In the eyes of the people of The North, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, Xinjiang may be synonymous with the Desert Gobi. In fact, Xinjiang is known as the "hometown of melons and fruits", where the water and grass are abundant, the blue sky and white clouds, the natural resources are extremely rich, once upon a time there was even a tiger in Xinjiang - The Xinjiang Tiger, which is the population of the Caspian sea tiger distributed in China.
As early as the late autumn of 1876, Russian explorers found the Xinjiang tiger in the Tarim Basin and recorded it. According to him, the group spent eight days in the village of Aktama in the Tarim Basin and witnessed injured tigers fleeing into the forest. By March 1900, the Swedish naturalist Sven Hedin also confirmed the existence of the Xinjiang tiger. In January 1903, when the Japanese Otani Mitsurui Expedition marched to the poplar forest north of the lower reaches of the Hotan River, they found that tigers often appeared in this area.
However, in 1916, a Xinjiang tiger died in depression on the banks of the Yarkand River, which is said to be the last in Xinjiang. Because in the decades since, zoologists and explorers have searched for traces of Xinjiang tigers many times, but have never found any traces of them. Therefore, mainstream zoologists agree that the Xinjiang tiger was extinct in 1916.
So far, many scholars and locals have questioned the extinction of the Xinjiang tiger, and even some people are not willing to admit that the Xinjiang tiger has become extinct, they believe that there are still inaccessible "wet islands" in Xinjiang, and the possibility of xinjiang tiger residue preservation is not completely absent. And, until now, some people claim to have witnessed Xinjiang tigers:
In the 1950s, there were 4 sightings reported. In 1951, in the Aksu Poplar Forest Reclamation Area of the Tianshan Mountains, a group of reclamation fighters saw tigers when they were clearing the land; in 1953, several herders in Ili Nilek County under the Tianshan Mountains hunted and killed a tiger, but left little evidence; in 1957, in the Iron Thousand Milek in the lower reaches of the Tarim River, some herders saw a tiger floating on the Tarim River with a wild boar, saying that it had a nose and eyes; in 1959, farm workers who cut reeds on the shore of Manas Lake encountered two tigers and came out of the reeds.
In the 1960s, some people saw The Xinjiang tiger. In 1962, two people in the Western Regions Geological Team found a tiger lying on the ground eating a Tibetan wild donkey in a ravine in the Argin Mountains; in 1965, according to an animal worker in Xinjiang, someone saw a tiger in the Milan River Valley of the Argin Mountains; in 1965, several farm farmers in Qitai County met two tigers in wild horse diving, and the tiger ran away when he saw people throwing their legs.
In the 21st century, there are still claims to have found tiger tracks. In 2001, farmers and herdsmen in Bayingolin found a series of suspicious traces similar to the claw prints of Xinjiang tigers, suspected of being infested with Xinjiang tigers; in 2001, a farm in the Junggar Basin, several farmers and two tigers met unexpectedly, only 200 meters apart at that time. In 2001, a retired cadre of Xiyu Hejing Farm encountered a tiger head-on during a mine search in The Alkin Mountains, and the distance between the two was only 40 meters...
There is no basis for talking! All these so-called "sightings" have so far not produced scientific evidence to prove that they have really seen Xinjiang tigers, not that they are fools dreaming, or talking drunk, or deliberately deceiving people with ulterior motives. In the end, people did not catch a live Xinjiang tiger, or took photos or videos that confirmed that the Xinjiang tiger did indeed survive.
Although there is no particularly convincing evidence, some experts still believe that in the southern part of Xinjiang, where the land is sparsely populated and the tiger prey is large, there is likely to be a Xinjiang tiger, but it is difficult to be found. Even some travel companies have come to join in the fun, and they have also issued a reward announcement, willing to pay 1 million as a reward for those who find Xinjiang tigers. This obviously had the smell of merchant hype in it, and was finally stopped by the forestry department.
Most zoologists have questioned these so-called new discoveries, because tigers must have three major conditions for survival: one must have enough territory, the other must have abundant food, and the third must have a hidden environment. Today, Xinjiang tigers do not get these three conditions at all in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang tiger belongs to the caspian sea tiger in China's Xinjiang other name, its formal name is still called caspian sea tiger, just like someone nicknamed Er Dogzi, went to school to take a scientific name. The Xinjiang tiger is the westernmost tiger subspecies in the world, and among the nine subspecies, it is the most drought-tolerant tiger.
