South China tiger is a unique subspecies of tiger in China, in the last century wild South China tiger is still very common, but now the wild South China tiger has not appeared for many years, fortunately the zoo retained the original 6 South China tiger, through continuous breeding, there are now more than 100 domesticated South China tigers.
Although the captive-bred South China tiger continues the genes of the South China tiger, it cannot play the ecological value of the wild South China tiger. Moreover, the inbreeding coefficient of the domesticated South China tiger is high, and if you can encounter a wild South China tiger, it will be more conducive to the protection of the South China tiger.
So the question is, theoretically, how likely is the existence of wild South China tigers, and why don't domesticated South China tigers be released into mountain forests?
Many people think that there are many wild environments in China that are very well protected, for example, there are a large number of primary forests in the Ailao Mountain area, which are very little affected by humans. The primeval forest is inaccessible, and there may be wild South China tigers breeding here, but humans just don't know it.
In fact, although the primitive environment is inaccessible, it is not without traces of humans. Some local medicine collectors and rangers who patrol the mountain forests occasionally haunt the area, but no one has seen the South China tiger in all these years.
Secondly, in the inaccessible primitive environment, the scientific expedition team will use infrared cameras to shoot the active figures of wild animals, and over the years people have used infrared cameras to observe many wild animals, and even some uncommon animals have taken video data, such as cloud cats, but there is still no wild South China tiger.
In addition, the wild South China tiger has particularly high requirements for habitat, a tiger needs at least 70 square kilometers of forest to survive, but also 200 sika deer, 150 wild boars, etc., and if there is only 1 South China tiger in the wild, then the population will still be extinct, and the larger the population size, the greater the habitat requirements, and the higher the requirements for the number of wild herbivores. Nowadays, many of the original environments are fragmented, which is also very detrimental to the survival and reproduction of wild South China tigers.
More importantly, when wild South China tigers survive in the wild, there will be traces of activity, such as: leftover remains, hair left behind when resting on the ground, as well as feces, scratches, etc., but there is no evidence to prove the existence of wild South China tigers.
Wild South China tigers are vital to the ecological environment, the most profound impact is that the South China tiger will control the number of herbivores, for example: wild boar flooding in many parts of China, and one of the natural enemies of wild boars is the South China tiger. If a certain number of South China tigers exist in the wild, the number of herbivores will be controlled and it will be difficult to flood.
As the top of the food chain, the South China tiger can also effectively reduce the risk of infectious diseases in wild animals. It should be known that wild animals living in the wild environment may be exposed to many pathogens, causing their own disease. A small percentage of diseases are even transmissible, and if the affected individuals do not die in time and the remains are not cleared in time, the disease may spread to their peers and even affect wild animals in other populations.
After some pathogens spread between animals on a large scale, it is possible to mutate and spread to humans.
The South China tiger is very important to the local ecological environment, but now we can't let the tiger return to the mountain for the time being.
The first is because the Population of South China Tigers is not large enough and there is still a risk of extinction.
Secondly, the vast majority of South China tigers grew up in artificial environments and lacked hunting ability. Of course, China has selected some bold individuals from the artificially bred South China tiger population for rewilding training, although the small tigers after the rewilding training have the ability to hunt, but because they have lived with humans for a long time, they will not only not take the initiative to avoid when encountering humans in the wild, but may take the initiative to approach, and if humans make wrong moves, they may provoke them and cause human-tiger conflicts.
The real rewilding should be to let them live in isolated places from childhood, do not contact humans, simulate the wild living environment, and wait until the rewilding is successful before being released into the wild.
At present, China is working in this direction, and it is not ruled out that there will be wild South China tigers re-"tigers" in the future.
South China tigers are the top predators in the ecological chain, and their presence is crucial to the local ecological environment, so we must not only protect them, but also make them as much as possible to exert ecological value.
#South China Tiger ##Tiger##Animal ##森林 #