Wildlife of China

China's vast and diverse landscape is home to a profound variety and abundance of wildlife. As of one of 17 megadiverse countries in the world, China has, according to one measure, 7,516 species of vertebrates including 4,936 fish, 1,269 bird, 562 mammal, 403 reptile and 346 amphibian species. In terms of the number of species, China ranks third in the world in mammals,IUCN Initiatives – Mammals – Analysis of Data – Geographic Patterns 2012
IUCN. Retrieved 24 April 2013. Data does not include species in Taiwan. eighth in birds, seventh in reptiles and seventh in amphibians.IUCN Initiatives – Amphibians – Analysis of Data – Geographic Patterns 2012
IUCN. Retrieved 24 April 2013. Data does not include species in Taiwan.

Many species of animals are endemic to China, including the country's most famous wildlife species, the giant panda. In all, about one-sixth of mammal species and two-thirds of amphibian species in China are endemic to the country.

Wildlife in China share habitat with and bear acute pressure from the world's largest population of humans. At least 840 species are threatened, vulnerable or in danger of local extinction in China, due mainly to human activity such as habitat destruction, pollution and poaching for food, fur and ingredients for traditional Chinese medicine. Endangered wildlife is protected by law, and as of 2005, the country has over 2,349 nature reserves, covering a total area of , about 15 percent of China's total land area.

Mammals

Primates

China is home to 21 primate species including gibbons, macaques, leaf monkeys, gray langurs, snub-nosed monkeys and lorises. Most of China's primate species are endangered. Both apes and monkeys, particularly gibbons and macaques are prominently featured in Chinese culture, folk religion, art and literature. Monkey is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac.

The only apes native to China are the gibbons. Gibbons are tree-dwellers, using their long arms to swing from branches. Gibbons can be recognized by their loud calls, with mating pairs often singing together as a duet.

The Hainan black crested gibbon is among the rarest and most endangered apes. Endemic to the island of Hainan, there are fewer than 30 individuals left in the Bawangling National Nature Reserve. Like many other gibbons, male Hainan black crested gibbons are black in color while females are golden brown. The eastern black crested gibbon is nearly as rare with only 20 or so in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region along with 30 in neighboring Vietnam. About 99% of this ape's habitat in China has been lost.

The black crested gibbon is found across a greater swath of southwestern China. The Yunnan lar gibbon, a subspecies of the lar or white-handed gibbon, might be extinct in China. The animal was last observed by zoologists in 1988 and its call was last heard by locals in 2002. A survey in November 2007 in the Nangunhe National Nature Reserve yielded no sign of this gibbon.

The northern white-cheeked gibbon is nearly extinct in the wilderness of southern Yunnan where they are hunted by local people as charms of good luck and for their bones which are made into weaving instrument and chopsticks. As of 2008, a captive population of eight northern white-cheeked gibbons was living in the Mengyang Nature Reserve. Two of the individuals were released into the wild but still relied on tourists for food. The eastern hoolock gibbon, which are distinguished by white tufts of hair above the eyebrows, are found in western Yunnan, along the border with Myanmar. The western hoolock gibbon might be found in southeastern Tibet. All gibbons in China are Class I protected species.

The most commonly found primates in China are macaques, which have oversized cheeks to store food and live in large troops. The range of the rhesus or common macaque extends from as far north as the Taihang Mountains of Shanxi and down to Hainan. Tibetan macaques are often seen at tourist sites such as Mount Emei and Huangshan. Stump-tailed macaques have distinct red faces and live throughout southern China. The Formosan rock macaque is endemic to Taiwan. Assam macaques are found in higher elevation areas of southern Tibet and the Southwest, and the northern pig-tailed macaque in Yunnan.
Macaques are Class I protected species in China but their numbers have fallen sharply. Monkey brain is a delicacy in parts of Guangxi and Guangdong, and macaques are often hunted for food. The Monpa and Lhoba people of southern Tibet eat Assam macaques. From 1998 to 2004, the number of rhesus macaques in China fell from 254,000 to about 77,000. Over the same period, the Tibetan macaque population fell by 83% from about 100,000 to only about 17,000.

Snub-nosed monkeys are so named because they have only nostrils and virtually no nose. Four of the five species in the world are found in China, including three that are endemic. All live in mountainous forests at elevations of 1,500–3,400 m above sea level. The golden snub-nosed monkey is most famous and most widely distributed, with subspecies in Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi. The gray snub-nosed monkey is the most endangered, with about 700 individuals, found only in Guizhou. The black snub-nosed monkey has about 1,700 individuals living in 17 identified groups in Yunnan and eastern Tibet. A small population of Myanmar snub-nosed monkey was found in western Yunnan in 2011.

Other Old World monkeys in China include the François' langur, white-headed langur, Phayre's leaf monkey, capped langur and Shortridge's langur, which are collectively categorized as lutungs and the Nepal gray langur, which is considered a true langur. All of these species are endangered. Lutungs, also called leaf monkeys, have relatively short arms, longer legs and long tails along with a hood of hair above their eyes.

