Flora and Fauna in Mt. Everest Nature Reserve

Situated at the southern end of the ancient northern pole of bio-geographic terrain, by combing the natural geographic features of the Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas, the Mt. Everest Nature Reserve boasts unique natural characteristics the north side of Mt. Everest Nature Reserve, the chief section of the region is southern Tibet- spread with the mountains, deep valleys, lakes and basins characteristically featured in cold and semi-arid plateau continental climates. The region is covered with alpine shrub and typical grassland ecological system. Animals found in this part of the Mt. Everest Nature Reserve are mainly those categorized in the Gubei Group (those of northern Asia. in the Himalayas and near Mt. Qinling).

Mt. Everest

The terrain of the river valleys towards the south features the physiognomy of alpine valleys and due to influence from the Indian Ocean, the climate tends to be warm and humid. The river valleys are classified as part of the humid alpine forest ecological system, and the flora consists mainly of Chinese-Himalayan plants. Animals in this part of the Mt. Everest Nature Reserve are predominantly of the Dongyang Group (those found in south Asia. in the Himalayas and near Mt. Qinling). With such a unique natural environment, the Mt. Everest Nature Reserve is enriched with many categories of rare and endangered species. Animals that are considered especially rare or are suffering rapid decline are watched over under various levels of state protection. From the Dongyang Group, those that fall under national level protection include presbytis entellus, assamese macaque. Himalaya tahr, leopard, and the red chest pheasant. Under the second level protection are ailurus fulgens, black bear, otter, and forest panda. red panda. Himalaya musk deer, barking deer. goral. and ithaginis cruentus, From the Gubei Group, the national first level protected animals include the snow leopard,Tibetan wild donkey, and the black-neck crane. The national second level protection animals include the Tibetan musk deer, ovis ammon, pseudois nayaur, blue sheep, lynx, brown bear, tetraogallus Tibetanus, gypa hirnalayensis, fish hawk, and short ear hawk. The plants under national level protection include magnolia, Tibetan cuckoopint, crabapple, panax pseudoginseng, picea smithiana. Himalayan longleaf pine. picrorhiz rhizome, and Himalayan yew, as well as taxus wallichiana, Siberian cypress, meconopsis poppy, clematis Montana, and saussur gossypiphora.

Tibetan Blue Sheep

Apart from those rare and endangered flora and fauna scattered throughout the Mt. Everest Nature Reserve, there are also many rare fauna located in specific narrow areas; for instance, langur. Himalaya assamese and Himalaya tahr only exist at the southern region of the Himalayas. The most remarkable animal at this area is the snow leopard, classified as the featured animal of central Asia and the symbol animal of the Mt. Everest Nature Reserve.

Vegetation at EBC

According to the survey, the ecological system in Mt. Everest Nature Reserve consisting of the semi-humid massif forest area in the south wing and semi- arid shrub grassland area in the north wing of the Himalayas is an especially fragile ecological system. Therefore the protection of this region is of utmost important.

Snow Leopard

Two kinds of terrains form Mt. Everest Nature Reserve: Himalayan massif terrain and plateau terrain with widen valley and lakes. The topography in the region changes vertically quite dramatically, which results in climate Variation and biodiversity, In the south wing of Himalayas, the massif forest ecological system is composed of series Vertical ecological systems; following the changing topography and the climate, different plant pedigrees are distributed vertically from the lowest Point to the highest point there are alpine sub - tropical evergreen and semi - evergreen broadleaf trees, alpine warm-belt evergreen coniferous trees, sub - alpine cold-belt shrub grassland, alpine cold-belt iceberg and snow covered ecological system: in the north wing of Himalayas. It includes ecological system of alpine semi - arid shrub, and the grassland ecological system consists of the ecological system of plateau sub-frigid shrub grassland, alpine sub-frigid grassland, and alpine cold-belt iceberg and snow - covered land. Biodiversity is particularly rich in these various ecological systems. Based on the survey, there are 2100 plants, 20 gymnosperms, 222 brakes, 472 moss, 172 lichens, 136 fungus, 53 mammals, 20 birds. 10 fish, 8 amphibious animals, and 6 reptiles. The Mt. Everest Nature Reserve is the most important natural preserve for biodiversity.