It is said that the Xinjiang tiger originated from Chinese mainland. Many years ago, a tiger in China spread westward, through Mongolia and Xinjiang all the way to the southern Caucasus and northern Iran, the melancholy desert and mountains blocked, did not run to Africa and Europe, this tiger eventually settled in Central and Western Asia, becoming the Xinjiang tiger (Caspian tiger).
The Xinjiang tiger has a distinct "Wang" character on the top of its head, once the well-deserved king of animals in Xinjiang, but could only live in the desert poplar forests and reeds.
The body is strong, the limbs are very thick, the tiger's claws are very sharp, and the overall appearance is very powerful, second only to the Siberian tiger and the Bengal tiger.
As the third largest tiger, the Xinjiang tiger is not as large as the Bengal tiger, but compared with it, the occipital bone of the Xinjiang tiger is wider.
Male tigers are generally 230-250 cm long, tail length is about 80-100 cm, and generally weigh about 170-250 kg; female tigers are 130-230 cm long and weigh 85-135 kg.
The coat color of the Xinjiang tiger is lighter than that of other tigers, and the markings on the body are mainly dark brown, only the markings on the head, neck, shoulders and the end of the tail will appear pure black, and the background color is light yellowish brown, so it seems that the Xinjiang tiger is more handsome.
3-4 years old, Xinjiang tigers will develop to sexual maturity, at this age, many small children are still drinking milk in their mother's arms. Since you grow up, you have to find an object, as soon as you find an object, you "fall in love", and soon, the tigress is pregnant with a baby, and the gestation period is generally 3-4 months.
However, the tiger mother is relatively strong, and still searches for prey on her own during pregnancy, hey, this male tiger is too irresponsible. The tigress gives birth to 2-4 cubs, sometimes as many as 6, but is rare. It is said that no more than 2 survived in general.
Tiger babies have such a powerful tiger mother, why did they die at a young age? If other beasts of prey had eaten it, who could have the guts?
In fact, he was eaten by his own mother, how fierce is this mother's heart, in order to get his hands on it. According to animal experts, in order to make the tiger cubs better survive, the emaciated tiger cubs will be eaten by the tigress, and no more than 2 small cubs will survive each litter.
Newborn tiger cubs weigh about 1400 grams and have their eyes closed for the first two weeks, unable to see anything. They are raised alone by the tiger mother, because the conscienceless tiger father "cheated" on him.
However, despite the lack of a father, the tiger cub still grew very fast, and before the age of one and a half, it was completely dependent on the food brought back by the tiger mother, and the food caught by the mother was fresh and fragrant, so delicious that it was so delicious that it swelled the stomach. Usually there is nothing to do anyway, so I follow my mother and mother to learn hunting skills.
When the tiger cub grows up, Uncle Tiger comes and helps the tiger mother expel the tiger cub, leaving it to fend for itself and find its own territory.
The distribution range of Xinjiang tigers is relatively wide, with the Tianshan Mountains being distributed in the north and south, while the rivers and lakes in the north of the Tarim Basin, the southern part of the Junggar Basin, and the Ili Valley, the Lop Nur area was once the most distributed area for Xinjiang tigers.
Xinjiang tigers have always lived a single life, like to stay in the water source, and rarely leave. During the day, he dozed off in a nest in the dense forest grass, rarely went out to move, and only lazily came out to hunt at night and in the early morning.
They walk with great care, never making a noise when they step on reeds or branches, and crawl like snakes with their heads down when they walk through bushes or reeds. The Xinjiang tiger does not climb trees, but is good at swimming, so in the swampy areas of the river, it can move freely and can swim across the river with wild boars.
Even Xinjiang tigers know that most animals like to drink water from the water source in the morning. At this time, the Xinjiang tiger hid around the water source, and when the prey was defenseless, it jumped out and launched a surprise attack, and the general prey could not escape. Sometimes they imitate the sound of male red deer calling female red deer to trap highly alert prey.
Its hunting method adopts a close-range raid, before pouncing on the prey, it will try to get as close as possible to the prey, and once it catches the prey, it will first bite off the neck vertebrae and skull of the prey, causing it to die quickly.
