As one of the world's most biodiverse countries and its second most populous, China is home to a significant number of wildlife species vulnerable to or in danger of local extinction due to the impact of human activity.
The type of legal protection that a particular species in China enjoys may depend on the locality of administration.
For example, the Beijing Municipal Government designates the wild boar and masked palm civet, which are found in the wilderness around the municipality, as local Class I protected species even though none are among the Class I or II protected species designated by the national government.
[4] China is a signatory country to the CITES and the national government's protected species list generally follows the designation of endangered species by CITES, but also includes certain species that are rare in the country but quite common in other parts of the world so as not to be considered globally threatened (such as moose and beaver) or are vulnerable to economic exploitation thus require legal protection (such as sable and otter).
Many of the listed species are endemic to the country, such as the groove-toothed flying squirrel and the Ili pika.