The Middle Kingdom

This is a species that is difficult to classify : in the family of bears, like the Giant Panda, or rather in that of the Raccoon which it resembles ?

It is the only surviving member of a separate family, the Ailuridae. It’s a big as a large cat, and its food is varied, above all bamboos which it finds in the forests of the high mountains of Nepal, Burma and China, but it also eats fruit, eggs and little animals. It is a rather nocturnal animal, sleeping during the day on a branch, with four hanging legs. The WWF’s emblematic animal, the Giant Panda has become the symbol of “Endangered” animals. There are now only about 1,600 of them left, spread over 64 nature reserves in central China, in the mountains of Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu. And there are very few of them in zoos.

This large deer species was considered extinct in the wild and has recently been reintroduced after surviving in captivity.

It was discovered (for the West) in 1865 by Father Armand David, a French missionary and naturalist, who, when he climbed onto the wall of the imperial hunting park near Beijing, saw a herd. Some specimens were laboriously sent to Europe, which saved the species, as the stock of the Imperial Palace was decimated by a flood and then killed and eaten by Japanese and European troops during the Boxer Rebellion.

Known as the “golden monkey“, the Roxellan Rhinopithecus owes its name to the Ottoman sultan’s wife, Roxellan, who had a snub nose and golden-red hair. Females are smaller than males, with grayish-black coats and more pronounced granulomas at the corners of the mouth. Sociable, the Roxellan Rhinopithecus, unlike other primates, vocalizes without moving its body or face.

The François’ langur – also known Tonkin leaf monkey is named after a French consul Auguste François (1857–1935) stationed in southern China froml 1899 to 1904 – is a primate with silky black fur and distinctive white sideburns.

It usually lives in groups of about 12 in the karst hills of this region of Asia.

The Asiatic Black Bear is also called White chested bear because of a strip of white hairs on its chest, shaped as a ‘V’ that strongly contrasts with its black fur. Living in forests in mountain areas (notably in the Himalayas), it lives at high altitude (3,000 m) in summer and goes down to the valleys to hibernate. An adult male can be almost 2 m tall and weigh 200 kg, while the female is smaller.

The Golden Takin is a ruminant of the subfamily of caprins (goats) which lives in the high mountains.

With its big muzzle (which helps to warm the icy air that it breathes) and its little backward-bending horns, it resembles the African wildebeest a little.

Resisting the cold thanks to its impermeable fur, lubricated by oil that is secreted by its skin, its fur can be 25 centimetres thick on its throat and neck. The Takin’s main predator is man, who hunts it for its meat and its fur. The species is classified as “Vulnerable”.

This splendid feline is an animal of the high mountains of Asia, able to live at altitude and to withstand hard winters, thanks to its thick fur.

Its grey-cream coat with pale yellow and beige spots surrounded by a black ring is an excellent camouflage, particularly in the snow-covered undergrowth in winter. Its feet are broad with hair-covered pads offering protection against the cold.

The Snow Leopard can be more than 1m20 long, apart from a one-metre long tail that it uses to hold the balance on rocky crests, in pursuit of its prey. In summer, it hunts moufflons and ibexes in high altitudes.

The Binturong (a Malay name) is great at climbing trees, and is even capable to descend along branches with its head down. It has a prehensile tail as long as its body, which gives it a good grip. It also has musk glands, which smell, it is said, like hot popcorn! Binturongs are mostly active at night. They sleep rolled up into balls in tree-hollows.

The species is relatively endangered as a result of deforestation.