Wild animals thrive in the Qaidam basin

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 ◆ Wild animals thrive in the Qaidam basin

Wild blue sheep, competing with their domestic cousins for forage, have become a headache for herdsmen in Wulan County, northwest China's Qinghai Province.

Officials in Mangya, an area adjoining the Hoh Xil nature reserve, are planning to set up a reserve in this area and relocate the herdsmen elsewhere to make room for the wildlife.

Villagers in Nankeke, a village in the northeast of the Qaidam basin, complain blue sheep threaten to outnumber their livestock and they often come down uninvited to share the pasture.

The villagers keep some 35,000 sheep, while the number of the wild sheep on nearby hills in an area of 100 square kilometers has increased to 30,000. The villagers complain the pasture cannot feed so many invaders.

Troops of other wild animals such as wolves and bears, can also be seen in the southeastern and the northwestern parts of the basin.

Wu Changqing, an official of Wulan County, attributed the rampancy of wild animals to the gradual improvement of the local ecological environment and the fact that local herdsmen were becoming more aware of wildlife protection.

Wu said he once met a wandering yellow-grey wolf which was completely fearless of people. However, sheep were not as lucky as the official in their contact with wildlife.

Twenty-seven sheep have been found dead in a valley near Nankeke, apparently victims of wild wolves. Attacks on livestock have also been reported in other counties.