Xinjiang tigers are most interested in ungulates such as wild boars and wild donkeys, followed by cattle and sheep raised by herders, who also hunt red deer. Hungry, they hunt domestic animals, even small mammals and birds, fish, turtles, and insects.
After catching a small hunting object, first throw it to death and eat it; if you catch a large livestock such as horses or cattle, drag it into the dense forest and hide it first, and wait for the sun to set or eat it in the middle of the night. The way of eating is also very exquisite, generally starting from the buttocks of the prey, and eating it again the next day, but not eating rotten meat.
After eating, they also have to "drink tea", they will go to rivers, lakes or other water sources, lie in the water or stand in the water to drink water, you now know that it needs to live in the water source.
Each species has its own food chain, the demise of one species, and the extinction of multiple species associated with it.
100 years ago, the lower Tarim River was a mighty river surrounded by lakes and swamps, lush reeds and lush poplar forests. Herds of red deer, wild boar and goose-throated antelope run around. Of course, Xinjiang tigers are indispensable in this animal paradise with abundant water and grass. With plenty of herbivores and plenty of water, Xinjiang tigers live a carefree life.
Due to the increase in population, a large number of natural resources are urgently needed, so that forests are cut down and grasslands are cultivated. Due to people's blind and uncontrolled exploitation of nature, the rivers have been cut off, the land has been desertified, and an oasis has become an endless desert.
Xinjiang tigers have encountered unprecedented disasters, losing forests and reeds, and xinjiang tigers without habitat are equivalent to losing food sources; losing water sources is equivalent to losing their beautiful homeland.
In this case, the previous scene of humans and animals living in harmony is gone. Tigers that like to go out at night have also become impermanent, and tigers that do not attack people even if they are hungry have begun to attack people, and humans have intensified the hunting of tigers.
In order to survive, Xinjiang tigers have to migrate outward, but we all know that the Tarim River in Xinjiang is a desert-filled area, and Xinjiang tigers have to face a distant desert. A large number of Xinjiang tigers can only survive in a small number of desert oases, preserving the spark of stars.
Xinjiang's population has increased dramatically, and the natural ecological environment has been greatly damaged. However, this is not fatal for Xinjiang tigers.
When foreign explorers were in the Tarim region, locals told him that "tigers have been eaten by ants." Locals say that when a tigress gives birth, thousands of ants will surround the cub that has not yet taken off its coat and attack it until it is finally killed. The king of the hundred beasts will be extinct at the hands of ants, which is really sad for the Xinjiang tiger.
The experts' investigation also confirmed the locals' claim that in the vast desert species of Tarim, the main natural enemy of the King of the Hundred Beasts is not humans, but small ants. What ability does a little ant have to kill a tiger? It sounds incredible, but there's something reasonable about it when you think about it.
Biologists have found that the cubs of Xinjiang tigers are generally born in April and June, during which the temperature rises, the local ants begin to become active, and due to the climate and other factors, the number of ants at this time begins to increase significantly. Small numbers of ants may not threaten the survival of Xinjiang tigers, but once the number reaches the scale, it is different.
These sharply increasing ant feeds on the clothing of tiger cubs, resulting in a significant decrease in the survival rate of tiger cubs, and the reproduction of Tigers in Xinjiang has been seriously hindered, and the number is also decreasing sharply.
Some people have to ask, since this ant threatens the survival of the Xinjiang tiger, then the Xinjiang tiger has survived for so long, there will definitely be a way to deal with it, at least it can take avoidance measures, so why does the Xinjiang tiger not avoid it when giving birth?
Experts who adhere to this theory explain that it is likely that at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the environmental balance of Tarim was broken by unexplained sudden factors, some unknown variation in the food chain of animals and plants appeared, ants proliferated, and Xinjiang tigers had not yet adapted, thus endangering the beast king.
We can't confirm that the Xinjiang tiger really exists today, and we can only pray that a part of the Xinjiang tiger may survive; perhaps, in some corner of the desert, there are still Xinjiang tigers and have survived to this day. I hope our wish will come true, because if there is only one creature on the earth in the future, human beings, how terrible it will be, you say?
Xinjiang tiger
Xuelinggu Nature Lab/Production References: China Science Daily, Life Science Network, Southwest Mountainous Areas, Wildscreen, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences