Xundian Black-necked Crane National Nature Reserve in Kunming
Chinese Name:寻甸黑颈鹤省级自然保护区
English Name: Xundian Black-necked Crane National Nature Reserve in Xundian County, Kunming
Xundian Black-necked Crane Natural Reserve is a provincial reserve that is located in Hengheliangzi, Xundian County. Covering about 7217.3 acres of land on the high cold mountains, it is now known as the most south shelter for the black-necked cranes in the winter.
The reserve was built to protect back-necked cranes and their habitat – the wet land. It is home to 4 kinds of national I class protected wild animals – black-necked cranes, golden eagles, imperial eagles, ciconia nigras and 12 kinds of na National II class protected wild animals. All of these animals are of high reserving value.
Known as the most south shelter for the black-necked cranes in the winter，Xundian Black-necked Crane Natural reserve is the only place where national I class protected wild animals can be seen in Kunming（昆明）. The reserve is on a mountain platform in mid-west Xundian,which shares the borders of Liushao(六哨)，Diansha(甸沙), Jinsuo(金所). A large amount of black-necked cranes would arrive one after another at the reserve during the lunar calendar September 9th to the lunar calendar March 3rd next year for to spend their winter.
It is 45 kilometers far from Xundian city. To maintain the amount of the black-necked cranes visitors，At the same time, center part of the reserve had been regionalized to grow potatoes, and other grains to ensure the sufficient food supply for the guests in winter.
The life of the black-necked cranes are bound to their habitat – the wet land. One of the evidence is the amount of crane changing as square of the wet land changes. Xundian Black-necked Crane Natural Reserve was officially leveled up to the provincial reserve in 2013 then it was listed in “Provincial Reserves of Yunnan Province” in 2014. Since the promotion, the number of black-necked crane has been increasing. The enlarging numbers of the birds challenged the environment. So the money spent in the project was increasing, too.
For example, in 2015, the money spent on the project was 1.653 millions，which was into use by renovating the management department，constructing spillway, biological dam, water-retained dam and compensating the owners of grains damaged by the birds. 2015 also saw the construction of the Dabailonghaizi Recovering Water-containing Dam (大白龙海子湿地恢复工程拦水坝)，regionalization of the reservation into the county and the declaration of it as a non-commercial forest. The input made difference in 2016. 12 biological dams were constructed in the central part of the reservation. The pond formed by the water-containing dam had helped raising the water level under the ground, slowed down the surface runoff. Thus the wet land recovered and functioned again.
The number of the black-necked cranes has been increasing recently. It increased from 27 in 2014 to 45 in 2016.
