A Flourishing Landscape: Summer in Urabandai
The forest abounds with life in the summertime. The Japanese black bear (Ursus thibetanus japonicus) consumes a wide range of foods during this season, including ants, bees, and wild honey, as well as wild strawberries, raspberries, cherries, and other fruits. The bears also eat freshwater crabs and scavenge from the carcasses of deer, rabbits, and other mammals.
Forest green tree frogs (Zhangixalus arboreus) spawn in trees and shrubs around the ponds and wetlands. The foam nests created by the frogs hang from branches over the water. The chestnut tiger butterfly (Parantica sita) arrives in Urabandai in early August, having traveled thousands of kilometers from as far away as Okinawa or Taiwan.
The yellow bunting (Emberiza sulphurata) and Himalayan cuckoo (Cuculus saturatus) are among the birds that flutter through the forest canopy. On the forest floor, the lavender blooms of Siberian hydrangea (Hydrangea serrata var. megacarpa) and white double-spotted swertia (Swertia bimaculate) add splashes of color to the lush summer greenery.