Giant panda is known and cherished around the world. The panda, one of the most rare and beloved animals in the world, is threatened with extinction - only about 1,000 pandas live in the wild. Although historically pandas were found throughout much of China and in Burma and Laos, today all of the wild pandas in the world live in six isolated forest areas in central China. The panda first appeared 2 to 3 million years ago. Originally, panda territory included South and East China and parts of Mya...
Red Panda, is a mostly herbivorous mammal, slightly larger than a domestic cat (55 cm long). The Red Panda has semi-retractile claws and, like the Giant Panda, has a false thumb which is really an extension of the wrist bone. Thick fur on the soles of the feet offers protection from cold and hides scent glands. The Red Panda is native to the Himalayas in India and Nepal and southern China. This taxonomic classification of both the Red Panda and Giant Panda has been under debate for many decades,...
The yak is a long-haired bovine found throughout the Himalayan region of south Central Asia, the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau and as far north as Mongolia. In addition to a large domestic population, there is a small, vulnerable wild yak population. In Tibetan, the word gyag refers only to the male of the species; a female is a dri or nak. In most languages which borrowed the word, including English, yak is usually used for both sexes. Yaks are herd animals. Wild male yaks stand about 2-2.2 meters ta...
The Takin (Budorcas taxicolor) is a goat-antelope found in the Eastern Himalayas. There are four subspecies: B. taxicolor taxicolor, the Mishmi Takin; B. taxicolor bedfordi, the Shensi or Golden Takin; B. taxicolor tibetana, the Tibetan or Sichuan Takin; and B. taxicolor whitei, the Bhutan Takin. Mitochondrial research shows that takin are related to sheep, its similarity to the muskox being an example of convergent evolution. The takin is the national animal of Bhutan. Takin stand 110 to 120 ce...
The snow leopard (Uncia uncia), sometimes known as the ounce, is a large cat native to the mountain ranges of Central Asia from Afghanistan, northern Pakistan, to Lake Baikal and eastern Tibet. The taxonomic position of this species has been subject to change. In the past, many taxonomists included the snow leopard in the genus Panthera, with several of the other largest felids, but later it was placed in its own genus, Uncia. However, a recent molecular study places the species firmly within th...
