Chen Mou, a farmer in Qinglingzi Village, Hailin City, Mudanjiang, has 4 cows at home, and it is his job every morning to lead 4 cows to a ditch a few miles away from home. But recently, Chen's family has one less cow, and the grandfather and grandfather quickly look around nearby.
In the process of looking for cattle, Chen found some big cat paw prints, and he immediately felt bad. Following the footprints, Chen quickly found the cow that his family had lost, but the cow was already dead.
According to Chen's words, "half of the pulling ass is gone", suspected of being committed by the Siberian tiger. The tiger first pushed the cow down, then bit the neck to bite the cow to death, dragged it for more than 100 meters, and then ate half of the cow's butt.
The tiger may have been full and discarded the remaining cattle carcass there, Chen dragged the cow's carcass back, and then discussed with the relevant departments how to dispose of the remaining cattle.
Judging from the footprints left at the scene, the size of this Siberian tiger is huge, and Chen revealed that his cattle also have nearly 400 pounds, which can bite it to death and drag it for more than 100 meters, which cannot be a small tiger.
After the staff of the forestry and grass department arrived, they surveyed the footprints and confirmed that they were the footprints of the tiger, which should be an adult tiger of about 500 pounds, and after eating the carcass of the department's cattle, it returned to the mountain.
In fact, with the gradual emergence of the results of ecological environment construction over the years, many wild animals, including tigers, are gradually recovering their populations.
Take China's wild Siberian tigers, at the beginning of the pilot of the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park in 2017, there were only 27, and by the time the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park was officially established in 2021, the number of Siberian tigers had risen to 50.
In fact, the rise in the number of tigers can also be intuitively felt, for example, in recent years, the phenomenon of tigers going down the mountain to prey on livestock has become more frequent.
This is not the first time that a Siberian tiger like Qinglingzi Village has preyed on cultivating cattle, as in early December 2021, a farmer's farm cattle in Ma'anshan Forest Farm, Shangying Town, Shulan City, Jilin Province, were also bitten to death and eaten by tigers.
Although livestock are not among the regular foods of wild Siberian tigers, tigers that come down the mountain and meet cattle and sheep are most likely to prey on.
Tigers are nature's top predators, and they have honed their hunting skills in the long process of species evolution, and what they are best at is "throat-locking killing".
Although the cultivated cattle in Chen's family were eaten by tigers on their buttocks, the real cause of death of the cow was bitten off the neck, so there is no saying that tigers prey like hyenas.
Siberian tigers drag their cattle to a hidden place to eat, so why eat only part of it and leave? This is exactly in line with the habits of tigers, because wild tigers, and even most predators, have the habit of hiding food.
Simply put, they can't eat it after a hunt, so they will hide the rest of the food and wait until later to eat. The act of hiding food is very important for animals, sometimes even helping them survive the stages of famine.
Although tigers eat a large amount of meat, 10-20 kilograms of meat at a time, a cow is still too much for them, so the rest is left in the place where it considers hidden.
The animal's Tibetan eating habits are actually affected by environmental factors, such as lions, which are also big cats, are more inclined to prey on how much to eat, and there is little habit of hiding food.
Why this difference? Mainly in the African savannah, there are many professional "scavengers" such as brown hyenas and vultures, and it is easy to find and eat the food hidden by other animals. Lions are also smart, knowing that they can't "work for free", so naturally they have less to hide and eat.
Tigers are different, they live in the forest, and the forest ecosystem faces less pressure to "scavenger", so it can safely hide and eat.
Tigers leave the remaining carcasses of cattle in the area, so people in the vicinity must pay special attention to tigers in recent times, because no one can guarantee whether and when it will come back to eat.
For farmers, a cow is a relatively large property of the family, such as Chen Mou's cattle, the market price should be more than 10,000 pieces, so it was bitten by the tiger, which is undoubtedly a huge loss, naturally very heartache.
Many people have questions, if the tiger preys on its own cattle and sheep again, in order to protect the cattle and sheep, can the tiger be killed? Here is a clear indication that it is not possible.
Tigers and other national key protected animals are the property of the state, while livestock such as cattle and sheep are the private property of farmers. The state protects public property more than private property, so we cannot sacrifice higher interests so that the lower interests are not harmed, so tigers kill cattle, we cannot hunt tigers.
However, people's right to life and health is higher than any property right, if the tiger hurts people, it can kill the tiger, in law, this kind of behavior constitutes "emergency risk avoidance", so that there is no legal responsibility.
The conditions for "emergency avoidance" are still relatively harsh, and it must be an act of injury that is occurring, and it cannot be avoided in advance or avoided after the fact.
In addition, there is also the problem of whether there is a fault, such as you have obvious fault and caused the tiger to hurt you, you beat the tiger to death, although you do not need to bear legal responsibility, but you need to compensate for the loss of the state and accept administrative punishment.
Wild animals are legally regarded as "things", if their livestock is preyed by wild animals, they can claim compensation from its owners, the owner of wild animals is the state, then in order to make up for the loss, the correct way is to apply for state compensation.
For example, when a cow in the Ma'anshan Forest Farm in Shangying Town was preyed upon by tigers, the local government quickly launched a state compensation procedure to make up for the losses of farmers.