Probably many Chinese people's cognition of tigers, most of them stay in the South China tiger and the Northeast Tiger, two subspecies, indeed, these two tigers in China, the most well-known, even some people who are not interested in big cats know.
But if the time goes forward a few decades, at that time China was the only country with five subspecies of tigers, which were the Siberian tiger, the South China tiger, the Bengal tiger, the Indochinese tiger, and the extinct Xinjiang tiger (also known as the Caspian tiger).
Today, even the four subspecies remain, which is still the country with the largest number of tiger subspecies, which is something to be proud of.
5 tiger subspecies that have lived in China
Even a wildlife lover may not know much about the Xinjiang tiger, because its historical extinction rate is really too fast, from the Tarim Basin to extinction, it only took a few decades, and in addition, in terms of international popularity, the Xinjiang tiger is not famous for other tiger subspecies.
In fact, the Xinjiang tiger is a name for the Caspian tiger in China, because this tiger is not a subspecies unique to China, so it is generally called the Caspian tiger in the world, about this knowledge point, there is a certain controversy, because the difference between the Xinjiang tiger and the Caspian tiger in appearance is still quite large, but in the international academic has not yet classified the Xinjiang tiger into a separate species, so we temporarily regard it as the same species.
<h1>The historical state of existence of the Caspian tiger</h1>
The Caspian tiger is the third largest tiger in history, second only to the Siberian tiger and the Bengal tiger, and is a relatively strong tiger, with very thick limbs, large claws, and a very strong overall appearance. Males are 2.7-2.95 m long and weigh 170–240 kg, while females are 2.4–2.6 m long and weigh 85–135 kg, not as large as the Bengal tiger, but the occipital bone of the Caspian tiger is wider than it.
Historically, caspian sea tigers mainly lived in West Asia and Central Asia, and the main distribution countries were China, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, Kazakhstan and so on.
Caspian tiger history roughly distributed area
The origin of the tiger is believed to be in China, evolved from the ancient Chinese cat, and later after several historical spreads, one of which was to spread westward, through Mongolia, Xinjiang all the way to the southern Caucasus and the back of Iran, and finally limited by the Arabian desert, failed to enter Africa, blocked by the Caucasus Mountains, and did not collapse into Europe, this tiger eventually settled in Central and West Asia, becoming the Caspian tiger behind.
Only later, after a series of ecological changes and the influence of human activities, the Caspian sea tiger also became the "king of the hundred beasts" in people's memory.
Caspian tigers have been widely distributed in their habitats, reaching the westernmost point to the east of Anatolia, and in China, they are mainly distributed in the Manas River Basin and tarim Basin.
The distribution area of the Caspian sea tiger is limited by the geographical environment, because the landforms in Central Asia and West Asia are very special, most tigers live on both sides of the basin river, the edge of the lake and the wetland, etc. To put it bluntly, these places are close to the water source, whether it is vegetation or ungulate resources are relatively rich, suitable for the survival of tigers.
A Caspian tiger at the Berlin Zoo in 1989
The extinction of the Caspian tiger is very painful, and the entire extinction process is very short, starting around the end of the 19th century, when not only farmer hunters were hunting Caspian tigers, but also military personnel.
Especially at the beginning of the 20th century, some Russian troops were used to "eliminate tiger pests", they killed all the Caspian tigers in the human living area and near the farmland, this operation directly led to a sharp decline in the number of Caspian tigers, at this stage, 100 Caspian tigers were killed every year, perhaps from some of the following data we can feel how quickly the caspian tiger extinct:
In 1887, Iraq's last Caspian tiger was killed in Mosul;
In 1922, Georgia's last Caspian tiger was killed in Tbilisi for preying on livestock;
In 1948, the last Caspian tiger in Kazakhstan appeared near the Ili River and has not been observed since;
In 1954, turkmenistan's last Caspian tiger was killed in the Kopet Dag Mountains;
In 1958, Iran's last Caspian tiger was discovered in Golestan province and has not been observed since.
