Mountain Kalamaili Ungulate Nature Reserve (''Kalamaili'' means "black earth" in Kazakh, ), also spelled Kalamely Nature Reserve, is a

nature reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologic ...

Xinjiang Autonomous Region Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC: previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest of the country at the crossroads ...

of China, targeting in preserving the wildlife and natural vegetations in the arid

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without closed forests except near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the tropical and subtropica ...

ecosystem. As one of the largest nature reserves in China, established in April 1982, it stretches from the

Ulungur River The Ulungur River / Urungu River or Urungu (, zh, c=乌伦古河, p=Wūlúngǔ hé), in its upper reaches in Mongolia known as the Bulgan River (), is a river of China and Mongolia. It rises in the Altai Mountains in western Mongolia, flows s ...

in the north, across the heart of

Dzungarian Basin The Junggar Basin (), also known as the Dzungarian Basin or Zungarian Basin, is one of the largest sedimentary basins in Northwest China. It is located in Dzungaria in northern Xinjiang, and enclosed by the Tarbagatai Mountains of Kazakhstan in ...

, and reaches to the northern extension of

Tianshan Mountains The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the "Mountains of God/Heaven", is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak is Jengish Chokusu at high and located in Kyrgyzstan. Its lowest point is ...

in the south, covering an area of more than . In February 2019, the Kalamely Nature Reserve was listed as a state-level nature reserve in China.

Wildlife

Kalamaili Nature Reserve harbors many symbolic species in its arid steppe landscape.

Mongolian wild ass The Mongolian wild ass (''Equus hemionus hemionus''), also known as Mongolian khulan, is the nominate subspecies of the onager. It is found in southern Mongolia and northern China. It was previously found in eastern Kazakhstan and southern Sibe ...

(''Equus hemionus hemionus''),

goitered gazelle The goitered gazelle (''Gazella subgutturosa'') or black-tailed gazelle is a gazelle native to Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, parts of Iraq and Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and in nort ...

(''Gazella subgutturosa''),

Eurasian wolf The Eurasian wolf (''Canis lupus lupus''), also known as the common wolf,Mech, L. David (1981), ''The Wolf: The Ecology and Behaviour of an Endangered Species'', University of Minnesota Press, p. 354, is a subspecies of grey wolf native to Euro ...

(''Canis lupus lupus''),

red fox The red fox (''Vulpes vulpes'') is the largest of the true foxes and one of the most widely distributed members of the order Carnivora, being present across the entire Northern Hemisphere including most of North America, Europe and Asia, plus ...

(''Vulpes vulpes'') are the common ungulate and carnivorous inhabitants. A recent survey showed there were 3128 to 4711 wild asses and 11366 to 16235 goitered gazelles living in Kalamaili. Argali sheep (''Ovis ammon'') and

Wild Bactrian camel The wild Bactrian camel (''Camelus ferus'') is an endangered species of camel endemic to Northwest China and southwestern Mongolia. It is closely related but not ancestral to the domestic Bactrian camel (''Camelus bactrianus''). Genetics, Geneti ...

(''Camelus ferus'') are also reported but very rare.

Przewalski's horse Przewalski's horse (''Equus ferus przewalskii'' or ''Equus przewalskii''), also called the takhi, Mongolian wild horse or Dzungarian horse, is a rare and endangered wild horse originally native to the steppes of Central Asia. It is named after t ...

(''Equus ferus przewalskii'') has been reintroduced to Kalamaili by Xinjiang Forestry Department since 2001. After initial difficulties, the population is now distributed in the center of the reserve, at the western part of Mt. Kalamaili. The stabilized and healthy population breeds and grows in the wild each year. By the end of 2010, the population reached to 70 individuals (''5

harem A harem is a domestic space that is reserved for the women of the house in a Muslim family. A harem may house a man's wife or wives, their pre-pubescent male children, unmarried daughters, female domestic Domestic worker, servants, and other un ...

groups and 1 to 2

bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and never has been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

groups''). Kalamaili Nature Reserve, Xinjiang Wild Horse Breeding Center,

Beijing Forestry University Beijing Forestry University (BFU, ) is a public university located in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of Education, and co-sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the National Forestry and Grass ...

, the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

have been monitoring this population for many years and conducting a series of extensive researches on the population dynamics, behaviors, physiology, genetics, and conservation.

Local community

Kazakh people The Kazakhs ( Kazakh: , , , ) are a Turkic ethnic group native to Central Asia and Eastern Europe. They share a common culture, language and history that is closely related to those of other Turkic peoples of Western and Central Asia. The majo ...

have been using Kalamaili as their traditional winter

pasture Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Types of pasture Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, c ...

as part of their culture. Every fall before the snow, Kazakh nomads herd their livestock—mostly sheep, camels and horses—from the summer pastures in the alpine meadow of

Altai Mountain The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia, and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob have their headwaters. The massif merges with th ...

down to the southern Kalamaili, where winter is milder and snow cover is thinner. They stay in their winter tent and fence the livestock in a pen surrounded by fecal brick walls. When snow is gone (normally around late March to April) they leave Kalamaili and go back to their summer pastures. Although Chinese government is conducting the nomadic pastoralists settlement project in Xinjiang by building houses, fixed pens, and other public facilities, there is still a big proportion of Kazakh herdsmen keeping this

nomad Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

ic tradition.

References

{{Reflist Nature reserves in Xinjiang

Wildlife

Local community

See also

References