Yihuang South China Tiger Nature Reserve Area
2 min readWelcome to Yihuang South China Tiger Nature Reserve Area. In the following I will give you a specific introduction of this Nature Reserve Area. As we all know Yihuang County is located in eastern Jiangxi Province, situated in the transition zone from Wuyishan Mountain Range and Yu Shan Mountains to Fuhe plains.
The total land area of the County is 194,400 hectares, among which the forestry land area holds 150,900 hectares, taking up 77.6% of the total land area. There are three north-south trend mountain ranges in this area. The major peak of the east branch is Junfeng Mountain whose altitude is 1760.9 meters. The major peak in themiddle part is Fish Teeth Mountain whose altitude is 1467.9 meters, and the major peak of the west branch the Great King Mountain whose elevation is 1136.6 meters.
It forms a topography which is surrounded by the East, South, West mountain groups, and it is high south as well as low-lying in north. The place lies in the moderate subtropical humid monsoon zone, with four clear-cut seasons, mild climate, abundant rainfall, and adequate illumination. There are various types and prosperous communities of forest in the county, where lives the sambar, Su Men antelope, wild boar, yellow Ji, the South China Rabbits and other wild animals. It is an idealsurvival and multiply strip for South China Tigers, and it is one of the main distribution areas for South China Tigers in our province in the history.
According to the County Annals, the tiger and the leopard is commonly found in Yihuang County before the liberation. In the 1950s and 1960s, as people regarded the tiger as “harmful beast”, they hunted it wantonly. Based on the statistic of the Autochthonism Department, the Foreign Trade Department, along with the Supply and Marketing Department on the number of purchased South China Tiger skin, in 1950s,55 South China Tigers were killed in Yihuang County,25 in 1960s, and 10 in 1970s, accounting for 34% of the total killed 264 South China Tigers of the same period.
After the 1980s, with the development of social economy, the habitat condition of the South China Tiger is worse and worse both inside and outside of Jiangxi Province, and the quantity of the South China Tiger is sharply decreasing, but in the South China tigers protected areas, such as in the. towns like Shengang, Xinfeng, Zhonggang, Dongpo and Baizhu, people may continue to see the South China Tigers.
From November to December in 1990，sent by the World Wildlife Fund，the United States catamount expert Dr.Carry Kele along with his wife Mrs.Manuo took a special trip to the area to study the Fish Teeth Mountain.He confirmed that the South China Tigers still exist in Yihuang County.The investigation on the tracks and the habitat of South China Tigers approves not only the existence of the South China Tiger，but also the possibility of population breeding.
