In March and April every year, the ice and snow have melted in the Dalongtan area of Shennongjia. After suddenly getting warmer, the weather has turned cold again. The Wushan salamanders (Liua shihi) are hidden deep among the stones. Driven by sexual impulse, they will go to extraordinary lengths to attract members of the opposite sex with their blood boiling, so that they can mate and reproduce. Their privacy is rarely invaded, and their tracks are always hard to detect. However, they will lay their eggs in a place that sunlight can reach under the water. Therefore, this season is also the right time to search for salamanders’ eggs and conduct research on their reproduction.
Shennongjia is a watershed between the Yangtze River and the Hanjiang River in
Hubei. Here four major river systems are nurtured, namely, the Xiangxi River,
the Yandu River, the Nanhe River, and the Duhe River. This territory boasts 317
large and small rivers, including one with a drainage area of over 1,000 km2.
The average annual total rainfall is 3.644 billion m3, the mean annual runoff is
726.5 mm, and the mean annual total runoff is 2.204 billion m3. There are
2.2-22.5 billion m3 of water resources in total with a per capita volume of
13,591 m3.