China’s Qilian Mountain National Park: home to a wide variety of rare wild animals (16)

Photo shows an alpine musk deer in the Qilian Mountain National Park in northwest China’s Qinghai province. (Photo courtesy of the management bureau of the Qilian Mountain National Park)

The Qilian Mountain National Park in northwest China’s Qinghai province is home to more and more rare wild animals such as snow leopards, which are under first-class state protection in the country, thanks to intensified ecological protection efforts in recent years.

At the end of 2020, there were 252 species of wild vertebrates living in the park in Qinghai, including 20 under first-class state protection and 51 under second-class state protection in China.

The Qilian Mountain National Park, one of the 10 pilot national parks in the country, covers 50,200 square kilometers, including 15,800 square kilometers in Qinghai and 34,400 square kilometers in neighboring Gansu province.