<h1>The most drought-tolerant tiger</h1>
Xinjiang tigers mainly live in the Tarim Basin, which is one of the rainiest regions in Asia nearby, with annual rainfall below 50 mm and less than 20 mm in the center of the basin. Put it this way, the annual rainfall in the eastern coastal areas, such as Guangdong and Fujian, is 1500-2000 mm, and even the northwest inland has 100-200 mm, it is conceivable that the Tarim Basin is made of drought, and the Xinjiang tiger can live here for generations, so it is also called the most drought-tolerant tiger.
Tarim Basin scenery
However, tigers are not some desert animals after all, their water requirements are still quite high, relying on the nourishment of the Tarim River and Lop Nur river, they thrive on this land and live well for a time.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Tarim River was still a mighty river and eventually merged into Lop Nur and these main roads and their surrounding tributaries nourished the life of the entire basin, while the Xinjiang tiger was haunted by the poplar forests and reeds in the basin, which was their home, preying on wild boar, sheep and other animals.
The historical distribution area of Xinjiang tigers is roughly distributed
The distribution range of Xinjiang tigers is very regular, mainly along the water source, so it only needs to find out the distribution of Xinjiang's historical water system, and you can find out the general distribution law of Xinjiang tigers.
The distribution range of Xinjiang tigers is relatively wide, the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains are distributed, and the northern part of the Tarim Basin, the rivers and lakes south of the Junggar Basin, and the Ili Valley are the most distributed areas of Xinjiang tigers, limited by the geographical environment, so the distribution area of Xinjiang tigers cannot be as coherent as the distribution areas of South China tigers and Northeast Tigers in history.
Bengal tigers
Due to living in different regions, the Xinjiang tiger compared with other tigers, there is still a big gap, its size is closer to the Bengal tiger at that time, the stripes on the body are mainly dark brown, only the head, neck, shoulders and tail end of the stripes will appear pure black, the background color is light yellowish brown, compared with the Bengal tiger, The northeast tiger and other tiger species, the color is brighter and lighter.
It is not difficult to understand that due to the arid environment and more sandy land here, the Xinjiang tiger has evolved a camouflage color in order to adapt to the environment.
Xinjiang tiger painted by Sven Hedin
In fact, the Xinjiang tiger is a very mysterious tiger, it is reasonable to say that in the past hunted so many Xinjiang tigers, there should be a lot of tiger skins or specimens handed down, but so far there is very little information about the Xinjiang tiger, as if this animal disappeared like its location Loulan.
So far, there is not a single specimen of a Xinjiang tiger in China, but in the Zoological Research Institute of Kazakhstan, there is a tiger skin of an adult tiger of Xinjiang tiger, which is very well preserved. In addition, there were no photographs, only one drawn by Sven Hedin.
<h1>The Death of the Tiger</h1>
The disappearance of the Xinjiang tiger was so rapid that people did not react yet, and its extinction took only a few decades. Due to the long history and the lack of data, it is impossible for us to know the specific value of the Xinjiang tiger at that time, and we can only speculate about the distribution of the Xinjiang tiger at that time based on the records in some literature.
According to Lin Zexu's "Diary of Yi Wei", in 1899, he recorded the scene he saw in the Yeerqiang River, and one of the sentences mentioned "every tiger trace in the Dao", indicating that there were still more tigers at that time.
In 1877, when Przewalski first ventured to Lop Nur, he recorded the animal situation in the Tarim Basin, when the tiger was still a relatively common animal;
By 1885, when he re-entered the Xinjiang region to investigate, he mentioned that the number of tigers here was still considerable, and described in detail the survival of tigers in northern and southern Xinjiang, of which the number of tigers in southern Xinjiang was obviously much more than in northern Xinjiang.
It is not difficult to understand that because the large forests and warm climate in southern Xinjiang provide favorable living conditions for tigers, there are many wild animals here, and the living space required by tigers is even smaller, which can theoretically accommodate more tigers to survive.
Xinjiang tiger draws map
The period when the Xinjiang tiger really began to decline significantly was between 1899 and 1961, which is very consistent with the record found by Sven Hedin when he visited the Loulan monuments in Xinjiang in 1900, when Sven Hedin found that the tigers here were very rare and not as widespread as Purzhewalski mentioned, but it also proved that Xinjiang was indeed inhabited by Xinjiang tigers at that time.
