Wolong Nature Reserve

Wolong Nature Reserve is one of the largest nature reserves in China designated for the conservation of the world-famous endangered species, the giant panda (MacKinnon and DeWulf, 1994). It was originally established with a size of 200 km2 in 1963 and expanded to 2,000 km2 in 1975 (He et al. 1996) and is located in Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, southwestern China (latitude 30045'-31025' N, longitude 102052'-103024' E).


Please read the excerpts below from Schaller et al.'s famous scientific book titled The Giant Pandas of Wolong (1985) for more information about the reserve.

Heading northwest of Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, pass[ing] the Dujiangyan irrigation system, built 2,100 years ago, following the valley of the Min River, ...

The entrance to the Wolong Reserve is about 130 km from Chengdu. At 1950 m in the heart of Wolong, the headquarters (see the picture below, taken in 2003) consists of a cluster of buildings vacated in 1975 by a timber extraction unit ...


The road continues, zigzaging up the side of the sharp-crested Balang Mountains, up above the last connifers and birch, until, at an elevation of over 4,200 m, it dips over a pass, leaving Wolong to enter the upland habitats of the Tibetan Plateau.

Lying between the Sichuan basin and the Tibetan highlands, the mountains of Wolong have been so warped, crumbled, and folded during the Tertiary, especially since the Eocene, ...

The terrain descends progressively from the northwest to southeast, with the Pitiao River a natureal dividing line. ...the reserve border descends close to 1,200 m; the peaks to the west are usually over 4,000 m ..., crowned by 6,250 m Mt. Siguniang.

Here is a 3-D map of Wolong Nature Reserve showing several places mentioned above.


Variable conditions of topography, climate, soil, and hydrology have resulted in a diverse flora. ... From the standpoint of panda ecology, 4 forest types with their associated bamboo species play a major role. 1. A subtropical, evergreen broad-leafed forest grows below an elevation 1,600 m ... 2. An evergreen and deciduous broad-leafed forest lies between about 1,600 and 2,000 m ... 3. Extending from 2,000 to 2,600 m is a mixed coniferous and deciduous broad-leafed forest ... 4. The most extensive forest in Wolong is the subalpine coniferous one that lies between 2,600 and 3,600 m ...

There are approximately 4,000 species of plants in the reserve. The reserve also supports many kinds of vertebrates, 96 species of mammals, 230 of birds, 20 of reptiles, 14 of amphibians, and 6 of fish having been noted so far. ... including green-tailed monal and Temminck's tragopan pheasants, golden monkey, white-lipped deer, ... takin, snow leopard, red panda, and, of course, the giant panda, for whom the reserve was established and whose presence has assured the survival of all other species there.

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