Caohai Lake (, ''Sea of Grass'' in
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
) is a natural water-body situated in Northwest
Guizhou Province of
southwest China. The lake is situated on
Weining Mountain Weining may refer to:
* Li Weining (born 1959), acting mayor of the city of Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, China
*Lin Weining
Lin Weining ( Chinese: 林伟宁; born March 15, 1979, in Changyi County, Shandong) is a Chinese weightlifter. She b ...
, in the outskirts of
Weining County
Weining Yi Hui and Miao Autonomous County (; Xiao'erjing: ) is a county of Guizhou, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Bijie.
Notable attractions include Majie Ethnic Yi Village () and the historic site of Shime ...
.
Caohai Village lies directly at the edge of the wetland.
Physical data
The lake originally covered . However, as a result of
drainage,
cultivation, and climate change during the last few decades, the lake area has contracted to only . Its average depth is and it stands at above sea level.
Caohai Nature Reserve
In 1985, the area around the lake was designated as a
nature reserve at the provincial level, and in 1992 this was elevated to a national level designation. Cao Hai Nature Reserve is an
Important Bird Area
An Important Bird and Biodiversity Area (IBA) is an area identified using an internationally agreed set of criteria as being globally important for the conservation of bird populations.
IBA was developed and sites are identified by BirdLife Int ...
. The reserve area is .
Fauna
The lake area is the largest and most important
wetland
A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...
of Southwest China, providing wintering grounds for
black-necked cranes, the only crane species inhabiting plateaus left in the world. In addition, the lake is also inhabited by 184 bird
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, including
common cranes,
hooded cranes,
white stork
The white stork (''Ciconia ciconia'') is a large bird in the stork family, Ciconiidae. Its plumage is mainly white, with black on the bird's wings. Adults have long red legs and long pointed red beaks, and measure on average from beak tip to en ...
s,
black storks,
bar-headed geese
The bar-headed goose (''Anser indicus'') is a goose that breeds in Central Asia in colonies of thousands near mountain lakes and winters in South Asia, as far south as peninsular India. It lays three to eight eggs at a time in a ground nest. It ...
,
golden eagles,
eastern imperial eagles,
white-tailed sea-eagle
The white-tailed eagle (''Haliaeetus albicilla'') is a very large species of sea eagle widely distributed across temperate Eurasia. Like all eagles, it is a member of the family Accipitridae (or accipitrids) which includes other diurnal raptors ...
s, and
ruddy shelduck
The ruddy shelduck (''Tadorna ferruginea''), known in India as the Brahminy duck, is a member of the family Anatidae. It is a distinctive waterfowl, in length with a wingspan of . It has orange-brown body plumage with a paler head, while the ...
s.
One frog species, ''
Rana weiningensis
''Pseudorana weiningensis'' is a species of true frog endemic to China. It is the only species in the genus ''Pseudorana''. It is also known as the Weining frog or Weining groove-toed frog. Its natural habitats are temperate shrubland, temperat ...
'', is endemic to this area.
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References
Lakes of China
Lakes of Guizhou
Nature reserves in China
{{Guizhou-geo-stub