{"id":1848,"date":"2016-05-21T13:51:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-21T21:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/master.k8s.p4.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/aboutus\/1848\/6-examples-of-chinas-amazing-biodiversity\/"},"modified":"2019-11-25T04:11:58","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T12:11:58","slug":"6-examples-of-chinas-amazing-biodiversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/blog\/1848\/6-examples-of-chinas-amazing-biodiversity\/","title":{"rendered":"6 examples of China\u2019s amazing biodiversity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Did you know that China is home to 10% <\/a>of the world\u2019s biodiversity?<\/em><\/p>\n
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China is one of the most biologically diverse countries on the planet. From the adorable Ili Pika, to species of trees older than the dinosaurs, elusive snow leopards to the beautiful Mandarin duck, China\u2019s snowy peaks, deserts, wetlands and rainforests are teeming with thousands of different forms of wildlife.<\/p>\n

As we celebrate China\u2019s beautiful creatures and stunning landscapes, we are reminded of what we stand to lose if we don\u2019t take action to protect the fragile ecosystems that they depend on to survive.<\/p>\n

Many of these species need healthy, thriving forests, unpolluted rivers and clean air to thrive. The best habitat for them is ancient, original forests but only 3.34% of China\u2019s original forests remain intact.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been fighting to protect China\u2019s precious forest ecosystems<\/a> and campaigning to stop toxic<\/a> industries from polluting our waterways and air.<\/p>\n

Because we don\u2019t want to live in a world where these amazing species don\u2019t exist. Do you?<\/p>\n

Red Panda<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Image credit: \u00a0Mathias Appel<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Red Pandas aren\u2019t as famous as the black and white giant that shares their name, but they\u2019re no less deserving of recognition.<\/p>\n

Found in pine and bamboo forests in the areas that encompass Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, \u00a0they are part of the oxymoronic group of mammals known as \u2018vegetarian carnivores\u2019 as they eat almost exclusively young bamboo shoots. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Snow Leopard<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Image credit: Eric Kilby<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

One of the most elusive and highly endangered of China\u2019s species, the snow leopard lives in one of the harshest environments on the planet \u00a0and can be found stalking the high mountains and freezing plains of the \u00a0Tibetan Plateau. It\u2019s estimated that there are less than 2500 snow leopards left in China,.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ili Pika <\/span><\/h1>\n
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21 May 2016<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Image Credit: Li Weidong Natural Ecological Protection Studio\uff0fLi Weidong<\/em><\/p>\n

The Ili Pika, or \u2018magic rabbit\u2019 was believed extinct until it was re-discovered by accident in 1983 by conservationist Li Weidong. The Ili Pika lives in the high mountains of \u00a0Northwest China\u2019s Xinjiang and stands at a tiny 20cm long and eats mainly mountain grasses and herbs.<\/p>\n

Climate change and an expanding human population in the Ili Pika\u2019s mountain home means that the adorable mammal is still highly threatened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ginkgo Biloba: the Living Fossil\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/h1>\n
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21 May 2016<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The Ginkgo Biloba is the sole survivor of a group of trees that are older than the dinosaurs. Traces of the plant have been found in fossils of 270 million years old. The amazing plant (also known as the Maidenhair Tree) has barely changed in millions of years and represents one of our only living links to the Jurassic era. They can live for thousands of years, like this 1400 year old<\/a> whose stunning autumn display attracts thousands of tourists every year.<\/p>\n

Mandarin Duck<\/span><\/h1>\n
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21 May 2016<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Image credit: Malcolm Carlaw<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

These stunning ducks native to China and Japan, used to be given to brides as a symbol of fidelity, as it was believed that they mate for life (this has since been disputed). \u00a0Industrial expansion has since threatened the Mandarin Duck\u2019s preferred habitat of small woodland ponds.<\/p>\n

Yunnan Golden Monkey\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n
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Credit:\u00a0Fuse\/Thinkstock<\/em><\/p>\n

Sometimes referred to as \u2018the wild men of the mountains\u2019, these rare primates live at altitudes of 4000m and higher in the mountains of southwestern China\u2019s Yunnan province. With a small population of only around 3000 and living in such remote locations,\u00a0\u00a0the monkeys are extremely vulnerable to deforestation.<\/p>\n

Shuxuan Chen is a Forests Campaigner for Greenpeace East Asia<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that China is home to 10% of the world\u2019s biodiversity?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1849,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[19],"p4-page-type":[26],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-protect-nature","tag-forests","p4-page-type-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2594,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/2594"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eastasia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}