by Jim Kenagy and Xiaoguang Zheng, Burke Museum, University of Washington

Sichuan Province holds a rich diversity of animals and plants, distributed over a magnificent system of mountains, rivers, and lowland basins. Located at a continental biogeographic crossroads, the area ranges from montane forests and alpine zones above 5000m in the north and west down to subtropical valleys in the south. With only 7% of China's total land area, Sichuan Province, together with adjacent Chongqing, holds 45% of China's vertebrate animal species and 41% of themammal species.

We present here a checklist of the 219 mammal species of this region, both Latin and English names, together with a brief indication of habitat type and elevation, conservation status (click here for key to categories), and in most cases a color illustration.

The original source of this information is the Color Pictorial Handbook of the Mammals of Sichuan, by Youzhi Wang (Health and Antiepidemic Station of Sichuan Province, Chengdu) and Jinchu Hu (Sichuan Normal College, Nanchong). The book was published in

Beginning with a trip to Sichuan Province in summer 2000, the Burke Museum Mammal Section has initiated cooperative research on the biodiversity and historical biogeography of the diverse small mammals of Sichuan. Our Chinese research partners are Professor Zongyong Zeng of Sichuan University and Mr. Shaoying Liu of the Sichuan Academy of Forestry, both located in Chengdu. We hope that viewers will enjoy the content of this checklist and the beautiful illustrations. We invite questions, comments, and corrections.