Diversity of Terrestrial Vertebrates in Minshan Mountains

Based on reports from a few field survey teams,this work summarizes data available on the species-diversity of terrestrial vertebrates in the Minshan Mountains.At the joint area of many biogeographic divisions,the species-richness of the vertebrates is high:there are 453 species,belonging to 263 genera,90 families and 27 orders.Of the animals,26 species are of amphibians;28 of reptiles;303 of birds,and 94 of mammals.The number of the species is 42% of those recorded in the whole Sichuan Province.The fauna is very complex:167 species belonging to the Palaearctic realm;248 belonging to the Oriental,and the other (38 species) to the monsoon and widely distributed type.A considerable potion of the animals (71 species,such as giant pandas and takins) are endemic to China.There are 79 species are in the list of legally protected wildlife in China,or in the Red Book of IUCN,or in the file of CITES.All these rare and endemic animals mainly occur in 19 national and provincial nature reserves sized 7 767 km2 in total,accounting for 16% of the total mountain area.The main treats to the species include deforestation,hunting and poaching at this time.