François' langur is found only in southwest China and northern Vietnam. The range of the white-headed langur is much smaller—only in southern Guangxi and Cát Bà Island in Vietnam. Phayre's leaf monkey is native to Yunnan and a larger swath of Indochina. The capped and Shortridge's langurs live along the Yunnan-Myanmar border. The Nepal gray langur is larger than the lutungs and found in southern Tibet.

Whereas apes and monkeys are grouped as haplorhine or "dry nose" primates, lorises are strepsirrhine or "wet nose" primates. Lorises have big eyes, tiny ears, live in trees and are active at night. The pygmy slow loris and Bengal slow loris are both found in southern Yunnan and Guangxi and are Class I protected species.

Carnivores

Cats

China's big cat species include the tiger, leopard, snow leopard and clouded leopard.
The tiger is one of the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac, and figures prominently in Chinese culture and history. Tiger bones are used in traditional Chinese medicine and tiger fur is used for decoration. The animal is vulnerable to poaching and habitat loss. Four tiger populations were native to China. All are critically endangered, protected and live in nature reserves.

The Siberian tiger occurs in the Northeast, along the border with Russia and North Korea. The Caspian tiger was last seen in the Manasi River Basin of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the 1960s, where this population is now extinct. The South China tiger is an endemic population whose habitat is now confined to the mountain regions of Jiangxi, Hunan, Guangdong and Fujian. A few Indochinese tigers were known to live in Yunnan where six nature reserves have been established for their protection.

Three leopard subspecies are thought to occur in China:
*Leopards recorded in Qomolangma National Nature Preserve in southern Tibet are subsumed to the Indian leopard.
*The Indochinese leopard occurs in Yunnan Province of southern China, where the Pearl River is thought to form a barrier to leopard populations farther north. Camera-trap surveys conducted between 2002 and 2009 in 11 nature reserves in southern China recorded leopards only in Changqing National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains, but not in Sichuan's Wolong Nature Reserve and other protected areas in Sichuan.
*The Amur leopard is native to northern China including the Jilin province along the border with Russia and North Korea, where it has been recorded by camera-traps in Hunchun National Nature Reserve. Leopards cross between China, Russia and North Korea across the Tumen River despite a high and long wire fence marking the international boundary. Contemporary records of leopards exist from protected areas in Hebei, Henan and Shanxi Provinces, and Ningxia Autonomous Region, but not from Gansu Province. Whether leopards still occur in Qinghai Province is uncertain. The species has probably been extirpated in Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi and Jiangxi provinces. It is listed as nationally Critically Endangered, but receives little attention from Chinese wildlife biologists and conservationists. Fragmented leopard populations in central China have been subsumed to the Amur leopard, as there is no notable geographical barrier to northern China that would have prevented gene flow in the past.

The range of the snow leopard extends across the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, Karakorum Mountains, and Tian Shan in western China.

The clouded leopard occurs in forest regions south of the Yangtze River. It became locally extinct in Taiwan in 1972.

The Chinese mountain cat is endemic to China and lives on the north-eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It was recorded only in eastern Qinghai and north-western Sichuan. It was photographed by a camera-trap for the first time in 2007. One individual was observed and photographed in May 2015 in the Ruoergai grasslands.

The range of the Eurasian lynx includes the Greater Khingan Mountains of Northeast China.
The Pallas's cat occurs at high altitudes on the Tibetan Plateau and in western China.

The Asiatic wildcat is distributed in Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, and Inner Mongolia. Within Xinjiang, it has been confined to three southern prefectures: Bayingolin Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, Aksu and Hotan. It is declining rapidly in its natural habitat in the Xinjiang desert region of China mainly because of excessive hunting for pelt trade followed by shrinkage of its habitat due to cultivation, oil and gas exploration and excessive use of pesticides.

The Asian golden cat and leopard cat have been recorded in the Changqing National Nature Reserve in the Qinling Mountains and in the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve in the Min Mountains. The leopard cat also occurs in the Wolong Nature Reserve and other protected areas in the Qionglai Mountains and Daliang Mountains.

Canines

The family Canidae has many members in China including the dog, gray wolf, dhole, red fox, corsac fox, Tibetan sand fox and raccoon dog. The gray wolf, largest of the canids, has two subspecies in China—the Eurasian wolf, which is found in all of mainland china save for the islands in the south china and eastern china sea Tibetan wolf, which lives on the Tibetan Plateau.

Some of the earliest dogs may have been domesticated in East Asia, and several Chinese dog breeds including the shar-pei and chow chow are among the most ancient in terms of DNA similarity to the gray wolf.

The dhole is closely related to wolves and coyotes and is found right now in only 6 provinces; Gansu, Yunnan, Tibet, Sichuan, and Xinjiang.

The red fox, the largest fox species, can be found in every part of China except the northwest. The corsac fox is found in northeastern China and the Tibetan sand fox in Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan.

The raccoon dog, one of the few canids that can climb trees, is native to eastern and northeastern China.

