Flora and Fauna

The life of plants and animals is totally regulated by seasons and weather. Every spring a motley assortment of flowers blooms in the forest of the mountains, especially camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas, osmanthus and, in the south, orchids and magnolias. Deciduous and fruit-bearing trees in the north bud and blossom in spring. Leaves and fruit grow through the summer and in the autumn the apples, pears, persimmons and pomegranates ripen and fall, while their leaves and those of other trees turn crimson,gold,maroon and fiery orange before they dry up and flutter to the ground.

The northern forests are full of evergreen species like fir, larch, cypress, spruce and pine, though some portions of the pine and larch forests in the northwest turn yellow in autumn. Among the other deciduous trees are oaks, walnut, mulberry, gingko, camphor, willow, juniper and in the south palm, tung-oil, teak, acacia, banyan and bamboo. The greatest species and sub-species diversity is in the northwest forests of Lijiang, Zhongdian and Deqin Counties and in Xishuangbanna.

This extends to birds, too, of which Yunnan has a great range of species, concomitant with its many ecological micro-zones. In addition, it is on one of the major migration routes from Southeast Asia to Central Asia and back. Among the most beloved of birds are the peacock, conscripted as a Dai symbol in the south and south-west, the black eagle, the ancestral animal of the northern Yi, the black-necked crane, which flies to Napahai in Zhongdian County every year, the red pheasant and the silver pheasant, the hawks that Naxi men keep as pets in the old town in Lijiang, and the swift of Jianshui whose nest makes a soup.

The many environments of Yunnan's hills and valleys provide niches for a range of animals big and small. While admittedly they live in a much reduced habitat, wild animals do thrive in the many protected areas in the province. Anti-hunting propaganda is posted all over those places where hunting was a tradition. Travellers can still find animal parts used as medicine in the remote towns and rural markets, like bear paws, antlers, bear bile, dried Big Gecko and various horns, hooves, bones and internal body organs. But rarely are live animals for sale, except snakes, lizards, squirrels and maybe a baby civet.

Big animals live in Yunnan still. The biggest are the wild elephants of central Xishuangbanna, which can be viewed quite easily from the towers in the park sited at the edge of their preserve. More difficult to catch sight of is the tiger, partly because it's mainly a nocturnal animal, partly because it's disappearing. Other cats have been more successful surviving, such as the leopard and the smaller marbled cat and golden cat. The commonest is the jungle cat, yellow-brown and the size of a small dog. Martens, otters, pangolins and river deer are the other major resident mammals of the southern and southwestern jungles.

Further north civets, weasels, hedgehogs, barking deer (muntjacs), foxes and wolves prowl the forests. The higher slopes and the mountains of the northwest are home to blue sheep, musk deer, leopard, red (or lesser) panda, wild goat and black bear. Sometimes foxes, otters and red pandas are shot by hunters who make winter caps from the pelts. But this practice seems to be disappearing nowadays and the only animals still liable to be lined up in the sights of a rifle are small birds and occasional squirrels, to supplement the hunter's diet.