| The earthquake in Lindian County in Daqing, a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, had little effect on the wetland in the Zhalong Natural Reserve, a local official said Thursday.
The reproduction seasons for most animals, lasting from April to May are over, and the earthquake exerted little effect on the animals living at the wetland, said Wang Ying, deputy-director of the administrative department of Zhalong Natural Reserve.
Crane keeper Wang Xuecheng said he could hardly feel the quakeand the cranes showed little abnormal behavior.
"We arrived at Zhalung Natural Reserve on July 26, the day after the earthquake, and found the wild animals living as usual,"said Li Xiaoming, a professor with the Wild Animal Research School of China's Northeast Forest University.
Many tourists wandered and played with the cranes at the reserve as the wild ducks and other birds swam in the lake as usual.
The Zhalong Natural Reserve, about 90 kilometers away from the epicenter, is famous for its 210,000 hectares of wetland and the cranes living there.
Of the 15 kinds of cranes across the world, six kinds can be found at the Zhalong Natural Reserve. The red-crowned cranes in the reserve account for one-fifth of the total living in the world.
An earthquake measuring 5.1 degrees on the Richter scale occurred at 11:43 p.m. Monday, about 180 kilometers away from the provincial capital of Harbin. |