Pandas, bears

The giant panda, perhaps China's most famous wildlife species, lives in six patches of highland valleys of the Min, Qionglai, Liang, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Qinling Mountains of the upper Yangtze River basin, which are spread over 45 counties in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi. Only about 1,600 live in the wild (80% in Sichuan) along with about 300 in captivity in Chinese breeding centers and zoos. The animal is rare and elusive. Though classified as an omnivore, the giant panda's diet is over 90% bamboo. Its black and white coloration provides a degree camouflage in the dense forests, but the adult animal has no natural predators. Giant pandas are notoriously difficult to breed; they have short mating periods, and give birth to only one or two cubs per year. The giant panda cub is the smallest baby, compared in proportion to the parents, of any placental mammal. The giant panda is considered to be a national treasure and is an endangered species protected by state law. Since the 1970s, giant pandas have been given or lent to foreign zoos as gesture of diplomatic goodwill.

Other more common bears in China include the Asiatic black bear and the brown bear which are found across much of the country. Sub-species of the brown bear include the Himalayan brown bear and the Tibetan blue bear in Tibet, and the Ussuri brown bear in Northeast China. The sun bear is found in Yunnan. Bears, especially black bears, are also raised in captivity to harvest their bile for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

The red panda - which unlike the giant panda is not a bear and more closely resembles a raccoon - is from a separate family by itself (Ailuridae), and is found in Sichuan and Yunnan.

Viverridae and Herpestidae

The viverrid and mongoose families of small carnivores are represented by numerous members occurring in southern China, including binturong, large Indian civet, small Indian civet, Owston's palm civet, masked palm civet, Asian palm civet, small-toothed palm civet, crab-eating mongoose and small Indian mongoose.

Otter, badger, weasel, marten, wolverine

The largest family of carnivorous mammals belongs to the otters, badgers, weasels, martens, and wolverines, all of which are found in China. All of these mustelids are short, furry animals with short, rounded ears and thick fur, but they differ markedly in size, habit and habitat.

The sable, a species of marten, is prized for its fine fur, which along with ginseng and deer antler velvet, are known as the "three treasures of Manchuria." The sable is found in Manchuria (also called the Northeast) and Altai region of northern Xinjiang. The beech marten of western China and yellow-throated marten of southern China are closely related to the sable.

The Siberian weasel, known locally as the "yellow rat wolf," is the most common weasel in China. It is found throughout China Proper and Manchuria, and known to steal poultry from farmers but helps to control the rodent population. Hair from the tail of the Siberian weasel is used to make ink brush for traditional Chinese calligraphy. Other weasel species include the least weasel and stoat in the north, yellow-bellied weasel and back-striped weasel in the south, and mountain weasel in the west. The steppe polecat is bigger than the Siberian weasel and found across northern China.

In Chinese, the wolverine is called "sable bear" because it is bigger than a sable and smaller than a bear and resembles both animals. The animal lives in caves and dens, which they do not dig but take from other animals such as bears, foxes and Bobak marmots. Wolverines are fierce creatures that will fight bears and wolves for food. They are found in the Greater Khingan range of Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia and the Altai Mountains of northern Xinjiang, and number only about 200.

The European otter is found throughout much of Eurasia and China. It is nearly extinct on Taiwan though some have been found on the island of Kinmen, off the coast of Fujian. The Oriental small-clawed otter is the smallest otter species and lives in mangrove and freshwater swamps of southern China and Taiwan. The smooth-coated otter is confined to parts of Yunnan and Guangdong.

Like sable and martens, otter fur is also used make clothing. Sables and wolverines are Class I protected species. Martens and otters are Class II protected species.

Badgers have distinctive white stripes on their faces with one long stripe that extends from nose to tail. The Asian badger is found throughout China Proper and the eastern Himalayas. The hog badger has a pig-like snout and has a slightly smaller range than the Asian badger. Ferret-badgers are the smallest badgers and two species live in China. The Chinese ferret-badger is found across much of southern China south of the Yangtze River and the Burmese ferret-badger along Yunnan's border with Laos and Vietnam.

Seals, sea lions

Pinnipeds are also classified as carnivores and are divided between earless or true seals and eared seals. True seals do not have ears and cannot get their hind flippers underneath their bodies to crawl. Eared seals, which include sea lions, in contrast, have protruding ears and can "walk" with all four limbs on land.

True seals in China include the bearded seal which is found along the coast of Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong in the East and South China Sea, the ringed seal in the Yellow Sea, and spotted seal, which is primarily found in the Bohai Gulf and the northern Yellow Sea, but have been seen as far south as Guangdong. All seals are Class II protected animal. Sea lions have Class I protection.

