China

Animal life

The profusion of vegetation types and a variety of relief have allowed a great diversity of animal life to develop and have permitted animals to survive there that elsewhere are extinct. Notable among such survivals are the great paddlefish of the Yangtze, the species of small alligator in eastern and central China, and the giant salamander (related to the Japanese giant salamander and the American hellbender) in western China. The diversity of animal life is perhaps greatest in the ranges and valleys of Tibet and Sichuan, the latter province being renowned as the home of the giant panda. The takin (a type of goat antelope), numerous species of pheasants, and a variety of laughing thrushes are found in all Chinese mountain ranges. China seems to be one of the chief centres of dispersal of the carp family and also of old-world catfishes.

giant pandaA young giant panda sitting in a tree, China.© Anatoly Kolodey/Fotolia

The regional affinities of Chinese animal life are complex. Resemblances in the Northeast are to the fauna of the Siberian forests. Animals from Central Asia inhabit suitable steppe areas in northern China. The life of the great mountain ranges is Palearctic (relating to a biogeographic region that includes Europe, Asia north of the Himalayas, northern Arabia, and Africa north of the Sahara) but with distinctively Chinese species or genera. To the southeast the lowlands and mountains alike permit direct access to the eastern region. This part of China presents a complete transition from temperate-zone Palearctic life to the wealth of tropical forms distinctive of southeastern Asia. Tropical types of reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals predominate in the southernmost Chinese provinces.