Wenhong Xiao

Chinese Academy of Sciences | CAS · Institute of Zoology

ContextLivestock grazing is one of the most widespread types of anthropogenic land use, even occurs in many protected areas and has become a threat to wildlife worldwide. Understanding livestock-wildlife interactions is crucial for rare large carnivores conservation. In China, free-ranging cattle within forests degrade the habitat of the tigers (Pa...

Ice storms greatly affect the structure, dynamics, and functioning of forest ecosystems. Studies on the impact of such disasters, as well as the post-disaster recovery of forests, are important contents in forest biology, ecology, and geography. Remote-sensing technology provides data and methods that can support the study of disasters at the large...

Abstract Background: Disentangling the relative importance of environmental variables and interspecifc interaction in modulating co-occurrence patterns of sympatric species is essential for understanding the mechanisms of community assembly and biodiversity. For the two sympatric Galliformes, Silver Pheasants (Lophura nycthemera) and Whitenecklaced...

Habitat loss, prey depletion, and direct poaching for the illegal wildlife trade are endangering large carnivores across the globe. Tigers (Panthera tigris) have lost 93% of their historical range and are experiencing rapid population declines. A dominant paradigm of current tiger conservation focuses on conservation of 6% of the presently occupied...

Large carnivore populations are globally threatened by human impacts. Better protection could benefit carnivores, co‐occurring species, and the ecosystems they inhabit. The relationship between carnivores and humans, however, is not always consistent in areas of high human activities and is often mediated through the effects of humans on their ungu...

Understanding wildlife-livestock interactions is crucial for the design and management of protected areas that aim to conserve large mammal communities undergoing conflicts with humans worldwide. An example of the need to quantify the strength and direction of species interactions is the conservation of big cats in newly established protected areas...

The future of the critically endangered Amur leopard (Panthera pardus orientalis) is at a crucial point, and effective conservation strategies implemented within its primary historical range in Northeast China may determine the fate of this species. However, when a conservation plan was first developed for the species, scarce information on the leo...

As an apex predator the Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica Temminck, 1844) could play a pivotal role in maintaining the integrity of forest ecosystems in Northeast Asia. Due to habitat loss and harvest over the past century, tigers rapidly declined in China and are now restricted to the Russian Far East and bordering habitat in nearby China. To fa...

Context The Amur tiger and leopard, once roaming over the Eurasian continent, are now endangered and confined to the Sikhote-Alin Mountains, Russia—a landscape that has been increasingly fragmented due to human activities. The ultimate fate of these big cats depends on whether they can resettle in their previous main historical range in NE China. R...

Evidence of Amur tiger Panthera tigris altaica reproduction in the wild is very scarce in China. A camera-trap record from 6 November 2013, outside Hunchun Nature Reserve in northeast China’s Changbai Mountains, provided the first videotaped evidence of a female Amur tiger with 4 cubs in the wild. Such reproduction occurrence records give a promisi...

Background/Question/Methods Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica), the largest tiger subspecies, is the keystone species and the top predator in the mixed broadleaf and Korean pine (Pinus koraiensis) forest ecosystem in northeastern Asia, while tiger is categrized as an endangered species by IUCN red list. Most of Amur tiger’s habitat and population...

Abstract The North Chinese Leopard (Panthera pardus japonensis) is an endemic subspecies of Panthera pardus to China, living in small and isolated populations with a severely fragmented distribution. Here we first sequenced and annotated its complete mitochondrial genome. The total length of the North Chinese Leopard is of 16,966 base pairs that co...