Photos of snow leopards and Chinese mountain cats sparked a surge in public interest in the two endangered species last week when a deputy from Qinghai province showed them to President Xi Jinping during the annual meeting of China’s top legislature.
The two photos shown by Kong Qingju, a National People’s Congress deputy from the northwestern province, were taken in the Qilian Mountain National Park in recent years.
Before the establishment of the park in 2017, Qinghai’s wildlife had been seriously threatened by overgrazing, overdeveloped tourism, illegal mining and the general degradation of its vegetation dating back to the 1980s, with wildlife populations declining sharply, Kong said.
“Thanks to resolute…