China was once a "tiger country", the world including extinct of the 9 species of tigers, in our country there are distribution of 5 species, and not only the number of subspecies in the world is the highest, the number of individuals is also the world's first. In particular, the South China tiger is widely distributed in China, occupying almost half of China.
Although from the name, it looks like a specialty of South China, but its distribution range is far more than South China, and there are a large number of South China tigers in most regions such as North China, East China and Southwest China. Since the South China tiger is also a unique subspecies in China, it is also known as the Chinese tiger.
In the 1950s and 1960s, rapid population growth led to a massive destruction of wildlife habitats, a phenomenon that directly led to an intensification of conflicts between humans and wildlife. As a predator at the top of the food chain, tigers are the greatest threat to humans and livestock, and are naturally pushed to the peak of conflict.
The tigers frequently injured people and preyed on livestock, and people's dissatisfaction and hatred for them grew, culminating in a large-scale nationwide tiger hunt. During this period of severe tiger infestation, a large number of stories and legends about tigers were also produced, among which the most popular and well-known was the "Hundred Tigers Walled Village" incident in Hunan.
Rapid population growth, coupled with the need to vigorously develop productivity, so the demand for natural resources has risen significantly, a large number of wildlife habitat has been destroyed and occupied, resulting in the survival space of wild animals being compressed, the overall situation of human beings and animals retreating.
For tigers, they need a lot of territory, need a relatively rich prey resources, but human activities have a greater impact on it, and eventually "desperate" tigers will focus on human livestock, so in that era, tigers hurt people, prey on poultry and livestock is a very common phenomenon.
Since 1952, a serious tiger plague has broken out throughout Hunan, and 32 people have been eaten by tigers in one day, and nearly 2,000 Hunan people have fallen into the tiger's mouth in ten years. The story of "Baihuwei Village" was born in this context of the times, telling that in 1957, a strange thing happened in a small village in the southern foothills of Xuefeng Mountain in Gaoping Village, Tongdao County, Hunan Province.
One afternoon in September, first the whole village of cattle hurried back, and then the dogs stopped barking, showing a very frightened look. Then, one, two, three tigers appeared around the village, no matter how people beat gongs and drums and set off firecrackers, these tigers just did not leave, but gathered more and more, and finally reached hundreds.
People were so frightened by the sight in front of them that they hid in their houses and did not dare to go out. In this way, more than a hundred tigers besieged the village for three days and nights, looting all the livestock, and the tigers gradually left, during which a little girl accidentally walked out of the door and was also taken away by the tiger.
This is the beginning and end of the famous "Hundred Tigers Encircled Village" incident, this group of tigers is like a pack of wolves, under the leadership of a tiger king, surround the village, ignoring the fires lit by the villagers, not afraid of the sound of gongs and firecrackers, just ransacking the village like crazy.
Judging from the distribution range of the five species of tigers in China, the tigers in Hunan are basically South China tigers. The South China tiger is a small tiger, and even the average weight of the male after adulthood is only about 150 kilograms, and the female tiger is even smaller, about 120 kilograms.
According to a DNA-based study in 2005, the South China tiger is the oldest of the modern tigers, which is consistent with the mainstream international hypothesis that modern tigers originated in East Asia. After the emergence of modern tigers, it soon spread to most forests in Asia, of which China is the most important distribution country for tigers due to its suitable climate and vast territory.
Historically, the distribution range of South China tigers in China is very wide, South China, North China, East China, Southwest China, Jinnan and other most areas, there are a large number of South China tigers, so in the 50s and 60s of the last century to eliminate "tiger pest" action, South China tiger is also the main target.
Due to the large number of hunting, coupled with the loss of habitat, the South China tiger later became extinct in the wild, and the remaining individuals basically lived in artificial breeding environments such as zoos.
In the 1950s, there were a large number of wild South China tigers, and Hunan, Guizhou and other places, due to high forest coverage and many mountains, were also the areas with the highest density of tigers in South China, which increased the credibility of "Baihuwei Village" a lot.
In the context of the outbreak of severe tiger infestation, people drive tigers, fight tigers, forcing a large number of tigers to migrate and gather, originally a South China tiger that needed 70 square kilometers of forest, the habitat was greatly reduced, the density was higher, and the solitary tigers gradually began to live in groups. Therefore, many people think that the "Hundred Tiger Walled Village" may be the real thing, because the environment will affect the habits of animals, just like the tigers in the Siberian Tiger Park, don't they play well?
In fact, if you think about it carefully, there are still many flaws in the "Hundred Tigers Walled Village" incident, and the reason why it gives people a realistic feeling is mainly that the time and place are very clever, which happens to be the most serious era and the most serious area of tiger infestation.
Although the environment affects animal habits, it takes a long time to be subtle, just as the gregaries of lions and the solitude of tigers are certainly not formed in a day, a year, or a few years, but in the long process of species evolution. Suddenly united by being driven by humans, which obviously gives the tiger human-like intelligence, which is obviously unlikely.
Secondly, in the species of tiger, although there is also a tiger king, there is a clear difference with the lion king. The Lion King can lead the lion group and command its male lion alliance, but the Tiger King does not have the ability to rule, the reason why it will get the title of Tiger King is entirely by killing, it will do one thing, that is, to kill other male tigers, and will not unite them like lions to fight the ground.
Another big flaw is the number of tigers in the "Hundred Tigers Walled Village" incident. We all know that tigers are a species with a strong sense of territory, and the habitat required by a tiger is so large that even if it is compressed, it is impossible to be like a cat, right?
So the habitat of a hundred wild tigers needs 3,000 square kilometers of forest, right? A tiger king is absolutely incapable of controlling such a large range of territory, and it is simply unbelievable that such a large range of tigers are rushing to one place. Although the tiger has significant exploratory behavior and high mobility, its direction and path are uncertain.
Judging from the existing cognition, the "Hundred Tigers Surrounding the Village" incident is most likely false, but in that era, people were deeply harmed by tigers.
According to local forestry records, dozens of counties throughout the territory have received urgent reports of tiger infestations, which seriously affect people's lives.
Tigers roam the villages, frequently preying on livestock and injuring people, and people are afraid to even work in the fields. In Leiyang County alone, in 1952, 120 people died from tiger attacks, and countless livestock were preyed upon.
Although humans are not the regular prey of tigers, once multiple tigers try to eat people and transform into man-eating tigers, the culture of cannibalism will be circulated in the tiger group and passed on to the next generation as a survival experience, and this phenomenon will not disappear until after the experience is broken.
Therefore, in the era of a large number of tigers and serious tiger diseases, it is entirely possible that a large number of man-eating tigers will appear. The "Hundred Tigers Walled Village" may have been a fabrication, but I believe that it must have an archetype, and the people of that era were deeply affected by tigers.