Masked palm civet caught on camera in northwest China's Qinghai

Infrared surveillance cameras captured first-ever footage of a masked palm civet in a primitive forest of northwest China's Qinghai Province, provide crucial evidence for zoogeographical research.

According to the Qinghai Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, researchers discovered the footage of a medium-sized animal through infrared surveillance cameras during wildlife monitoring in the Makehe primitive forest in southeastern Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. After morphological comparison and data verification, the animal was confirmed to be a masked palm civet. This marks the first documented record of the masked palm civet or any viverrid species in Qinghai Province.

The masked palm civets are mainly distributed in low-altitude areas of east, central and south China. Its appearance in the Makehe primitive forest shows this species may have adapted to high-altitude environment. The discovery provides new field evidence for studying the dispersal pathways, distribution patterns and adaptation mechanisms of civets to high-altitude environments.

Masked palm civets have been listed as a second-class nationally protected animal species in China.

The video footage captured from Saturday to Sunday in north China's Datong City, Shanxi Province, showed Oriental Stork chicks learning to feed themselves and fly under parental care as they prepare to live on their own.

The footage captured four Oriental Stork chicks bending their heads to peck at twigs inside the nest, practicing movements for picking up food, while a parent bird stood guard nearby.

In another nest, an adult stork returned to feed its brood. After filling their bellies, the three chicks adjusted their postures and kept spreading their wide wings and flapping them vigorously to practice flying.

Oriental Storks mostly inhabit woodlands and the peripheries of wetlands. Once the chicks can fly on their own, they will leave the nest to forage alongside their parents.