Crowd of rare animals spotted in NW China

Kiangs gallop across grassland in Yugur autonomous county of Sunan, Zhangye, Northwest China's Gansu province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

More than 200 kiangs, a national first-class protected species, were recently spotted in Yugur autonomous county of Sunan, Zhangye, Northwest China's Gansu province.

As a video clip shows, a flock of kiangs run on the grassland in a row, and then spread out to forage and play with each other.

These large plant-eating animals are good at running and quite vigilant. They live together on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. A group may have a dozen or even hundreds of heads.

Yugur autonomous county of Sunan has improved its environment by providing grassland rewards and subsidies, setting up natural conservation stations, prohibiting grazing and punishing illegal hunting.

In recent years, the population of snow leopards, white-lipped deer, black-necked cranes and other national-level protected wild animals has continued to increase due to these measures.