blizzard comes, the hard-working wild donkeys are looking for dead grass and moss under the snow to satisfy their hunger.Under extremely harsh natural conditions, wild donkeys have developed the ability to run like flying, and can run an average of 48 kilometers per hour, which can be compared with cars. In 1982, my country established the Kalamaili Nature Reserve in Qitai County, Xinjiang, mainly to protect wild donkeys. The wild camel (Camelus Bactrianus) belongs to the Artiodactyla order, Camelidae.The wild camels and domestic camels produced in China are Bactrian camels.However, wild camels and domestic camels are not the same species, there are differences in shape.The body hair of the wild camel is light brown, and has never had other color types. It is tall and thin, with slender limbs, short body hair, and its head and hump are smaller than those of domestic camels.The top and bottom of the wild camel's hump are conical, never drooping sideways, much smaller than the fat and fat-filled hump of the domestic camel.In summer, the wild camel's hump is completely stripped off, while the domestic camel's hump still has thick fluff.In terms of appearance, domestic camels have light-colored long hairs on the upper and lower parts of the neck, head, peak, tail, elbows, and knees, while wild camels do not, and they are bald.Wild camels have smaller heads, shorter ears, longer necks than domestic camels, narrow feet, and smaller hooves than domestic camels, making them suitable for fast running.There are also similarities between the two, mainly because there is a thick layer of calluses on the soles of the feet, just like wearing thick rubber boots, walking on the hot sand will not burn the feet, so it has the reputation of "desert boat".Although wild camels weigh about 500 kilograms, they are also good at running.When they are chased by their natural enemies, wolves, they can run rapidly for two hours continuously, covering a distance of 60 kilometers, until they disappear into the sand sea deep in the desert. Chinese wild camels are distributed in the northeast of Xinjiang, south of the three counties of Hami, Turpan, and Shanshan, and on the Tarim Desert and depressions west of Lop Nur. In addition, they are also found near Dunhuang at the junction of Xinjiang, Gansu, and Qinghai, and Mazong Mountain in Inner Mongolia. . The ecological environment in which wild camels live is very dangerous, and it is a typical continental arid climate.It is very hot in summer, the highest temperature can reach above 50°C, and the coldest in winter is below minus 20°C.Under the scorching sun in summer, the gravel and quicksand reaches about 70°C.The average annual rainfall is less than 30 millimeters. As soon as a dark cloud floats in the sky, it evaporates in the air before it falls on the ground.Fifty days a year are windy days with flying sand and rocks. Someone once described that "birds must bring their own food when they fly across the border", but how do wild camels survive in this desert area? During the long process of biological evolution, wild camels have already adapted to the harsh desert natural ecological environment, and have developed the habit of enduring hardship and hard work.It has the physiological functions of windproof, sandproof, thirst-resistant, and heat-resistant. It also has a set of drinking and water-saving skills. The most interesting thing is that the body temperature can be adjusted and changed according to the climate, and the fur clothing can change seasons and ventilate itself. The hooves of wild camels walk in the desert like boots, leisurely.Its nostrils can open and close freely, and its eyelids and eyelashes are long to protect against wind and sand.The double humps are raised high and thick with fat, which can be used as a dry food bag and a large kettle.When it walks in the desert lacking grass and water, the hump fat is its own food supply.According to calculations, 107 grams of water can be produced when 100 grams of fat is oxidized, and if there are 30 kilograms of fat stored in the hump, more than 30 liters of water can be produced during oxidation.Wild camels have a keen sense of smell and can smell aquatic plants far away, and can drink about 100 liters of water in one breath.It will not only "open source", but also "throttling", usually "close-mouthed", does not easily open its mouth to scream, the stool is small and dry, and fully saves water.In order to avoid sweating and evaporation, it automatically adjusts its body temperature, which rises to 40°C during the day and drops to 34°C at night to adapt to the large temperature difference between day and night in inland areas. It is a rare temperature-changing animal among mammals in the world.The blood in the wild camel always retains a certain amount of water to maintain a normal circulatory system and ensure the survival of life.When summer comes, some of the fur on the wild camels will fall off, and more of them will be bonded into felt sheets, which are hung on the body, which not only prevents the scorching sun, but also has