Ladies and gentlemen, please click "Follow" in the upper right corner, and you will not miss the wonderful content, so that you can view it at any time.
Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
In July 2004, West China Metropolis Daily reported that after ten years of demonstration, the Sichuan dwarf rock sheep was finally confirmed to be a unique animal species in the world!
But while it was identified as a new species, it also faced the dilemma of endangered survival, and the dwarf rock sheep is endemic to the continent, and it is only distributed in China, with fewer than 500 individuals.
Dwarf Rock Sheep was first discovered in 1936, why was it not confirmed until 2004, during which nearly 70 years of dwarf rock sheep lived awkwardly on the banks of the Jinsha River?
What kind of creatures are the dwarf rock sheep that live in the Nile Sacred Mountain, and how are they now, twenty years later?
«【Dwarf Rock Sheep's "Righteous Name" Road·】
The first discoverer of dwarf rock sheep was not a Chinese, but a Western explorer, Skrit.
In 1936, he came to Jili Village, Zhubalong Township, Batang County, Sichuan, China, and under the guidance of two villagers, he found dwarf rock sheep wandering around Sangdagou.
At this time, the people living here did not find the identity of the dwarf rock sheep, and they have always classified it as a rock sheep, and the two have great similarities in appearance, so no one doubts its identity.
But the newcomer Skrit saw the difference at a glance, the dwarf rock sheep was significantly smaller in stature, and upon questioning it was discovered that the locals had been mistaking it for a rock sheep.
So he returned to the United States with seven specimens of dwarf rock sheep and placed them in the museum in Philadelphia, USA.
The appearance of the dwarf rock sheep has made Western biologists very curious about what kind of new species it is, or whether it is a cross between the rock sheep and other species, and everything about the dwarf rock sheep is full of mystery.
It was not until the 70s of the last century that the mystery of the identity of the dwarf rock sheep was first revealed after nearly 40 years.
An Australian biologist, Grace, after visiting specimens of dwarf rock sheep, studied them carefully, and then came up with a bold inference that "dwarf rock sheep are a new species in their own right".
This assertion has led many biologists to clarify the direction of their research, and some people have begun to try to verify its authenticity.
In 1994, he went to the site where the dwarf rock sheep was first found three times to hunt and finally obtained an adult male specimen.
He then began a decade-long debate, and in 2004, the mystery of the identity of the dwarf rock sheep was concluded, and it was indeed a new species, and the only one in the world.
Although the dwarf rock sheep has escaped the trouble of identity, it is facing an endangered population crisis.
While Western biologists are conducting various investigations and demonstrations on dwarf rock sheep, Chinese biologists have also carried out investigations on this mysterious species.
However, the results of the survey are not very optimistic, the number of dwarf rock sheep counted in Batang County is only one or two hundred, and the population of dwarf rock sheep will not exceed five hundred, even rarer than giant pandas.
What kind of creature will the dwarf rock sheep that has been "misunderstood" as a rock sheep be, and how mysterious is its "true face of Lushan"?
«【·Flying eaves and walking on the wall『Rongna】»
The dwarf rock sheep is now classified under the genus Bovidae Rock Sheep as a separate species, and no subspecies have been found to exist.
Its distribution range is very concentrated and narrow, only found on the banks of the Jinsha River near Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan, and its habitat is about 300 square kilometers, and the only protection base is also where it was found, Zhubalong Dwarf Rock Sheep Nature Reserve.
The dwarf rock sheep had been considered a Sichuan subspecies of the rock sheep before, and at that time the number was still considerable and did not attract people's attention.
But in fact, the dwarf rock sheep is half smaller than the rock sheep, its length is less than one meter, its weight is about 50 pounds, and its height is about 70 centimeters.
In order to distinguish the two different animals, the local people gave the rock sheep and the dwarf rock sheep respectively.
The rock sheep is called "Gongna", and the word "Gong" means high mountain in Tibetan, describing the height of the rock sheep.
