【Do you understand the Year of the Tiger "Ben Hu" at the doorstep? Go to Zhongshan Park to "explore the class"! 】
The king of the hundred beasts, the tiger, ushered in their "life year" this year, such as tiger wings, dragon leaping tiger leap, tiger tiger vitality... People's blessings for the Year of the Tiger can be described as "full of tiger spirits". On February 10, the reporter came to the Zhongshan Park Zoo in Yinchuan City to "visit the tigers" here.
Domineering and exposed Siberian tigers
From the gate of the Zhongshan Park Zoo in Yinchuan City, turn left, and soon you can see the beast area, where lions, tigers, wolves and other beasts of prey all "live" in this row of circles that simulate the shape of mountains.
"Look, Siberian Tiger!" With a child's cheer, the reporter followed the prestige, a well-shaped Siberian tiger was walking in its "small courtyard", brown and yellow coat color with black markings and a little white hair decoration, making it full of tiger spirit, and the "king" on its forehead made it domineering.
The reporter learned that the Siberian tiger is a national first-level protected animal and is rare in number in China. They are generally nocturnal and good at swimming. Visually and audibly sharp, predators are mainly large mammals, and occasionally small mammals and birds are eaten. The life expectancy is generally 20-25 years.
"This Siberian tiger is a male tiger, already 13 years old, equivalent to 60 years old for humans, which is considered to be 'old age'." Yu Wei, a keeper at the Zhongshan Park Zoo, told reporters. "The Siberian tiger originally had a mate, introduced in 2003, but it died last September. The tiger was in his 20s when he died, the equivalent of a human in his 80s. "Although this Siberian tiger is not small in age, its body is still very healthy, eating more than ten pounds of beef or chicken every day, you can see that its coat color is very beautiful, and its limbs are also strong and powerful."
"Cute" white tiger
Next door to the Siberian tiger, there lives a white tiger. It is also a male tiger, slightly smaller than the Siberian tiger, and the black and white coat color makes it look "cute".
"This white tiger is a white variant of the Bengal tiger, which is also 10 years old this year." Yu Wei told reporters that there are only about 300 white tigers in the world, and the number is even rarer than that of giant pandas.
The reporter checked the information and learned that the white tiger originated from India, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian regions. White tigers mostly hunt at night, and because of their sensitive hearing, sharp teeth, retractable claws, and stealthy stripes, they can catch prey skillfully, although they do not run fast.
Tigers love to stay in conservatories
Yu Wei specializes in taking care of tigers, lions and other beasts of prey. He began to clean the cage at 7 o'clock every morning, letting the beasts come out to "walk the morning exercise", at this time, Yu Wei would carefully observe their health status, see if their mental state was good, whether there were any injuries to their limbs, and so on. In addition, feeding the beasts every day is also an important part of his work.
The reporter followed Yu Wei along the special passage for breeders to the tiger's "bedroom" separated by only one barbed wire fence, and the tiger lion and other beasts of prey heard the human voice and successively issued a huge roar, which made people shudder. "Every day we feed the tigers here." Yu Wei said the two tigers have lived in Yinchuan for more than a decade and have become accustomed to heating in the winter enclosure. When it's cold, they spend most of their time in a warm "bedroom." Tigers like to eat beef, usually at two or three o'clock in the afternoon will be fed to them once, but they must also be balanced, especially to intentionally let them eat some meat with bones, so beef and chicken are generally fed together, raw food, once a day.
Yu Wei told reporters that the tiger must be very careful to clean the tiger house, must abide by the "death order" of "different cages of man and beast", the zoo has strict regulations: feeding or cleaning the tiger must pass through 3 gates, that is, 3 times safety confirmation.
"Tigers are the largest cats in the world today and one of the fiercest carnivores on land, and in the wild they can be said to have no natural predators, and almost all herbivores in the forest are in their diets." Yu Wei said. However, although fierce, tigers are one of people's favorite animals and rank third among the twelve genera. A lot of people go to the zoo to see tigers, especially small children, and tigers are very attractive to them. Yu Wei said that every day he can see many parents taking their children to the zoo to observe tigers, especially since entering the lunar tiger year, more people have visited tigers. However, Yu Wei also reminded everyone that "there are no completely domesticated tigers in the world", although the tigers in the zoo live in iron cages, and even their expressions are very "cute", but their wild nature has always been hidden in the bones, so they cannot let down their vigilance.
Today, the two tigers in the Zhongshan Park Zoo in Yinchuan City are "old", and while taking good care of them, the Zhongshan Park Zoo is also planning to introduce some new wild animals. (New News Daily reporter Zhang Xuemei text/photo)
