Many wild animals under first-class state protection were recently spotted in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Shanxi Province.

Over the past few days, police officers found about 1,000 Mongolian wild asses running around the border between China and Mongolia at the Mandula Port.

"Starting from last year, there were a few Mongolian wild asses appearing at the Mandula Port. But it is the first time to see such a large crowd of almost 1,000 Mongolian wild asses. On the one hand, the cold current forced them to migrate from northern Mongolia down south. On the other hand, the appearance of the large crowds showed people's growing awareness of protection on natural environment and wild animals," said Hua Yu, an officer at the Baotou border checkpoint.

The Mongolian wild ass was listed as an endangered animal by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2015. The species is under first-class protection in the country.

Moreover, in a forestry center in Lyuliang in Shanxi, infrared cameras recently captured images of many rare wildlife species, including north China leopard, brown-eared pheasants, leopard cats and others.

"The numbers of wild animal species and individual wild animals have gradually increased in our forest. Wild animals under the first-class state protection, such as leopards, brown-eared pheasants, musk deer and leopard cats were rarely seen in the past, but now they are frequently spotted. These animals have a very high requirement for ecological environment," said Bai Haidong, forest ranger at the Jiaokou forestry farm.

(Cover image via VCG)

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