In the kimchi pond of a factory in Shiyan City, Hubei Province, people found a large beast with a strange appearance, this wild animal was large, the hair on its body was pale gold, it looked like a cow, its face was like a moose, its back was like a brown bear, its tail was like a sheep, its horns were like wildebeest, and its hind limbs were tilted like hyenas.
Later, experts identified that this was a Qinling antelope, a very precious wild animal, belonging to the national first-class protected animals, and the giant panda, crested ibis, golden snub-nosed monkey collectively known as the "Four Treasures of Qinling".
According to preliminary estimates, the antelope that broke into the kimchi pond of a factory in Shiyan is about one meter and two meters tall, how did this "big guy" come to the kimchi pond?
According to surveillance, it first hid in the basement of the construction site, and then escaped from the gap in the fence to the kimchi pond of the food company.
When the staff tried to find a way to rescue the antelope from the pool, they first made a simple bucket to attract its attention, but they did not expect that the grumpy antelope would crash the bucket in a few clicks.
Later, it took 4 days to make an iron cage specially used for trapping, and finally succeeded in rescuing the antelope.
Like a cow not a cow, like a sheep not a sheep, nicknamed "six is not like"
Antelope is a very magical animal, from the appearance point of view, it has a variety of animal characteristics, but not exactly the same, combined, it becomes a unique antelope image.
As described above, the antelope has the characteristics of 6 animals such as cattle, moose, brown bears, sheep, wildebeest, and hyenas, so the nickname of the antelope is called "six unlike", which is two more than the "four unlikes" elk with a face like a horse, horns like a deer, hooves like a cow, and tail like a donkey.
In general, the antelope has more characteristics like cattle and sheep, and it is indeed a species in the bovine family and sheep subfamily.
Antelope is stout and can weigh up to 300 kilograms as an adult, and in the case that today's South China tiger has disappeared from the wild, in the wild, with such a weight, antelope basically has no natural enemies.
Because antelope has multiple subspecies, antelope living in different regions also have certain differences in the color of their hair.
Roughly present such a law: from south to north, the coat color gradually becomes lighter, so I personally believe that the antelope in Qinling is the highest appearance of the 4 kinds of antelope (Gongshan antelope, Bhutanese antelope, Sichuan antelope, Qinling antelope), and the whole body coat color is light golden yellow or tan.
Temperamental, is Qinling's "number one fierce beast"
Like other bovine animals, the antelope is vegetarian, it is not picky eaters, basically plants that can reach the mouth, almost all eat.
According to the study, antelope can feed on at least 100 species of plants, up to 300 species. In the autumn, when the fruit is ripe, the antelope will increase the proportion of fruit and berries.
In addition to eating plant-based foods, antelope also likes to lick rock salt, salt salt, etc., in order to obtain salt, so the place with more salt in the forest is generally the gathering place of antelope, forced by its strength and "cow temper", other ungulates do not dare to approach.
Although a herbivore, the antelope has an extremely violent and aggressive personality. In particular, male antelopes in estrus are more aggressive.
Most antelope injuries have one thing in common, that is, male antelopes are mostly male. A 2008 report in the Chengdu Business Daily mentioned that as the number of antelopes increased, their injuries became more and more frequent, and in the past decade alone, the number of incidents of Qinling antelopes injuring people reached 150, resulting in more than 20 deaths.
Because the antelope is fierce, frequently attacks people, and there are no tigers in the local area, they have become the "number one fierce beast" in the Qinling area.
Wantonly transforming the environment, the giant pandas are afraid of it
Antelopes generally inhabit alpine areas above 2500 meters, and alpine forests, meadow areas and other areas are frequented by them. In the Qinling region, there is a lot of overlap between the habitat of antelope and giant pandas, and the study found that antelope also has a certain impact on the survival of giant pandas.
In 2014, the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve rescued a giant panda named "Pingping". At that time, "Pingping" was injured in the abdomen, and there was a wound of up to 4 centimeters, which was initially suspected to be caused by the yellow-throated mink, but after being identified by experts, it did not feel like it.
At the same time, it is not like the giant panda greedily climbing a tree and falling down from the tree and hitting a rock or branch, thinking about it, people speculate that it is likely to be caused by antelope. The antelope is violent and has sharp horns, which does have the potential to poke and injure the giant panda.
Compared with the direct attack of antelope on giant pandas, their harm to giant pandas is more reflected in the transformation of the environment.
Antelopes have a hobby, that is, they like to use tree trunks to polish their horns, especially males in estrus, and will polish their horns very smooth and sharp in order to gain an advantage in courtship competition.
This behavior of the antelope causes damage to large trees and is prone to insect infestation, resulting in the truncation of many large trees in the forest. Giant pandas like forests with more large trees and good bamboo growth, and do not like forests with many falling trees, and this behavior of antelopes is undoubtedly to transform the environment in a direction that giant pandas do not like.
Giant pandas are recognized as difficult to mate, they are solitary animals, and when estrus comes, male and female rely on information exchange.
Giant pandas usually carry out odor marking on the trunk, and the "horn grinding" behavior of antelope undoubtedly erases the odor of the giant panda marker, thus affecting the communication between giant panda individuals.
In the face of such a fierce behemoth, the giant panda is also afraid, so in its biological territory, it will take the initiative to avoid, affected by the antelope, the giant panda is very likely to go to a higher altitude of the mountainous area.
Antelope is known for its fierceness, for example, in May 2019, an antelope in Hanzhong City accidentally broke into the human activity area, causing two deaths and two injuries.
Wild animals intrude into human activity areas, the spirit will be highly nervous, so it is more likely to have a stress response, just like this antelope in the kimchi pond, even if trapped, it is still very fierce and aggressive.