The spotted seal is the only seal species that breeds in China. Its breeding grounds are found along the rim of Liaodong Bay in the Bohai Gulf, including the estuary at the mouth of the Shuangtaizi River near Panjin and Changxing Island near Dalian, and Baengnyeongdo sanctuary in Korean EEZ. These seals have been poached for its fur and genitals, which were utilized to make an aphrodisiac. Their habitats have also been heavily damaged by land reclamation, fish farming, and petroleum development. A South Korean NGO has been trying to increase public awareness and support for the protection of the seals in China, North Korea and South Korea.Green Korea United : Poaching for 1000 Spotted Seals, Wailing of Spotted Seals
Green-korea.tistory.com. Retrieved on 15 September 2011. Protection stations have been set up to monitor the breeding grounds and wildlife protection authorities compensate fisherman who turn in live seals caught in their nets. In April 2011, the construction of an express highway along the coast was halted due to its adverse impact on the seal breeding ground. Satellite trackings revealed that not only within Yellow Sea, but also seals can migrate even between Primorsky Krai in Russia to Yellow Sea, exceeding 3,300 km in total. Recoveries and recolonizations have been observed recently, such as along the coast of Shandong in 1999, and in the Miaodao Islands of the Bohai Sea since 2000s.

The northern fur seal, an eared seal, occasionally appears off the coast of eastern and southern China and southern Taiwan. The largest of the eared seals is the Steller sea lion, who lives primarily in the Arctic but is also seen along the Yellow Sea coast in Jiangsu and Bohai Gulf in Liaoning. Among Yellow sea – adjacent areas within Korean EEZ, occurrence can be on locations such as at Jeju Island.

Whales, dolphins, porpoises

China has cetacean species that live in both freshwater and the sea. The nearly extinct baiji dolphin and Chinese white dolphin are Class I protected species. All other cetaceans in China are Class II protected species.

In total, 22 species of smaller cetaceans inhabit within Chinese, Taiwanese, Hong Kong's, and Macau's waters including Baiji. Although being not officially recognized, the presence of Irrawaddy dolphins have been questioned.

In ancient China, inscriptions of the whales varied and inscriptions of whales and sharks were occasionally mixed. During the Qing Dynasty, certain knowledge on whales had been deepened with the establishment of whaling industries in Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan although both oceanic and freshwater dolphins had been classified as different animals from whales. It is said that climate change during the dynasty caused small fish to flourish within Yellow and Bohai Seas and drew large numbers of whales into the basins.

The Republic of China was one of the early signatories of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The People's Republic of China signed convention in September 1980 and banned domestic whaling in 1981, and also signed in the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals.

Until recently, observing live cetaceans nonetheless of any species including minke whales and smaller dolphins and porpoises are very rare in Bohai and Yellow Seas within Chinese side,however, increases in confirmation of minke whales and other species have been confirmed in larger part of Yellow Sea basin especially around Changhai County due to improves in water quality and productivity achieved by fishery regulations and creating ocean farms on Zhangzi Island, and local industries have been considered to operate whale watching tours as a future prospect.獐子岛海洋牧场生态环境持续优化
. Ccstock.cn (23 July 2015). Retrieved on 2016-08-29. Modern distributions of cetaceans both on continent and oceanic islands including Taiwan are largely biased on toothed whales due to severe declines of baleen whales.

Baiji

The baiji dolphin's habit historically covered much of the Yangtze River and its tributaries and lakes, from Yichang to Shanghai. It is mentioned in historical records going back 2,000 years. According to legend, the baiji dolphin is the reincarnation of a princess and called the "Goddess of the Yangtze." As recently as the 1950s, there were as many as 6,000 baiji dolphins in China, but their number fell to the hundreds by the 1980s, under 100 in the 1990s and fewer than a dozen since 2000.

The Yangtze River catchment area is one of the most densely populated areas in China and the world. The river, China's longest, is also a major highway for ships. Water and noise pollution, commercial fishing, and large propellers of ships are all major threats to the baiji. The building of the Gezhouba Dam in the 1970s and the Three Gorges Dam in the 1990s blocked the access of the dolphins upstream, altered the seasonal flow of the river, and enabled large oceangoing ships to sail on the river.

By 1997, a survey of the river found only 13 baiji. A Sino-Swiss joint survey of the river from Yichang to Shanghai in 2006 found no animals and declared the species to be functionally extinct, that is, even if a few individuals continued to survive, their numbers are too few to reproduce. The last sighting confirmed by zoologist was in 2004 when a dead baiji dolphin washed ashore near Nanjing.

Nature reserves to protect the baiji dolphin were established along the Yangtze in Hunan, Hubei and Anhui province, along with observation and captive centers. The longest living baiji dolphin in captivity, Qiqi, lived in a dolphinarium in Wuhan from 1980 to 2002. The Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve, created out of an oxbow bend in the Yangtze was designed as a captive breeding area for the baiji. One baiji was sent there in 1995 but died in 1996. The reserve is now a breeding ground for the finless porpoise.

Finless porpoise

At least two subspecies of finless porpoise are known to inhabit coastal waters such as off Dalian< Nanjing, Nanji Islands Marine Sanctuary, Jiushan Chain IslandsWeizhou Island, and at Matsu Islands. A freshwater subspecies lives in the Yangtze, Gan and Xiang Rivers. Unlike dolphins, they lack a dorsal fin. The freshwater porpoise faces the same threat as the baiji. In April 2012, twelve were found dead in Dongting Lake in a span of 44 days. Construction of the Poyang Lake Dam may cause severe damages on remaining population.

