Jiyuan Sees Pallas's Cat Appear Again

(Henan Economic Daily reporter Gu Tailei, correspondent Shang Haidong) On March 9th, the Linye Bureau of Jiyuan’s Pilot-Comprehensive Demonstration Zone announced the biodiversity monitoring results of Taihang Mountain National Nature Reserve. From November 2019 to February 2020, the Jiyuan Taihang Mountain National Nature Reserve captured precious image data of the National Level Key Protection Wild Animal – the Pallas’s Cat, 42 times using infrared cameras. Multiple monitoring sample areas in the protected area detected the Pallas’s Cat.

Since January 2015, the Jiyuan Taihang Mountain National Nature Reserve has been conducting wildlife infrared camera monitoring, and the ‘appearance rate’ of the Pallas’s Cat has continued to rise. The number of Pallas’s Cats monitored has increased year by year, and the distribution range of the Pallas’s Cat in the Jiyuan Taihang Mountains has shown a significant recovery. The Jiyuan Taihang Mountain Pallas’s Cat has been identified with images totaling no less than 6 individuals, including “couples of pallas’ cats” and “mother and cubs,” indicating that the Pallas’s Cat population structure is reasonable. In addition, the infrared cameras also recorded other key protected wildlife, including the National Level Key Protection Animal – the Forested Musk Deer, the Secondary Level Key Protection Animal – the Yellow-throated Erb, the Peregrine Falcon, the Red-bellied Cock, the Spoonbill, and the Black-capped Bush Lark.

According to relevant staff of the Jiyuan Forestry Bureau, ‘The appearance of the Pallas’s Cat in multiple sample areas of Taihang Mountain indicates that there is close interaction between the Pallas’s Cat population in Jiyuan and the Pallas’s Cat population in other areas of Taihang Mountain, and that it is in a state of expansion, which is of great importance to the healthy and recovery of the Pallas’s Cat population in Taihang Mountain. It also proves that with the continuous strengthening of ecological protection and the implementation of the Henan South Taihang Mountains Water-Forest-Land-Lake-Grass Ecological Protection and Restoration Project, the ecological environment in Jiyuan Taihang Mountain is stably and healthily developed.’