Rare Birds and Animals

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 ◆ Rare Birds and Animals

If Xishangbanba of Yunnan Province is China's largest museum of natural history, the Tibetan Plateau is a "natural zoo" of rare birds and animals. In the vast and isolated mountains, the natural ecology has remained unchanged. The snow-covered mountains hide protected areas where springs flow, flowers bloom, and wildlife flourishes. In winter, groups of large wild yaks, with their long hair touching the ground, gather along lakeside and ponds or roam on the plains. Violent and strong, a yak usually weighs over a thousand kilogram's. The valley are inhabited by wild donkeys, who travel in herds. When a bus passes by, hundreds of wild donkeys on the river banks will often raise their heads and start chasing it at a speed of sixty kilometers an hour. Wildlife in the Tibetan Plateau also includes gulls, parrots, wild ducks, geese, and soft-shelled turtles.