As of 2012, the Tian-e-Zhou Oxbow Nature Reserve had about 40 finless porpoises with another 85 in Dongting Lake and 300–400 in Poyang Lake. The freshwater finless porpoise, a Class II protected species, is rarer than the giant panda. They are also well present in Gulf of Tonkin.

In recent years, small concentrations have been confirmed at the estuaries on the mouth of Yellow River in Lijin County. Stable numbers of porpoises, two subspecies being involved, have been found recently along Chongming Island where the local waters show drastic recovery thanks to efforts to improve water quality.

Oceanic dolphins

Sousa, the Chinese white dolphin (locally called the Matsu's fish) that was previously considered to be a subspecies of the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, lives in the waters off southern China including Wanshan Archipelagos and their relatives are tiny bats that flutter like butterflies in flight. The common pipistrelle weighs only and has a wingspan ranging of . Other pipistrelles found in China include the least pipistrelle, Kelaart's, Mount Popa, Savi's, chocolate black-gilded and the Chinese pipistrelle. In Chinese, pipistrelles are called ''fuyi'' meaning "hidden wing." The flesh, blood, brain and feces of pipistrelle can be used to make traditional Chinese medicine. The brain is applied to the skin to treat acne and ingested to improve memory.

Noctules are closely related to pipistrelles but can be much larger in size. The Chinese noctule, which is endemic to the southern half of the country and Taiwan, weighs three to four times as much as the Chinese pipistrelle. Known as "mountain bats" in Chinese, noctules live in caves and rock croppings as well as the under the eaves of traditional homes. Noctules droppings are collected for medicinal uses. Other noctule bats in China include the common noctule, lesser noctule, and birdlike noctule.

Barbastelles are called wide-eared bats in Chinese. The range of the Asian barbastelle extends from Egypt through China to Japan. In 2001, a Chinese zoologist discovered a new species of barbastelle in the mountains of rural Beijing. This bat was discovered in a cave in Fangshan District where four other bat species—Rickett's big-foot, large mouse-eared, greater horseshoe bat, greater horseshoe and greater tube-nosed bats also live.(Chinese
Ma Jie, Walter Metzner, Liang Bing et al. "同地共栖四种蝙蝠食性和回声定位信号的差异及其生态位分化" ''Acta Zoologica Sinica'' 50(2):145–150, 2004
/ref>
The Beijing barbastelle (''Barbastella beijingensis'') was distinguished by the distinctiveness of its DNA and recognized as a species on 23 May 2007, the 300th birthday of Carl Linnaeus. As of 2012, no other populations of this species have been found beyond Beijing.

Long-eared bats have enormous ears that can grow almost as long as their bodies, and are represented in China by multiple species (e.g. ''Plecotus kozlovi'', ''Plecotus ognevi''...). The Greater bamboo bat, greater and lesser bamboo bats prefer to roost inside the hollow shoots of giant bamboo through holes eaten by beetles. Because the holes are small, bamboo bats are also tiny. An adult lesser bamboo bat that measures in length and weighs , is not much bigger than a bumble bee.

House bats including the Gobi big brown bat, northern bat, thick-eared bat, serotine bat are also closely related to pipistrelles, noctules and barbastelles. Other relatives within Vespertilioninae, this extensive subfamily include Tickell's bat, great evening bat, harlequin bat, greater Asiatic yellow bat, particoloured bat and Asian particolored bat.

Murininae, Tube-nosed bats have longer nostrils than other vespers and funnel-shaped ears. Chinese species include the greater tube-nosed bat, greater, little tube-nosed bat, little, Round-eared tube-nosed bat, round-eared, Hutton's tube-nosed bat, Hutton's, and dusky tube-nosed bat. The dusky tube-nosed bat is endemic to Heilongjiang and Jilin in northeastern China. The greater tube-nosed bat of Beijing feeds on aerial beetles.

The painted bat and Hardwicke's woolly bat, also vesper bats, live in the forests of southern China.

=Long-winged bats

=

Miniopterus, Long-winged bats in China include the Common bent-wing bat, common and western bent-winged bats. The common bent-wing bats can form large colonies and migrate hundreds of kilometers.

=Free-tailed bats

=
Molossidae, Free-tailed bats, unlike other bats, have tails that are detached from their wing membrances. Species include the European free-tailed bat, La Touche's free-tailed bat and the wrinkle-lipped free-tailed bat.

=False vampire

=

The greater false vampire bat of Guangxi is a carnivorous bat that feeds on rodents, fish, insects and smaller bats. It is smaller than the Spectral bat, "true" vampire bats of South America.

=Sac-winged bats

=

Sac-winged bats have sac-like glands under their wings that carry pheromones, which are released to attract mates. Out of some 51 sac-winged bat species in the world, only the black-bearded tomb bat is found in China.

