Foping Nature Reserve

Foping Nature Reserve

Foping Nature Reserve is a nature reserve and national park in the Qinling Mountains, Shaanxi Province, China. The reserve covers an area of 350 km2 and is under the management of the Ministry of Forestry. It occupies 29 240 hectares of rough mountainous terrain and is home to a stable panda population. It lies between 1 080 and 2 094 m altitude, with warm summers and cold winters. The area receives 950-1200 mm of rain, mainly from July to September, with snowfall in the higher altitudes. The reserve is dominated by wooded areas with a mixture of coniferous and deciduous broad-leaved trees. The Foping Nature Reserve was established in 1978 in order to protect the Giant Panda. The reserve maintained a fairly stable population of around 64 pandas between 1974 and 1993, where they avoided humans and lived in areas where bamboo flourished. The area is also home to the Qinling Panda or Brown Panda, a subspecies of Giant Panda, which was discovered in 1959, but only acknowledged as a subspecies in 2005. This subspecies is found only in the Qinling Mountains, at altitudes of 1300-3000 meters. The coloration is probably the result of inbreeding: because the population is locked out of genetic variation, this may have led to the conservation of the responsible mutation. Other mammals in the reserve include the Golden Monkey, Mainland Serow, Chinese Goral, Dwarf Musk Deer, Asiatic Black Bear, and North-Chinese Leopard. The area is also home to the Red and White Giant Flying Squirrel.