Here is the 3rd and final segment of the highlights from the best China Expedition I have guided in 10 years this past April. For me, the best part of the trip is searching for extremely rare mammal species in a remote nature reserve in the Minshan (Min Mountains) of northern Sichuan Province. As usual, we had the entire place all to ourselves and had some excellent wildlife sightings, and were stunned by the springtime scenery in one of my favorite places on Earth. We saw lots of Takin, golden pheasant, reeve’s muntjac, Tibetan macaques, civets, a yellow throated marten, leopard cat, siberian weasel, Chinese goral, tufted deer, wild boar and many birds. We also found one of the rarest orchids in China. The feeling of this exotic, montane forest wilderness is impossible to explain in words so here are some images.
Our assistant guide Cory is one of the top botanical experts in Sichuan Province. He was so excited to find his first changnienia amoena, one of the rarest orchids in China! It is listed as endangered on the IUCN red list.
Changnienia Amoena, one of the rarest orchids in China. Orchids have perfect symmetry, and the bottom petal is modified to act as a landing pad and path for pollinators. What a beauty! Thank you Cory! Very impressive find!
This is a chinese goral (naemorhedus griseus). These members of the bovid subfamily caprinae are a cliff dwelling cross between a goat and an antelope. They are common in this reserve, but very rare and threatened elsewhere in their range.
Chinese goral stares at us from above as we hike along a beautiful creek in the morning.
On an evening hike through a beautiful mountain valley we spotted a herd of Sichuan Takin (Budorcas taxicolor tibetana) and golden takin (Budorcas taxicolor bedfordi) with some tiny month-old calves. This reserve is on the border between the two subspecies of takin, and many are hybrids. Like the goral, they are also members of the bovid subfamily caprinae, and are listed as endangered on the IUCN red list.
We encountered this massive bull golden takin at night while driving back from an evening hike. This muscular beast probably weighs around 800 lbs.
Another beautiful bull golden takin stares down at our group on a morning hike.
We always have excellent luck viewing numerous golden pheasants (Chrysolophus pictus). These brilliantly colored birds are extremely difficult to see in the wild, and very rare elsewhere.
This nature reserve is an excellent place to encounter wild troops of Tibetan Macaques (Macaca thibetana) who have no fear of humans. Locally known as the “old men of the mountains.” this is the world’s largest species of macaque.
Female tibetan macaques have red faces, while the males faces are gray.
Mother tibetan macaque and young baby.
Macaque feeding on the leaves of a riverside maple tree.
Green-backed tit. This species is similar in its niche to our north american chickadees.
Reeve’s muntjac drinking from river. This is one of the many species of small asian deer of which males have long canine teeth that extend beyond the jaws.
Panda lovers from the United States are always thrilled to see the famous Tai Shan, who was the first panda born (2005) at the National Zoo in Washington DC to survive more than a few days. He became wildly famous during his first two years of life in DC before he was returned to China. He now resides at Dujiangyan Panda Base, which serves as Panda disease research station and quarantine spot for pandas returning from other countries.
Tai Shan checks out one of the few groups of American visitors in Dujiangyan Panda base.
Tai Shan appears to be a very large, healthy, happy fully grown male.
I wonder if he notices that we are Americans, as he sees very few in his new home in Sichuan.
What an amazing trip…. our new itinerary which takes us to Xian and the golden monkeys via the new bullet train system really makes this the most awesome natural history expedition available in China today. I will be retuning this fall and certainly am excited- especially to see the fall colors. This magical region of the world has stolen my heart.
Keep exploring! Brad
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I will be on the China trip in October 2018. Can’t wait and thanks for all the info.