The three integrated monitoring system of The Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park sent back an interesting video, the story took place in hunchun City, Jilin Province, 4 Large and Small Siberian Tigers walking together in the mountains, the whole picture is very interesting, like the Tiger King with three "little brothers" patrolling the mountains.
When seeing this scene, many people may have questions, in the felines, in addition to the lion is a group life, the others belong to the solitary animals, especially tigers, are highly solitary, why do they walk together this time?
4 Siberian tigers under the lens
According to experts from the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the 4 Siberian tigers that "patrol the mountains" together are actually a family, walking in front of a tigress, and the three smaller cubs in the back are basically about one year old, and the little tigers will take 24-30 months to fully grow up, when they will leave the tigress to live alone, so before the age of 2, the little tigers are living with the tigress, so there is the scene we have seen.
But you know what? In addition to the case of the tigress with her cubs, for certain reasons, tigers will actually live in groups for a short time, and the solitary animals are not as lonely as we think.
The Siberian tiger family
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > solitary animals are not alone</h1>
The times are developing, science is progressing, in fact, many of our past views on animals have been refreshed, such as for Komodo dragons, past scientific research found that they are not toxic, the reason why komodo dragon bites will show a certain poisoning illusion, the main reason is that its mouth is full of bacteria, after biting the prey, the wound of the prey will be infected by these bacteria, resulting in the same consequences as poisoning.
But new research shows that in fact, komodo dragons have two glands in the jaw, which can secrete toxic proteins, and the scientific community has not studied this toxic protein very thoroughly, but it is known that one of the effects of these toxic proteins is to inhibit blood clotting and lower blood pressure.
Komodo dragons
Regarding cats, in the past, we thought that except for lions, everyone else lived alone, except for the estrus period and the child-rearing stage, they all lived a solitary life, but with the progress of scientific research, people found that many cats that live alone are not as lonely as we think.
In the case of the lynx, its lifestyle is very similar to that of a tiger, and it is simply a miniature version of the "King of the Hundred Beasts". In the past, we thought that male lynx would only live with the female lynx after the estrus period had arrived, and once the female lynx was conceived, she would leave and would not participate in the whole process of childbearing.
Eurasian lynx
However, according to the research results of zoologists at the Belarusian Academy of Sciences in the Nalipoki Forest, male lynx will also cohabit with female lynx before estrus, and then in the childbearing stage, it also plays a "father" role, it will actively hunt, will leave prey to lynx mother and child, and will also actively attack the timber wolf in the raw territory to clear potential threats for the cubs.
Under the protection of male lynx, the survival rate of lynx cubs is very high, even reaching 80%, while the death rate of young lambs in the same life is as high as 60%-90%.
The lynx family in the nalipocki forest
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the phenomenon of "transient clusters" of animals</h1>
There is a name in zoology called "transient cluster" phenomenon, which roughly means that some animals, for some reason, temporarily clustered together, when a specific reason disappears, they will dissolve, in many solitary cats, we can see the phenomenon of transient clusters.
In one study, scientists tracked 13 cougars for up to three years, recorded a total of 242 feeding scenes, and found that these cougars had food sharing behaviors, which are more common in older mountain lions and female mountain lions.
Mountain lions sharing food
At first, scientists speculated that these mountain lions that ate together were related by blood, such as mothers sharing prey with their children, which was normal, but a series of subsequent evidence showed that scientists' guesses were wrong, and many cougars who were not related to each other were willing to share their prey.
It turns out that the mountain lion sometimes weighs the pros and cons, when it catches a prey and is eating, if there are other mountain lions intruding, it will judge whether it is the price paid to drive away the intruder or the cost of sharing food. It turns out that the regular prey of mountain lions is mostly some large ungulates, which cannot be eaten at one time.
puma
The behavior of mountain lions, which is based on food sharing and based on mutual benefit and reciprocity, can be considered as a transient cluster phenomenon, and there is also a transient cluster phenomenon in cheetahs. In many documentaries, we can often see several cheetahs cooperating to chase their prey.
Under the grassland ecosystem, no more than the forest environment, it is too difficult to catch prey by ambush, so living in groups is a good way out.
Although cheetahs are nominally solitary animals and have extremely fast speed, it is not a simple task to hunt large ungulates in open areas, so if some cheetahs encounter them while looking for food, they will often tacitly form a temporary team, and then hunt together, and after the hunt is successfully eaten, they will disperse.
Cooperative hunting of cheetahs
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the tiger's "social" life</h1>
Although the phenomenon of short-lived swarms of tigers has not been observed much, it does not mean that there are no, and it has also been seen that there are pictures of food sharing. Animals that live alone sometimes live in groups and act together, we all know this, let's go back to tigers, so when will tigers appear to live in groups?
To sum up, there are three main aspects, namely estrus, child rearing, and blood-related tigers, and sometimes act together. Of course, the social settlement caused by zoos and other artificial breeding that changes the native environment of tigers is not within the scope of discussion.
rut
The estrus period is a very important stage for animals, meaning the origin of life. Tigers are a species with a strong sense of territory, and the territory of male tigers is very large, often containing the territory of 2-5 female tigers, and the territory between female tigers and female tigers does not intersect.
When the female tiger is in estrus, it will emit special chemical signals, but also have a unique call, which can attract the male tiger to come, and the two will start a short group life. The male and female tigers in estrus move together, but most of the time they are mating.
Early childhood
Many people say that male tigers are irresponsible, once they learn that the female tiger is conceived, they immediately go away to find another female tiger in heat, which is actually people's prejudice, in fact, it is not the male tiger who wants to go, but the female tiger who drives it away. After conception, the attitude of the female tiger will change by 180 degrees, change the previous ambiguity, become irritable, whether to scratch and roar the male tiger, and the male tiger will naturally leave with interest.
The entire nursery period can be said to be the longest period of social living of tigers, from the birth of the tiger to the stage of leaving, about 2-3 years. At 18 months old, the tigers have grown into a good hunter, and in another 4-5 months, they will be able to hunt with the tigress.
Brief cooperation between relatives and friends
After about 2 years, the little tiger is fully grown up, it will leave the female tiger, but the distance between the small male tiger and the small female tiger is not the same, the small male tiger may live around the female tiger for the first year, and when he is in his prime, he will stay as far away from the female tiger as possible, and the little female tiger will establish a territory around the female tiger and live for a long time.
This creates a law, that is, between the female tiger and the surrounding female tiger, there may be a certain blood relationship, they may be sisters, when they are not old, still remember the "sisterhood", it is possible to temporarily act together, rely on each other, until the full adulthood has enough strength, and then separate.
A herd of Siberian tigers in a tiger park
The 4 Siberian tigers that "patrol the mountains" together in Hunchun City are in the second situation: in the nursery stage, the one-year-old tiger will not leave the female tiger, but at this time they can already follow the mother's action independently, so the overall look, just like the tigers have also lived a group life, they are indeed living in groups, but only temporarily, compared with the real sense of the lion's group life, it is a little different.
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