Within the UDR, there were 44 giant panda related nature reserves in five mountains, totaling 24,290km2. Relative to these PAs, 20,834km2 (26.22%) of the area they comprise was located in the UDR. Thus, 86.95% of the PAs protected 40.3% of takin suitable habitat in Sichuan (Table 2), with an average patch size of 240.4 ±36.2 km2. Among these five mountains, Minshan and Qionglai covered 35.8% suitable habitat and 88.83% of all the area contributed by PAs. By contrast, Daxiangling, Xiaoxiangling and Liangshan contributed less than 1% suitable takin habitat. The nature reserve that comprised the largest suitable habitat area was Wolong in Qionglai Province (4.86%, 1,195km2), following by Baodinggou (3.2%, 788 km2), Baiyang (2.36%, 581km2) and Xuebaoding (2.34%, 573km2).
Figure4. Suggested updated takin distribution range (UDR) in Sichuan, China
Table 2 The contributions of protected areas to takin distribution and suitable habitat in the five mountain ranges occupied by takin in Sichuan Province. Percentages indicate the proportion in each mountain relative to the total in Sichuan.