=Horseshoe bats

=
Horseshoe bats are called "chrysanthemum bats" in Chinese because they have horseshoe-shaped folds of skin that unfurl on their faces like the petals of a flower. These noseleaves help the horseshoe bat emit ultrasonic signals for echolocation. Species found in China include the greater horseshoe bat, greater, least horseshoe bat, least, king horseshoe bat, king, Big-eared horseshoe bat, big-eared, rufous horseshoe bat, rufous, Chinese rufous horseshoe bat, Chinese rufous, little Japanese horseshoe bat, little Japanese, Blyth's horseshoe bat, Blyth's, Osgood's horseshoe bat, Osgood's, Pearson's horseshoe bat, Pearson's, Thomas's horseshoe bat, Thomas's, and Dobson's horseshoe bat, Dobson's. The king and Osgood's horseshoe bats are endemic to southwest China.
Scientists believe that the SARS coronavirus may have originated in horseshoe bats in China.

Closely related to the horseshoe bats are the Hipposideros, roundleaf bats, including the great roundleaf bat, great roundleaf, Intermediate roundleaf bat, intermediate roundleaf, Pomona roundleaf bat, Pomona and Pratt's roundleaf bat, Pratt's, the East Asian tailless leaf-nosed bat and Stoliczka's trident bat.

Birds

The avifauna of China includes a total of 1314 species, of which 52 are Endemism in birds, endemic, two have been Introduced species, introduced by humans, and 55 are rare or accidental. One species listed is Local extinction, extirpated in China and is not included in the species count. Eighty seven species are globally threatened.

Pheasants

*Chinese monal
*Golden pheasant

Cranes and other wading birds

* Black-necked crane
*Red-crowned crane
*Common spoonbill

Reptiles

China has a big variety of reptiles including the Chinese alligator and the Yangtze giant softshell turtle.

Crocodilians

*Chinese alligator (''Alligator sinensis'')

Lizards

*Chinese crocodile lizard (''Shinisaurus crocodilurus'')
*Chinese water dragon (''Physignathus cocincinus'')

Turtles and tortoises

*Elongated tortoise (''Indotestudo elongata'')
*Cantor's giant softshell turtle (''Pelochelys cantorii'')
*Yangtze giant softshell turtle (''Rafetus swinhoei'')

Snakes

*Sharp-nosed pit viper (''Deinagkistrodon acutus'')
*Dice snake (''Natrix tessellata'')
*Elaphe bimaculata, Twin-spotted ratsnake (''Elaphe bimaculata'')
*Mamushi (''Gloydius blomhoffii'')
*Grass snake (''Natrix natrix'')
*Mountain pitviper (''Ovophis monticola'')
*Jerdon's pit viper (''Protobothrops jerdonii'')
*Bamboo pit viper (''Trimeresurus gramineus'')
*Mangshan pitviper (''Trimeresurus mangshanensis'')
*Motuo bamboo pitviper (''Trimeresurus medoensis'')
*Stejneger's pit viper (''Trimeresurus stejnegeri'')

Amphibians

China is home to 346 species of amphibian. China's amphibian diversity is greater than any other country in the Old World, and it is the 5th in the whole world. China's amphibian fauna includes an important element of widespread, generally non-threatened species though 27.3% of amphibian species are extinct or threatened and because conservation assessments of Chinese amphibians have only started recently, it is likely that the current data on threats to amphibians are insufficient. Several amphibian species in China have very limited geographical distributions.

Frogs

True Frogs (Ranidae)

*Amolops aniqiaoensis
*Amolops bellulus
*Amolops chunganensis
*Amolops gerbillus
*Amolops granulosus
*Amolops hainanensis
*Amolops jinjiangensis
*Amolops kangtingensis
*Amolops liangshanensis
*Amolops lifanensis
*Amolops loloensis
*Amolops mantzorum
*Amolops medogensis
*Amolops monticola
*Amolops ricketti
*Amolops torrentis
*Amolops viridimaculatus
*Amolops wuyiensis
*Babina adenopleura
*Babina hainanensis
*Babina lini
*Babina pleuraden
*Chevron-spotted brown frog
*Eastern golden frog
*Emei music frog
*Glandirana minima
*Glandirana tientaiensis
*Huanren frog
*Imienpo Station frog
*Johns' groove-toed frog
*Korean brown frog
*Odorrana andersonii
*Odorrana anlungensis
*Odorrana chapaensis
*Odorrana chloronota
*Odorrana exiliversabilis
*Odorrana grahami
*Odorrana graminea
*Odorrana hejiangensis
*Odorrana kuangwuensis
*Odorrana lungshengensis
*Odorrana margaretae
*Odorrana mutschmanni
*Odorrana schmackeri
*Odorrana tiannanensis
*Odorrana versabilis
*Odorrana wuchuanensis
*Pelophylax fukienensis
*Pelophylax hubeiensis
*Pelophylax lateralis
*Pelophylax nigromaculatus
*Pelophylax tenggerensis
*Pelophylax terentievi
*Plateau brown frog
*Rana amurensis
*Rana chensinensis
*Rana omeimontis
*Rana sangzhiensis
*Rana weiningensis
*Rana zhengi