As mentioned earlier, the extinction of the Xinjiang tiger was too rapid, and in the 1920s, the Xinjiang tiger disappeared from the Tarim River Valley, and in the 1960s, they disappeared throughout Xinjiang, and since then there has been no Xinjiang tiger species in China.
For the extinction of the Xinjiang tiger, of course, we are very sad, the Xinjiang tiger has a very important scientific value for biodiversity and academics, its disappearance is a huge loss of Animal Resources in China, but also a huge loss of biodiversity in the world.
<h1>The cause of the extinction of the Xinjiang tiger</h1>
In fact, in the academic community, many people have shown great interest in the disappearance of the Xinjiang tiger, why is the disappearance time of this beast so short? A great deal of research and investigation has been done for this reason, which boils down to just a few reasons. The first is the change of Climate and Geographical Environment in Xinjiang, and the second is the impact of human activity trajectory.
"King of the Hundred Beasts" Tiger
Natural environment changes, the main distribution area of Xinjiang tiger is the river and lake area, such as the Tarim River Basin, one of the important distribution areas of Xinjiang tiger, in 1921, due to sediment accumulation and other reasons, one of the tributaries of the northward flow expanded rapidly under the flood and became a big river, the Tarim River was also diverted to the north, resulting in the depletion of water sources in most parts of the lower reaches of the Tarim River, the shrinking and even drying up of the lake, this phenomenon directly led to the disappearance of forests and reeds nourished by the river, and the environment deteriorated sharply. A large number of wild animals died, so the Xinjiang tiger naturally disappeared, which can be seen from this.
Under the influence of human survival activities, the Xinjiang tiger, as a beast, will inevitably clash with humans like other tigers, especially in Xinjiang, which relies on river nourishment to form an oasis suitable for the survival of humans and animals, all kinds of animals are crowded in a few oases to live, and the human-tiger conflict is more intense than other places. As the scope of human production continues to expand, the living area of Xinjiang tigers has been seriously squeezed, and the use of modern tools in hunting has undoubtedly exacerbated the demise of Xinjiang tigers.
Inbreeding leads to low genetic diversity, due to human activities and natural environment factors, tarim basin woodland, wetland reduction, resulting in the original Xinjiang tiger life area is divided into large and small "islands", in these "isolated islands" living in Xinjiang tigers, can not get in touch with tigers in other areas, can only mate and breed in the region, tigers as a large carnivore, the number of wild in the wild is theoretically greater than 80 to maintain the continuation of the population, less than this number will lead to inbreeding, This leads to low genetic diversity and accelerated extinction.
ant
Regarding the extinction of the Xinjiang tiger, in fact, there is a theory that it is because of ants, in the legend of the Lop Nur people, it is said that there is an ant that is larger than the average ant, and it will appear more transparent under the sunlight, this ant was rare at first, and then gradually increased, they nibbled in groups to eat newborn tigers.
Of course, I have doubts about this statement, the biggest reason for the extinction of the Xinjiang tiger is ecological change, which has reasons for people's uncontrolled development and natural formation.
<h1>The current situation of tiger survival in China</h1>
At present, the Xinjiang tiger has indeed disappeared in Our country, and there is no room for irreparability, and now what we can do is to protect the four remaining tigers.
Although the number of subspecies of tigers in China ranks first in the world, but the number of wild individuals is not optimistic, the South China tiger has become extinct in the wild, all live in captivity environment; the data given by the Northeast Tiger some time ago is that there are only 27 wild individuals, of course, this data cannot be completely accurate, but it is not much different, and the full count will not exceed 40; and the number of Bengal tigers and Indochinese tigers in China is also in danger.
Siberian tiger
China's current wild tigers face the biggest problem is inbreeding, tigers are a kind of creatures standing at the top of the food chain, the requirements for the environment are very high, although our country has spent a lot of effort on tiger protection work over the years, the wild environment has been greatly improved, but limited by the reasons of the tiger base, want to recover, it is not so easy to do, the number of tigers in our country is still far below the safety line, so protecting tigers, is a long and heavy work.