outburst! Hulunbuir ushered in extremely cold weather. On December 16, a cold current invaded Hulunbuir, causing the temperature to plummet, and ultra-low temperatures below -40 °C appeared at 25 checkpoints, of which Urikuma in Genhe City dropped to minus 44.8 °C. In addition to cold air, there is also snowfall and cold wind in some areas: 32 monitoring points in 25 flag counties have snowfall, 5 monitoring points are medium snow, the rest of the light snow, the largest snowfall occurs in Xing'an Mengtuquan, and the amount of snowfall reaches 3.1 mm.
What exactly is it like to be at -44.8°C? The water flowing out of the ruptured drainage pipe outside the wall froze into icicles straight to the ground; a glass of water instantly froze, and even breathing seemed to hear the sound of air freezing! Ducks swimming in the river become "frozen ducks" because they are too late to go. If it is in the Siberian Tiger Garden, more than 20 Siberian tigers will be close together to "hug the group for warmth".
So at a low temperature of -44.8 ° C, will wild boars freeze to death?
First establish a fact, Hulunbuir has wild boars. In July 2020, a herd of 41 oversized wild boars suddenly appeared in the Kangda Ridge area of the De'Erpur Ecological Functional Zone, and it should be known that the general wild boar herd has only 4-10 wild boars, which is extremely rare. The herd of wild boars, led by a male wild boar weighing nearly 400 pounds and several female wild boars, ranging from medium black and tan wild boars to newly born cubs, lined up in a long, cluttered line, first wandering the road and then drilling into the woodland to feed.
Unlike wild boars in other places that destroy crops and bump into pedestrians, some places in Hulunbuir also use wild boars to breed "second-generation wild boars", and then sell them in the market as high-end pork, gradually developing a certain scale and opening up popularity.
How do wild boars withstand the cold? Cunning and intelligence are a major feature of wild boars, and their INTELLIGENCE is no different from that of elephants. Wild boars are extremely picky about the location of the burrows in winter, and only conditions allow most of the boar burrows to be placed in the woods on the sunny slopes, because the wind is low and warm.
Wild mammals have a thick coat of hair that can withstand the cold and keep warm. In the autumn, a new coat is re-grown to further prepare for the cold. Wild boars like to roll in mud, and the sand and mane are intertwined, thick and hard like steel needles. Objectively speaking, although the mane of wild boar has a thermal insulation effect, it is not particularly excellent.
Wild boars rely on two skills to withstand low temperatures. Autumn is the peak of wild boar foraging, when wild boars break into farmland and orchards to eat everywhere, and the daily feeding volume can reach 3%-5% of body weight. After a period of eating and drinking, adult wild boars can store up to 30 kilograms of fat in their bodies before entering the cold winter. In winter, when food is scarce and in extremely cold weather, the fat in the boar's body is constantly decomposed and converted into energy and heat to maintain life.
In addition, the wild boar is a master of burrowing. Wild boars have a nose 15-30 cm long and two pairs of outwardly turned fangs in their mouths, and they can arch a nest in firewood, pits, and tree holes. Some wild boars simply arched a hole in the snowdrift, similar to the "igloo" built by the Eskimos, and the wild boar also intimately stuffed hay and dried leaves to warm the cave.
Did the wild boar really survive the low temperature of -44.8 °C? not necessarily! Most wild boars can tolerate temperatures as low as -20 °C, and when the temperature drops to -30 °C, some wild boars will freeze to death; when it reaches -40 °C, wild boars that can survive until the spring of the following year are definitely the result of a combination of strong strength and good luck.
On the one hand, low temperature is also a lot of wild boars that are starved to death, especially the wild boar cubs with weak physique and poor predatory ability. Adult wild boars brave the cold to nibble on frozen animals, and may be able to escape the disaster, but the cubs do not have this skill. A local villager revealed that almost every year there are wild boars that are frozen to death, including sheep and cattle.
It should be pointed out that unlike wild boars, which are "stiff", many animals encounter frozen choices to hibernate. The snake remained motionless in the cave while frozen, its breathing rate dropped dramatically, and it did not wake up until the following year. The black bear is drilled into the tree hole, sleeps for a few months, hungry to lick a few mouthfuls of feet, this time do not provoke it, launch a rage to no one is afraid!
Original: Old High