Red-crowned Crane

Red-crowned cranes, migratory birds, are national first-class protected animals and globally vulnerable species, with only over 2,000 individuals remaining. Each year, nearly 1,000 red-crowned cranes choose to winter in the Yancheng Nature Reserve, which is the largest overwintering site for red-crowned cranes in the world. The Yancheng Nature Reserve faces the Pacific Ocean and is a transitional zone from the North Subtropical to the Warm Temperate Zone, and from the Palearctic to the Oriental Region in terms of climate and faunal distribution. As a result, the area is rich in species, with 450 plant species, 379 bird species, 45 species of amphibians and reptiles, 281 fish species, and 47 mammal species. Among them, there are 12 species of national key protected wildlife of the first class, including red-crowned cranes, Siberian cranes, whooping cranes, Oriental storks, black storks, scaly-sided mergansers, Relict gulls, great bustards, golden eagles, Eastern imperial eagles, white-tailed sea eagles, Chinese sturgeons, etc. There are also 67 species of national key protected wildlife of the second class, such as hooded cranes, common cranes, black-faced spoonbills, whooper swans, spoon-billed sandpipers, mandarin ducks, grey-faced buzzards, spotted seals, etc.