Endangered China Trivia Quiz

Answer: Père David's deer

Père David's deer earned its name when French missionary Armand David brought three carcasses back to France with him in 1866. In the years that followed, some of the animals were illegally poached to populate zoos and exhibitions in Europe. By the year 1900, Père David's deer became extinct in China, leaving only those few animals in captivity as the last of the species.

Through the efforts of Herbrand Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford, the species was saved. He gathered what deer he could throughout Europe, forming a herd that he kept at Woburn's Abbey. In 1985, Russell's great-grandson John donated a herd of 20 deer (5 males and 15 females) back to China, which were kept in Beijing at the area that came to be known as Milu Park.

The deer is almost an oddity, with features that seem to come from different animals. Informally, it is sometimes called 'sibuxiang', which translates as 'four not alike'. It appears to have the nose and hooves of a cow, the head of a horse, the tail of a donkey, and the antlers of a deer.

Since the reintroduction of the species to China, the herd has increased to greater than 2000 in number in four wildlife preserves.

Answer: Brown eared pheasant

Crossoptilon mantchuricum is the binomial name of this lovely bird, first classified by Robert Swinhoe in 1863. The brown eared pheasant prefers mountain forests up to 2600 metres, moving down to areas no lower than 1100 metres in the winter months. The species is nationally protected, and there have been four nature reserves established to help with its conservation.

The 2013 release of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species named the brown eared pheasant as a vulnerable species.

Answer: Crested ibis

Once the crested ibis had a wide range, found extensively in Eastern Russia, China, Japan, Taiwan and Korea. Another name for this wading bird is the Japanese crested ibis, and its binomial name reflects that Japanese leaning as well: Nipponia nippon.

In Japan, the last wild crested ibis died in 2003, but the species was reintroduced to Japan in 2008 through the conservation efforts of the Chinese, who managed in 30 years to increase their population of the birds from the seven found in 1981 to over 1400 (700 in the wild and 700 in captivity).

Answer: Giant Panda

While the giant panda once roamed much of mainland China, its habitat has shrunk to a few small areas in the Shaanxi, Gansu and Sichuan provinces. The largest concentration of giant pandas can be found in PingWu county in Sichuan province, with roughly 45% of the wild population.

Ailuropoda melanoleuca lives almost exclusively on bamboo shoots, eating between 20 to 30 pounds a day. That said, the creatures are omnivorous, and will also eat meat, fish and eggs if available.

Answer: Black-necked crane

Grus nigricollis nests in Qinghai province, as well as in regions of Gansu province and in Tibet. During the winter months these cranes make their way to the lower altitudes of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces.

The black-necked crane is a protected species not only in China, but also in India and Bhutan. It is listed as Vulnerable in the 2013 release of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Answer: Takin

Another name for the Sichuan takin is the Tibetan takin. Its binomial name is Budorcas taxicolor tibetana. The other three subspecies are the Golden takin (B.t.bedfordi), found in Shaanxi province, the Mishmi takin (B.t.taxicolor) of India, Myanmar and Southern China, and the Bhutan takin (B.t.whitei), which is the national animal of Bhutan.

The Golden and Mishmi subspecies are classified as Endangered, while the Bhutan and Sichuan takins number less than 5000 specimens each, and are classified as Vulnerable in 2013's IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Answer: Golden snub-nosed monkey

Rhinopithecus roxellana is a very distinctive monkey, with its reddish-gold fur and snub of a nose. Its natural habitat is very similar to that of the giant panda, and they can often be found in the same areas, but since it is better adapted to colder climates than the giant panda, the golden snub-nosed monkey has a much wider (and higher) range.

Most of the species' wild population in China lives in Sichuan province, although their habitat extends north into Gansu, Shaanxi and Hubei provinces, as well as south into Yunnan province.

Answer: South China tiger

Guizhou province is within the traditional region of Southwest China, but borders the region of South Central China. Guiyang is the capital of the province, and the location of Qianling Park, where the breeding program for South China tigers has been in place since 1963.

At one time the Chinese government encouraged the capture and killing of South China tigers, which were considered pests. Thankfully, cooler heads prevailed in time to save them from complete extinction. Even so, this species is considered among the most endangered in the world, given the status of Critically Endangered in 2013's IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

The binomial name for this species of tiger is Panthera tigris amoyensis.

Answer: True

The Anhui Research Center for Chinese Alligator Reproduction was established in 1979 and has been so successful with its program that they have been able to sell specimins for pets, as well as for food, to help fund continued conservation efforts. In the wild, the Chinese alligator had been reduced to a mere 11 known specimins (in 1998), but since then more and more are being reintroduced to their natural habitat.

Unfortunately, there is not much of their natural habitat remaining, as the large majority of wetland areas have been converted into agricultural areas (rice paddies).

In 2013, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species listed Alligator sinensis as Critically Endangered (in the wild).

Answer: Yangtze River

Other names for the baiji are Chinese river dolphin, Yangtze River dolphin, whitefin dolphin and Yangtze dolphin. The species was even nicknamed the 'Goddess of the Yangtze'. At one time, the range of the baiji extended for 1700 kilometers along the middle and lower reaches of the river, but as the country industrialized, the population steadily dwindled.

The binomial name of the baiji is Lipotes vexillifer.