Mountain Tianmu Nature Reserve has the fame of “Natural Arboretum”, in which there are 1,718 spermatophyte species, 151 pteridophyte species, and 291 moss species, 35 of which are rare and endangered species. Complex topography and plentiful vegetation resources provide ideal habitat conditions for wildlife. There are 74 mammal species, 148 bird species, 44 reptile species, 20 amphibian species, 55 fish species, and documented 1,853 insect species. Among them, cloud leopard (Neofelis nebulosa), black muntjac (Muntiacus crinifrons), white neck and long tail pheasant (Syrmaticus ellioti), Chinese tiger butterfly are the species enlisted under National Protected Wildlife. Mountain Tianmu is therefore well-known as “the biological gene bank”. The biological resource with rich species variety provides the ideal conditions for scientific research and educational field practice. Since Bates, a German entomologist, published his new discovery of “Anoplodera Excavata Bates”: the first animal species named after Tianmu (Tianmu Festoon Capricorn Beetle) in 1884 and Chen Huanyong, a Chinese scholar, published the first new found plant species in Mountain Tianmu in 1927 which was named as Ostrya rehderiana (Tianmu ironwood), Chinese and foreign scholars have found and named 37 plants and 48 animals with Tianmu as part of their name. Mountain Tianmu is also famous for generating mode specimens: 83 vegetable mode specimens and 181 animal mode specimens have been collected here. Unique topography and abundant biological resources attract professors and students from Zhejiang University, Fudan University, Nanjing Forestry University, Zhejiang Forestry College, East China Normal University, Zhejiang Normal College and other institutes to conduct biological, geological, geographical, hydrological and soil field work in Mountain Tianmu. Foreign scholars from Germany, Canada, the United States and other countries also come to visit and conduct field research in the reserve.
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