a gap with the skin, which can ventilate and cool down, killing two birds with one stone. Distinctive.Wild camels in the vast sea of ​​sand, see sandy plants such as red willow, reed, trichosanthes, camel thorns, etc., and it eats them sweet and delicious.Every spring courtship and mating, female camels have a gestation period of 13 months, and each gives birth to a baby.The cute little camel stands up and walks within two hours of landing, and can travel with its "mother" to the Gobi Desert within one day after being born. It grows to 100 kilograms in more than six months, and its average life expectancy is 30-35 years old.In summer, a male and a female wild camels lead a small camel to form a small family scattered, looking for scattered aquatic plants in the desert.In autumn, wild camels converge into groups of 10 or 20 to carry out group activities, looking for food in leeward and lowlands with water sources and grasses or hills and dry ditches.When the winter blizzard comes, groups of wild camels lie down against the wind, hiding the small camels in the middle and protecting them against the disastrous weather together. At present, the wild camels produced in China are world-renowned rare animals and are listed as national first-class protected animals. In 1983, the Lop Nor depression and the lower reaches of the Tarim River in Xinjiang were designated as wild camel nature reserves. China is the country that produces the most birds in the world, among which there are many rare species of rare birds and different birds.Chinese cranes are famous all over the world, the most precious one is the red-crowned crane (crowned crane), and the rare and beautiful crested ibis [huanhuan] is the least in number. The red-crowned crane (Grus Japonensis) is also called the red-crowned crane. It has a long beak and long legs. Except for the brown throat and black tail feathers, the whole body is covered with snow-white feathers, which match the bare vermilion head.Because of the long lifespan of the red-crowned crane, people associate it with immortals, and therefore regard it as a symbol of longevity.Literati and inkmen of all dynasties often used it to recite poems and paint pictures, and the painter drew a picture of Songhe Yannian to express his blessings to the elderly.When Liu Yuxi, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, saw the cranes flying, his poetry became very popular, and he chanted freely: "A crane flying above the clouds in a clear sky will draw poetry to the blue sky." The red-crowned crane has broad wings and strong flying ability.When flying, the head, neck and feet are straight, and the front and back are well-proportioned, floating like a fairy, giving people an elegant and beautiful image. Red-crowned cranes are a kind of migratory bird. Whenever the ice and snow melt and spring returns to the earth in March and April, they fly back to the north from Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Shandong and the coast in the south.When flying, they line up in groups in the shape of "one" or "people", and go to Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces to breed offspring.Build nests and nests in swamps, lakes, rivers, reed ponds, and shoals, lay eggs and hatch.Cranes are monogamous and permanent spouses. They usually spread their feathers and wings in pairs, dance lightly, and sing loudly, with clear and loud calls.Cranes build nests in secret, and each nest lays one or two eggs, weighing 250-270 grams.During the hatching period in late May, the parents take turns on duty and hatch separately.Get up every half hour to an hour, turn the eggs once, keep the temperature of the eggs even, and change the direction of lying down.There is a clear division of labor between the female and male cranes. One is lying on the nest and the other is the guard. Both have a strong sense of responsibility.After hatching for 30-33 days, the young cranes emerge from their shells and are led by the mother crane to forage, while the father crane protects them. From early to mid-October to early-to-mid November, when the cold wind blows up in the north and the ground sees frost, the cranes migrate south again in flocks. It is worth mentioning that red-crowned cranes are not only responsible for breeding offspring, but also never spoil their young cranes.All the young cranes that have already had the ability to fly back through the winter are expelled from the house, and the young cranes are allowed to live in groups of three or four to practice survival skills, while the original old couple live a quiet life again and continue to reproduce. . 丹顶鹤主食是各种鱼类、乌拉草、三梭草、芦苇嫩芽，并啄食一些昆虫，丹顶鹤一般能活50——60年，被称之为寿鸟，属于国家一级重点保护的珍贵飞禽。 朱鹮(Nipponia Nippon)朱鹮是当今世界上数量最稀少的鸟类，濒临灭绝，是国际保护鸟。朱鹮头戴凤冠，长喙，朱红色脸和额头，翅膀和尾羽下侧是红色，身上都是雪白羽毛，体长约70—80厘米，体重1.5—2公斤。朱鹮对巢区选择十分严格，必须是高树，必须是有水田的地方，以便于取食水生动物，还要求环境安静偏僻。我国发现朱鹮是在陕西洋县姚家沟。1981年在此建立秦岭1号朱鹮群体保护站。大家将朱鹮视为秦岭仙子，爱护备至。1984年又在洋县三岔河发现有朱鹮。这种鸟4月在树上筑巢后产卵三一四枚，5月份双亲轮流趴孵，约28天出壳，雌雄共同养育雏儿。小鸟生羽期约一个月左右。科学工作者在姚家沟观测到，幼鸟的双亲每日觅食达17次之多，有一公斤重，十分辛苦。幼鸟一旦离开巢，不论是亲鸟还是幼鸟都很少回到老巢来，等到下一个繁殖周期再立新巢。为了保护这种濒危的稀有鸟类，陕西省在洋县建立了自然保护区。