Dicroglossidae

*Chinese edible frog
*Concave-eared torrent frog
*Doichang frog
*Fejervarya limnocharis
*Fejervarya moodiei
*Fejervarya multistriata
*Limnonectes longchuanensis
*Nanorana arnoldi
*Nanorana blanfordii
*Nanorana bourreti
*Nanorana conaensis
*Nanorana feae
*Nanorana liebigii
*Nanorana maculosa
*Nanorana medogensis
*Nanorana pleskei
*Nanorana polunini
*Nanorana quadranus
*Nanorana taihangnica
*Nanorana unculuanus
*Nanorana ventripunctata
*Nanorana yunnanensis
*Northern frog
*Kuhl's creek frog
*Quasipaa verrucospinosa
*Quasipaa boulengeri
*Quasipaa exilispinosa
*Quasipaa jiulongensis
*Quasipaa shini
*Quasipaa spinosa
*Quasipaa yei
*Round-tongued floating frog

Ceratobatrachidae

*Liurana

Tree Frogs

*Annam tree frog
*Common Chinese tree frog
*Hyla sanchiangensis
*''Hyla zhaopingensis'': only in Zhaoping County, Guangxi
*Hylarana cubitalis
*Hylarana hekouensis
*Hylarana latouchii
*Hylarana macrodactyla
*Hylarana maosonensis
*Hylarana menglaensis
*Hylarana milleti
*Hylarana nigrovittata
* Hylarana spinulosa
* Hylarana taipehensis
*Japanese tree frog
*Chinese flying frog
*Chiromantis vittatus
*Feihyla palpebralis
*Gracixalus gracilipes
*Gracixalus jinxiuensis
*Gracixalus medogensis
*Gracixalus nonggangensis
*Kurixalus naso
*Kurixalus odontotarsus
*Kurixalus verrucosus
*Raorchestes longchuanensis
*Raorchestes menglaensis
*Rhacophorus burmanus
*Rhacophorus chenfui
*Rhacophorus dorsoviridis
*Rhacophorus dugritei
*Rhacophorus feae
*Rhacophorus hui
*Rhacophorus hungfuensis
*Rhacophorus kio
*Rhacophorus maximus
*Rhacophorus nigropunctatus
*Rhacophorus omeimontis
*Rhacophorus puerensis
*Rhacophorus rhodopus
*Rhacophorus tuberculatus
*Rhacophorus yaoshanensis
*Romer's tree frog
*Sylvirana guentheri

Microhylidae

*Calluella yunnanensis
*Boreal digging frog
*''Kalophrynus interlineatus''
*Kalophrynus menglienicus
*Kaloula nonggangensis
*Kaloula rugifera
*Kaloula verrucosa
*Microhyla berdmorei
*Microhyla fissipes
*Microhyla heymonsi
*Microhyla pulchra
*Micryletta inornata
*''Painted chorus frog, Microhyla butleri''

Litter Frogs

*Brachytarsophrys carinense
*Brachytarsophrys feae
*Brachytarsophrys popei
*Buergeria oxycephala
*Leptolalax alpinus
*Leptolalax liui
*Leptolalax oshanensis
*Leptolalax sungi
*Leptolalax tengchongensis
*Leptolalax ventripunctatus
*Megophrys binchuanensis
*Megophrys brachykolos
*Megophrys cheni
*Megophrys huangshanensis
*Megophrys lini
*Megophrys major
*Megophrys parva
*Megophrys sangzhiensis
*Megophrys shuichengensis
*Megophrys wawuensis
*Oreolalax chuanbeiensis
*Oreolalax granulosus
*Oreolalax jingdongensis
*Oreolalax liangbeiensis
*Oreolalax lichuanensis
*Oreolalax major
*Oreolalax multipunctatus
*Oreolalax nanjiangensis: only in Nanjiang County, Sichuan
*Oreolalax omeimontis
*Oreolalax pingii
*Oreolalax popei
*Oreolalax puxiongensis
*Oreolalax rhodostigmatus
*Oreolalax rugosus
*Oreolalax schmidti
*Oreolalax weigoldi
*Oreolalax xiangchengensis
*Scutiger boulengeri
*Scutiger brevipes
*Scutiger chintingensis
*Scutiger glandulatus
*Scutiger gongshanensis
*Scutiger jiulongensis
*Scutiger liupanensis
*Scutiger maculatus
*Scutiger mammatus
*''Scutiger muliensis'': only in Mili Tibetan Autonomous County, Muli, Sichuan
*Scutiger ningshanensis
*Scutiger nyingchiensis
*Scutiger pingwuensis
*Scutiger sikimmensis
*Scutiger tuberculatus
*Scutiger wanglangensis

Shrub Frogs (Rhacophoridae)

*Liuixalus hainanus
*Liuixalus ocellatus
*''Theloderma kwangsiense'': only in Dayaoshan Nature Reserve (大瑶山自然保护区), Guangxi
*Philautus kempii
*Polypedates impresus
*Polypedates megacephalus
*Polypedates mutus
*Theloderma asperum
*Theloderma kwangsiense
*Theloderma moloch
*Theloderma rhododiscus

Salt Water Frogs

China is home to one of only 144 known modern amphibians which can tolerate brief excursions into sea water.

