 |
Hunan Hupingshan National Nature Reserve (HHNNR) is located at the northeast of Wuling Mountain, Shimen County, Hunan Province, with the total area of 66,568 hectares. The geographical position is N29¡ã05¨@¡«30¡ã09¨@and E110¡ã29¨@¡«110¡ã59¨@.It borders 4 townships, i.e. Taiping, Suojie, Luoping, Nanbei, and Dongshanfeng management district, in the east, south and west. In the north, it borders Hubei Houhe National Nature Reserve, 3 townships including Yuyangguan, Changleping, Wantan in Wufeng County and Wuliping township in Hefeng County of Hubei Province. Most of mountain ranges run from east to west, rising and falling heavily. The lowest place in HHNNR is Shijiahe, which is 220metres above sea level. The highest peak, Hupingshan, is 2098.7 meters high. The biggest relative height difference reaches to 1878.7m. |
| HHNNR is one of existing rare subtropical areas in our country which forestry vegetation is preserved quite completely, and its forest coverage reaches 86.5%, the vegetation coverage percentage reaches 98.7%.
It is praised as the precious gene bank of central China and also be honored as precious place with intact species diversity in the same latitude region of Eurasia by domestic and foreign experts because of large numbers of ancient origin, rare and endangered species have been recorded in HHNNR. It has extremely high scientific research value and global vital significance. Hunan Provincial Government ratified establishing Hupingshan Nature Reserve in 1982. and State Council ratified the application of establishing Hupingshan National Nature Reserve in April, 1994. To understand the situation of nature resource fully for the purpose of logical protection and management, a multidisciplinary survey team including plants, animals, insects, geology, physiognomy, soil and social economy had been developed in 1987. which lasted more than 6 months from the May. More than 40 experts from Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai Technical Normal School, Central South Forestry University and Hunan Normal University was invited in the survey. organized by Forestry Bureau of Changde City, Government of Shimen County and Forestry Bureau of Shimen County. |
 |
 |
In 1988¡«2002, experts and scholars from Wuhan Institute of Botany CAS, Beijing Forestry University, Hunan Normal University, Central South Forestry University, Northwest Agricultural and Forestry Technical University, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Sweden and Helsinki University of Finland developed related supplement investigation one after the other. Especially in 1990 and 1991, Mr. Gary M. Koehler, a Felid specialist from US, who was delegated by WWF and visited Hupingshan two times, found some activities trace of south China tigers. It brings the new hope of saving such important species. Supported by Save China's Tigers, continuous wildlife monitoring using the infrared photography have been carried out since October 2001. A mass of information has been accumulated in the work. It has built a good foundation for further studies on population ecology of south China tigers. For further verifying the species of the nature reserve, Central South Forestry University, Hunan Academy of Forestry, Forest Arboretum of Hunan Province, Nankai University had been invited again to carry on the supplement investigation of animal, plant and fungus from July 2003 to August 2004. |
According to the result of scientific investigation, HHNNR has ancient fauna and flora, rich biodiversity, rare and precious species and typical ecosystem. 2836 species, 1026 genera and 228 families of vascular plant have been recorded in HHNNR, among which 6 species are under the first-class state protection including Davidia involucrata, Davidia involucrata var. vilmoriniana, Ginkgo biloba, Taxus wallichiana, Taxus wallichiana var. mairei and Bretschneidera sinensis.24 species under the second-class including Sinojakia dolichocarpa, Liriodendron chinense, Cercidiphyllum japonicum, etc. 69 species of orchid are listed in the appendix of CITES. Some relic species including Ginkgo biloba and Cercidiphyllum japonicum have been recorded also. Additionally, Hupingshan is the type locality of seven new species such as Sinojakia dolichocarpa, Sorbus hunanica, Carpinus shimenensis, Vitis shimenensis, Smilax hnanensi, Berberis oblanceifolia, Rhododendron shimanense.314 species of terricolous vertebrate have been recorded in HHNNR, belonging to 80 families, 28 orders, including 25 species, 8 families, 2 orders of amphibians, 47 species, 9 families, 3 orders of reptiles, 178 species, 39 families, 15 orders of birds, 64 species, 26 families, 8 orders of mammals. 5 species of animals including Panthera tigris amoyensis, Panthera pardus , Neofelis nebulosa, Moschus berezovskii , Aquila chrysaetos are under the first-class state protection, and 49 species including Manis pentadactyla, Macaca mulatta, Viverra zibetha, Selenarctos thibetanus, Andrias davidianus are under the second-class. 53 species including Manis pentadactyla, Selenarctos thibetanus are listed in appendix of CITES. 30 species, 29 genera, 12 families and 5 orders of fresh-water fish are recorded additionally. According to the survey report of vertebrate resource, 5 species, i.e. Rhabdophis chrysargus, Treron sieboldii fopingensis, Collocalia brevirostris, Hypsipetes flavala, Parus ater aemodius, are new recorded in Hunan Province. Insect species richness is very high in HHNNR. Based on the specimen collection and identification, more than 4500 species, 260 families, 24 orders have been recorded, among which 39 are the new species, 11 are the new record in China, 81 are the new record in Hunan Province, Allomyrina davidis and Bhutanitis mansfieldi, are under the state protection, and Bhutanitis mansfieldi is listed in the appendix of CITES. |
 |