What is causing the population decline of Bactrian wild camels?

There are 7 groups of Bactrian wild camels *** with nearly 200 peaks that frequently appear in the Annanba Bactrian Wild Camel Nature Reserve in Aksai County, Gansu Province, accounting for about one-third of the wild camels in China. However, because people historically occupied freshwater areas with rich aquatic plants, Bactrian wild camels could only drink salt water or low-quality water to sustain their lives.

Some water sources have dried up or tend to dry up due to long-term wind erosion. Therefore, Bactrian wild camels can only travel long distances to find water sources. Some of them died due to frailty and old age or encountered wolves on the way. And being killed is one of the reasons for the decline of the population.

Due to the dry climate of the reserve, coupled with the impact of cold snaps and strong cooling weather, vegetation coverage has decreased, and wild camels have been short of food. This is another reason for the decline of the Bactrian wild camel population. . In addition, soil alkalization, degradation and desertification also pose serious threats to the habitat of wild camels.

With the development of society and economy, the mining industry has gradually expanded to the uninhabited areas in the central desert.

In the Bactrian wild camel distribution area, the mining of iron ore and gold mines has penetrated into the hinterland of the desert, and a large number of miners flocked here. Mining not only brings a series of environmental problems, but also has a negative impact on the wild camels. The camel movement also had a huge impact. Hunting is another reason for the rapid decline of Bactrian camel populations. Some armed hunters ride on trucks or off-road vehicles to carry out hunting activities blatantly. The existing Bactrian wild camels travel far into the desert to avoid humans and can only inhabit places that are extremely difficult for humans to enter. As a unique species, the Bactrian camel has become a rarer wild animal on earth than the giant panda.

According to surveys by Chinese and foreign scientists, there are less than 1,000 wild camels left in the world, and they only exist in Xinjiang, Gansu, China, and the desert wall areas at the junction of these two provinces and Mongolia. In an extremely small area, it has become a critically endangered species. Therefore, the protection of wild camels is urgent.

In order to further strengthen the protection of Bactrian wild camels and their habitat, the country has successively established two Bactrian wild camel national nature reserves in Lop Nur, Xinjiang and Annanba, Gansu.

Bactrian camel