The dwarf rock sheep is called "cashmere", and "cashmere" refers to the warm climate of the low mountain area, which not only describes the body size of the dwarf rock sheep, but also points out its living environment.
Dwarf rock sheep are keen rock climbers, and they often haunt the cliffs of the Jinsha River Valley at an altitude of about 3,000 meters, or some low-lying gravel beaches.
They can fly on cliffs with a vertical angle of more than 60 degrees, and rush all the way to the top of the mountain, this "light skill" stunt is also their means of self-protection to avoid natural predators.
So how do dwarf rock sheep manage to walk on the cliffs and walk freely?
They are athletic "rock climbers", their hooves secrete a special liquid that can create a bonding effect during climbing, and can firmly "stick" to the rock without slipping.
And this is just a means for them to escape, in order to survive better in the cruel jungle, they also have an "invisibility cloak".
In order to better hide its tracks, the coat color of the dwarf rock sheep will also change with the seasons, and in summer, the environmental color is mostly green, and the coat color of the dwarf rock sheep will turn dark brown, and it is difficult to find it hidden among the trees of the mountain cliffs.
In winter, its coat "fades" and becomes a light brown color, a bit like malnutrition, but this color is closer to the color of dead leaves in winter.
«【Endangerment and Population Continuation of Dwarf Rock Sheep】»
Although the climbing ability of dwarf rock sheep is not weak, but the attack skill is almost zero, but because of the perennial rock climbing exercise, the muscles on the body are developed, the meat is delicious and juicy, and it is a meal for wolves, snow leopards, golden eagles and other carnivores.
In the face of these natural predators, dwarf rock sheep basically have no way to deal with it, but there is only one way to escape, but they often "miss the front hooves".
The snow leopard, which feeds on rock sheep all year round, has long developed its own set of predation methods, and the birds of prey in the air like golden eagles are even simpler, no matter how high the dwarf rock sheep climbs, it will not help, and a dive will scare the dwarf rock sheep to fall off the cliff by itself, and the hunt is effortless.
The survival of dwarf rock sheep is very difficult, and it often faces the tragic fate of being preded, but without human intervention, the internal regulation of the ecosystem will not make dwarf rock sheep an endangered survival crisis.
One of the biggest threats to the survival of dwarf rock sheep comes from humans, whose population once numbered more than 7,000 individuals, despite their limited habitat range.
Dwarf rock sheep are social animals, and they can number up to about 50 individuals in a small group at that time, but with the poaching and illegal killing of people, the population density of dwarf rock sheep has been declining.
Poachers set traps in places where they must drink, and illegally sell their fur and horns, resulting in a population density of less than one per 1,000 square kilometres of dwarf rock sheep in a small habitat.
The reproduction of a species requires at least 50 individuals, otherwise a large number of inbreeding will cause problems with their genetic inheritance, and the population will gradually degenerate.
Some experts say that the result will be that the dwarf rock sheep will eventually become extinct in a hundred years.
In the 90s of the 20th century, Batang County established a nature reserve, in which hunting was completely banned, and the threatened dwarf rock sheep got a little respite.
However, the information on the dwarf rock sheep is still very limited, and it is rarely caught in the reserve due to its timid nature, alert personality, and its stealth fur.
Even experts often ridicule the dwarf rock sheep as "only see the dung, not see the true face of Lushan", and the current dwarf rock sheep still live in the Zhubalong Nature Reserve.
Reference:
China News Network, "Sichuan Dwarf Rock Sheep Confirmed as a New Species, Endangered on the Edge of Extinction and in Need of Urgent Protection", 2004-7-20
Environment & Life, "Dwarf Rock Sheep: Easy to Climb Over Cliffs, Escape from Hunting, Less than 500 Sheep Survive on the Jinsha River", 2018-11-12
CNKI, "Dwarf Rock Sheep, Rare Species of Ronnie Sacred Mountain", 2015-2-15
Qamdo released "Have you seen this rare wild animal in Mangkang, it is less than the stock of "national treasure" giant pandas?", 2017-9-24