The tiger "went down the mountain" to steal the cow!
On April 21, when villager Yu Delong inspected his herd of free-range cattle grazing on the mountain, he found that 3 cows were missing, so he asked the villagers to help find it. As a result, the companion found a calf in the woods that had been half eaten, and a cow leg fell into the forest, and the scene was a mess, and there were many tiger footprints.
The villagers continued their search and found the remaining two missing adult cows, one of which was dead and one seriously injured, and both cows had many bite marks on their bodies. According to the footprints of the tigers on the ground, it can be determined that the cattle were attacked by the tigers, and three cows were killed and one was injured, and the owner of the cattle, Yu Delong, said that at least 50,000 or 60,000 were lost.
After the incident, the local police immediately launched corresponding preventive measures and issued a safety warning notice to remind local residents to pay attention to their own safety and to prohibit going up the mountain without necessary, so as not to encounter the danger of Siberian tigers.
In fact, in recent years, incidents of Siberian tigers "descending the mountain" have often occurred, and residents living near the Siberian Tiger and Leopard Nature Reserve will find tiger footprints from time to time, and even tigers break into villages.
For example, last year's famous "4.23 Chicken West Siberian Tiger Injury Incident", a sub-adult wild Siberian tiger named "Wandashan No. 1" mistakenly entered the village, threw down a villager during the movement, and also smashed the glass of nearby vehicles.
So why have wild Siberian tigers frequently appeared near inhabited environments in recent years? If a person encounters a tiger in the wild, how can he protect himself? Let's talk about this topic.
1. About the Siberian tiger
The Siberian tiger is the largest of the world's surviving tiger subspecies and is found in the northeast of the continent, the Russian Far East and the Korean Peninsula. Habitat selection of Siberian tigers varies with seasons and food conditions.
Judging from the range of Activities of Siberian Tigers in Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve over the years, the main activities of Siberian tigers are in the broad-leaved forest belt of Korean pine and Mongolian oak, which is more concentrated, with high frequency and often moving along interforestary paths.
Male Siberian tigers often move alone, while female tigers are with their young tigers. They are often active or latent in more hidden places such as ridges or stone stones, and mostly in the early morning or dusk, with a large range of activities.
The coat color of Siberian tigers is a good protective color, and although it is very conspicuous when exposed to the outside, when they enter the forest, this body surface helps them to blend well into the dappled sunlight and shadows, making them difficult to detect.
The Changbai Mountain region is home to the Siberian tiger, which has a temperate continental mountain climate with long and cold winters, but the Siberian tiger is very hardy and is not afraid of cold at all. They prefer to inhabit places with abundant food and dense jungles, generally not close to environments where humans live.
2. Why do Siberian tigers appear frequently?
The appearance of the Siberian tiger in the forest farm brought direct economic losses to the villagers, three cows, two deaths and one injury, fortunately there was no case of tiger injuries. So why have wild Siberian tigers appeared frequently in recent years? There are two main reasons:
In the 1930s, the total number of wild Siberian tigers was more than 500, and most of them were distributed on the mainland. But with environmental destruction and man-made hunting, Siberian tigers were forced to migrate to the Russian Far East.
By the end of the 1980s, wild Siberian tigers in the Changbai Mountains of mainland China were nearly extinct, with only a few individuals surviving in Hunchun, Jilin Province. Don't say that you have encountered a tiger, you can't find it even if you look for it.
With the establishment of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Forest Park on the mainland, the ecological environment has been greatly improved, the protection of wild animals has also been strengthened, and the wildlife resources in the northeast region have become more, attracting some of the Northeast tigers who originally lived in the Russian Far East to move back.
At present, the number of wild Siberian tigers in the mainland has exceeded 50, which is the result of the improvement of the ecological environment, and the increase in the number of tigers means that the chance of people encountering tigers has increased.
Siberian tigers have a very strong sense of territory and a very large territorial range, and they will look for a place with a better environment and more prey to establish a territory. When tigers move back from the Russian Far East, they are likely to stray into places inhabited by humans as they spread southward.
Another reason for the frequent appearance of tigers is exactly the opposite of the previous description, the roads and farmland built by humans have hindered the migration path of tigers, which has fragmented the habitat of tigers.
That is to say, human activities have turned the original mountain forests in the northeast into a small area, and tigers will inevitably pass through villages, farmland and so on in the process of relocation. The tiger injury incident is likely to be in the process of migration, just in time to break into the human-established free-range cattle base.
In addition, the amount of prey in the habitat of The Siberian tiger is related to the season, and when the temperature is cold in winter, wild animals are relatively rare, and it is difficult for the Siberian tiger to hunt. Then the Siberian tiger is likely to expand its hunting range when food is scarce, and even "go down the mountain" to find food and poach locally raised livestock.
3. What should I do if a person encounters a tiger?
Regarding being attacked by a tiger, there has been a passage that says that when you encounter a tiger, don't panic, and when the tiger pounces on you, use a sliding shovel to cross under it, and the tiger's stomach will be cut open.
Tigers are the largest cats, and male Siberian tigers average more than 250 kilograms, equivalent to three or four adult males. They have strong shoulders and forelimbs, a thick neck, sharp and flexible claws, and a powerful jaw with huge, sharp teeth.
The attack power of the tiger is not something that humans can withstand, and the tiger injured the cow mentioned at the beginning of the article, a 100-kilogram calf was half eaten, and the other two adult cows were killed and injured.
As ambush hunters, tigers are very good at concealment, slowly approaching their prey and then accelerating to a maximum speed of 65 km/h in a matter of seconds, quickly knocking the prey down and locking their throats.
But tigers, like most other wild animals, don't attack humans easily because humans aren't prey for tigers, and they will mostly leave unless your actions grab the tiger's attention and provoke it.
In March 2021, Wu Qingrong, an old man in the red clay village of Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang, encountered a 500- or 600-pound Siberian tiger while chopping firewood on the mountain. At that time, the tiger slowly approached Wu Laohan, who waved a machete for chopping wood in his hand and shouted at the tiger, and the tiger hesitated for a moment and took the initiative to leave.
In fact, Wu Qingrong encountered a tiger that was not hungry, and if the tiger was hungry, I am afraid that Wu Laohan would have died before he found it. Of course, the series of actions made by Wu Qingrong are also the reasons for the tiger's departure.
Some people say that tigers can't climb trees, and when they encounter tigers, they can go up trees, and tigers can't climb trees, but that doesn't mean they won't climb trees. The tiger's jumping ability is amazing, and it can easily jump over two-meter-high obstacles. You may not have reached enough heights before you were dragged down by a jumping tiger.
4. Conclusion
As the ecological environment of the mainland becomes better and better, the Siberian tigers migrate back from the Russian Far East, and the number of wild Siberian tigers on the mainland gradually increases, which is of great significance for maintaining the ecological balance.
At the top of the food chain, siberian tigers not only play a regulatory control system in natural ecosystems, but are also key species to maintain ecosystem biodiversity and stability.
Through the activities of Siberian tigers, the number of herbivores can be effectively controlled and ecological disasters can be avoided due to excessive numbers of some species. For example, tigers can effectively control the number of wild boars, which is the most direct help to protect agriculture.
However, the increase in the number of tigers will increase the range of activities, which will increase the chance of people encountering tigers, bringing a certain threat to local residents, which requires people to be vigilant, and requires relevant departments to monitor the trajectory of tigers and notify villagers in advance to avoid danger.