Xinjiang tiger is another name for the Caspian sea tiger in China, which was once the third largest tiger in the world and the only tiger species in the desert region of the world.
The Xinjiang tiger is the third largest tiger after the Bengal tiger (215 kg) and the Siberian tiger (225 kg). The body length is generally 1.8 meters, the tail length is about 1 meter, and the average total length is 2.3 meters. It generally weighs about 195 kg and is very drought tolerant. It is covered with horizontal stripes and has a pronounced "king" glyph pattern on the top of its head, but because it lives in arid desert areas, its coat is lighter than other tigers, and it is pale yellowish brown.
The Russian explorer Przewalski was the first to write about a Tiger in Xinjiang. In the late autumn of 1876, Przewalski, who had gone deep into Xinjiang to investigate, spent eight days in the village of Aktama in the Tarim Basin, joined the tiger hunting team, and saw the wounded tigers walking back to the forest, where he described "as many tigers as wolves in the Volga River."
Xinjiang tigers were once widely distributed. Tigers have been found in the eastern and northern parts of Tianshan and throughout the Tarim Basin. In the alluvial plains of the lower Tarim River and the Peacock River Delta, the river network is staggered, the lake swamp reed pond is dense, along the river grows dense poplar forest, river beaches and low-rise lands have reeds, Rob hemp meadows, and there are various aquatic plants near the lake. In these vegetation groups, water-formed poplar forest soils, meadow soils and swamp soils are developed. The entire ecosystem is intact and full of species. Xinjiang tigers roam huyanglin and reed bushes, feeding on red deer, goose-throated antelopes, tarim rabbits, etc.
The famous ancient country of Loulan is the hometown of the Caspian tiger, which was once an important transportation hub, but later with the development of the city, the demand for natural resources has become greater and greater, and the forest has been continuously cut down. Losing the forest, losing the water, means losing the necessary conditions for survival, so a large number of Caspian tigers died one after another, and only a small number barely survived in the end.
The disappearance of the Xinjiang tiger was rapid. First, due to the expansion of the scope of human production activities in modern times, the reclamation of farmland and the construction of water conservancy in the upstream have changed the natural environment for the survival of Xinjiang tigers; the wanton hunting of various wild animals, including Xinjiang tigers, has also drastically reduced its number. The second is the natural change of the environment. In 1921, the Tarim River, which flows south, was diverted north due to seasonal floods. The lower reaches of the Tarim River below The Iron Dry Creek have dried up, the reeds and huyanglin dried oranges have died, and the number of wild animals has decreased. The living environment of xinjiang tigers has deteriorated extremely.
There are still many people in the folk believe that the Xinjiang tiger has never been extinct, but has been living in a deserted place, and may still live in a corner of the desert, and the Xinjiang tiger is still alive, which is a guess and a prayer.