Hunan is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and features fantastic hills, numerous lakes and rivers and dense vegetation. In the province, there are more than 30 national forest parks, 22 nature reserves and the forest coverage rate surpasses 95 percent. There are more than 3,000 kinds of plants, and precious species such as ginkgo, dove tree, ormosia and Chinese torreya can be found all over. Also, one can find the tracks ofmany precious and endangered animals including the South China tiger, macaque, cloud leopard, David's deer, giant flying squirrel, the Chinese pangolin, giant salamander, the long-tailed pheasant and the red-billed leiothrix. All these provide important data for the research and protection of forests, plants and animals.