*Crab-eating frog

Toads

True Toads (Bufo)

*Ailao toad
*Asiatic toad
*Bufo cryptotympanicus
*Bufo pageoti
*Bufo tuberculatus
*''Bufo wolongensis'': only in Wolong Nature Reserve, Sichuan
*Korean water toad
*Pseudepidalea pewzowi

Horned Toads (Xenophrys)

*Convex-tailed horned toad
*Convex-vented horned toad
*Great piebald horned toad
*Jingdong horned toad
*Kuatun horned toad
*Mangshan horned toad
*Medog horned toad
*Mount Dawei horned toad
*Nankiang horned toad
*Boettger's horned toad
* Glandular horned toad
*Omei horned toad
*''Xenophrys daweimontis'': only in Daweishan Nature Reserve (大围山自然保护区), Liuyang, Hunan
*spiny-fingered horned toad
*Wuliangshan horned toad
*Wushan horned toad
*Zhang's horned toad

Other Toads

*Mongolian toad
*Bombina maxima
*Duttaphrynus himalayanus
*Duttaphrynus melanostictus
*Leptobrachium ailaonicum
*Leptobrachium boringii
*Leptobrachium hainanense
*Leptobrachium leishanense
*Leptobrachium liui
*Little horned toad
*Ophryophryne microstoma
*Ophryophryne pachyproctus
*Oriental fire-bellied toad
*rough-skinned horned toad
*Shaping horned toad
*spiny-fingered horned toad

Salamanders and Newts

* Amji's salamander
* Black knobby newt
* Central Asian salamander
* Chenggong fire belly newt
* Chiala mountain salamander
*Chinese giant salamander (''Andrias davidianus'')
*Chinese fire belly newt
* Chinese warty newt
* Chinhai spiny newt
* Chuxiong fire-bellied newt
*Siberian salamander
*''Cynops wolterstorffi'': only in Kunming City, Yunnan
* Dayang newt
* Fischer's clawed salamander
* Fuding fire belly newt
* Guabang Shan salamander
* Guangxi warty newt
* Guizhou salamander
*Hainan knobby newt
*Hong Kong warty newt
*Jinfo Mountain salamander
*Korean salamander
*Kuankuoshui salamander
*Pachyhynobius shangchengensis
*Paramesotriton labiatus
*Paramesotriton maolanensis
*Paramesotriton yunwuensis
*Puxiong salamander
*Shuicheng salamander
*Siberian salamander
*Spot-tailed warty newt
*Spotted paddle-tail newt
*Taliang knobby newt
*Wanggao warty newt
*Wenxian knobby newt
*Western Chinese mountain salamander
*Xingan salamander
*Yellow-spotted salamander
*Yiwu salamander
*Yunnan lake newt
*Zhijin warty newt

Caecilians

* Banna caecilian (Ichthyophis bannanicus)

Fish

In freshwater alone, China has more than 1,000 fish species. By far the most diverse order are the cypriniforms, followed by the siluriforms. Yangtze is the richest river basin in the country and it is home to more than 350 strict freshwater fish species (as well as several also found in brackish or saltwater).Ye, S.; Li, Z.; Liu, J;, Zhang, T.; and Xie, S. (2011). Distribution, Endemism and Conservation Status of Fishes in the Yangtze River Basin, China. pp. 41-66 in: Ecosystems Biodiversity, InTech. . A high percentage of these are endemic to the country and many are seriously threatened. Among others, it is feared that the Chinese paddlefish, as well as several species from the Yunnan lakes (notably Dian Lake, Dian, Erhai Lake, Erhai, Fuxian Lake, Fuxian and Yilong Lake, Yilong), already are extinct. China has far more cavefish species than any other country in the world.

With a long coastline that ranges from temperate to tropical oceans, China has many marine fish species such as the Pacific cod.

Invertebrates

Freshwater crabs

China is home to more than 250 different species of freshwater crabs (families Potamidae and Gecarcinucidae), many of them endemics. It is thus the country with the highest species richness in freshwater crabs. The most speciose genera are ''Sinopotamon'', ''Longpotamon'', ''Indochinamon'' and ''Nanhaipotamon''.

Molluscs

Butterflies

Centipedes

*''Ethmostigmus rubripes''

Endangered species

See also

*List of endangered and protected species of China
*Animal welfare and rights in China
*List of mammals of China
*List of mammals of Taiwan
*List of mammals of Hong Kong
*List of amphibians of China

Notes and references

External links

China Wildlife Conservation Association

{{Portal bar, China

Biota of China
Wildlife by country, China