Text: Whale Observatory
Edited by Whale Finder
As the king of beasts in the jungle, the tiger's fierce appearance and strong physique make all animals fearful.
However, its real strength lies not only in the outside, but also in the unique survival wisdom.
King of Beasts
Tigers are known as the "king of beasts" and are predators at the top of the food chain.
You know, the size of the tiger is indeed quite large, the adult Siberian tiger can weigh up to 250 kilograms, 2.3 meters long, in the wild suddenly see such a behemoth, it is estimated that everyone will feel scared and awe.
But being large also means higher energy requirements, and tigers that have been adults all the time need a lot of predation every day to be active, otherwise they will soon starve to death.
According to the data, an adult tiger needs to eat about 18 kilograms of food per day, which is equivalent to eating a deer or wild boar.
If there is not enough prey, then the tiger is at risk of starvation, according to statistics, the average lifespan of a wild tiger is only 8-10 years, and a large part of this is due to the lack of enough food.
However, tigers have sharp teeth and claws, and are excellent night hunters, and their night vision is 6 times stronger than that of humans, which also provides convenience for them to hunt at night.
Unlike other animals, tigers are territorial, and they leave various marks in their range, such as scratches and excrement, to warn other tigers not to enter their territory.
Of course, if any other animal does break in, the tiger will also enforce the principle of "it is better to kill a hundred by mistake than to let one go" and defeat all the invaders.
The reason for the formation of this territorial consciousness is that on the one hand, the tiger must defend the food source, and on the other hand, it also needs a safe place to give birth to offspring and pass on the family lineage.
Only by having their own territory can tigers have enough food and can they find mates and have children.
Territorial consciousness is not a tiger's nature, but a survival strategy derived from the long-term evolution of its intelligent brain.
You must know that in order to compete for limited resources, wild animals must have a strong sense of territory and defense skills, and the tiger, as the king of beasts, must always be vigilant against the invasion of other animals, otherwise its position will be threatened, and it must show its strength at any time and warn other animals not to provoke easily.
Of course, the tiger does not simply rely on brute force to maintain its territory, it is adept at using the hiding places provided by the jungle to ambush its prey, and its ferocious minions will only explode in the second moment of successful predation.
And when the tiger hunts, it also shows very good intelligence, it does not act recklessly, but patiently observes, waiting for the best time to strike, just like a good hunter.
The tiger understands that only patience and wisdom can lead to a successful hunt, so when the prey is flawed, the tiger will quickly exert force and complete the one-hit kill.
It can be said that the tiger's dominance of the forest is not only due to its size and strength, but also to its shrewd brain and a unique set of survival strategies.
It has both a majestic appearance and a sharp mind, which is why the tiger truly deserves the reputation of "King of Beasts".
Tigers reproduce
As the king of beasts in the world, tigers also contain the hard work and tenacity of the animal kingdom in the process of reproduction and mating.
When the breeding season comes, the male tiger far away in the forest will start to invite the tigress in the woods and nearby valleys to mate with his loud and loud roar.
This long howl, which can transmit up to 2 kilometers away, is like a hot invitation for tigress.
The tigress that receives the message will leave various scents at the borders of her territory, saying to the howling male tiger, "I'm here, you can come and court".
The intelligent male tiger will also leave his own scent substance, forming an exchange, and eventually the two parties will agree, and the male tiger will enter the territory of the female tiger and begin to mate briefly and frequently.
However, the same tigress often receives multiple mating requests from males, and in order to ensure that her genes are passed on, the male tigers have special barbs on their genitals, which can help clean up the reproductive cells left by other males and also stimulate ovulation of the tigress.
Although the process can cause pain to tigresses, it has become an important part of tiger mating.
In the week or so after mating, the male and female tigers will mate multiple times, each lasting only about 15 seconds, so that the high frequency and short mating method can ensure the formation of fertilized eggs to the greatest extent.
After that, the male tiger will leave without any worries, and hand over all the subsequent care responsibilities to the female tiger.
Tigress gives birth to 1 to 5 cubs after 105 days of pregnancy, and newborn cubs cannot open their eyes, so they can only survive on breast milk.
At this time, the tigress will hide the tiger cub in a hidden place in the mountains to feed, fully protect her bloodline.
As the cubs grow older, tigresses need to teach them hunting and other wilderness survival skills until they are 2-3 years old and fully independent.
It is not until the baby tiger has left as an adult that the tigress prepares for the next litter.
Therefore, the tigress only breeds about once every 2-3 years, although the male tiger is not involved in the rearing, but it will let the tigress and the cub live within its own territory, and then protect their safety.
Scientists have observed that a very small number of tiger couples live together to raise tiger cubs, which suggests that tigers also have parental affection, at least at the individual level.
But as far as the population as a whole is concerned, tiger mating is still more like a cold task of biological instinct.
Interestingly, tigers in different regions will also adjust their breeding time appropriately according to the local climate, for example, northern tigers will try to avoid mating during the cold period to ensure that the cubs are born safely.
Although 1-5 tiger cubs can be born per litter, very few survive and tiger cubs face a mortality rate of up to 50% within 6 weeks of life.
The tiger cubs that die are usually eaten by the tigress, which is also a rational use of resources by wild animals.
For tigers, even newborn offspring are full of uncertainties and are completely uncertain about their future.
However, we often have some misconceptions about tiger breeding behavior, such as why do tigers mate for such a short time?
In fact, this has to do with their living environment.
In the jungle in the suburbs, you can encounter injuries from competitors or other animals at any time, and if the mating time is too long, not only can you not guarantee the safety of both parties, but also greatly consume physical strength.
Therefore, high-frequency and rapid mating of tigers can ensure the greatest degree of succession.
The magical way of mating animals
In fact, the mating behavior of animals is essentially for the transmission of genes, not for the pursuit of enjoyment.
For example, male octopuses, whose bodies are much smaller than those of female octopuses, will cut off a tentacle with a mating organ and let the tentacles complete the mating task on their own.
Although this method is cruel, it ensures the reproduction of the octopus, because the body of the female octopus is too large, and the male octopus cannot cover its entire body for mating, so the male octopus takes the initiative to cut off its tentacles, so that the tentacles take the sperm to find the mating site of the female octopus.
Giraffes are one of the shortest animals to mate, and statistics show that their mating process takes only 1 second, mainly because of the tall size of giraffes, it is difficult for male deer to lie on the doe for long periods of time.
It is important to know that the head of a giraffe can reach a height of 5.5 meters above the ground and weigh up to 1 ton, and it is very difficult for a male deer to cover a doe at such a height for mating.
In order to increase the success rate, the giraffe's mating time has become shorter and shorter in evolution, with only a short mating of 1 second, which minimizes the instability caused by the male deer lying on the doe.
In fact, the vast majority of species in nature do not derive pleasure from mating, and their sole purpose of mating is to pass on their progenitals, a reproductive strategy that is the result of a long period of evolution to pass on genes in a cruel environment, for which animals have had to resort to all sorts of seemingly bizarre and even cruel practices, but these practices have their evolutionary justification.
When we judge the mating of animals with the human concept of love, we often feel that they are "not romantic enough", but this is the delusion of human self-centeredness, animals do not need romance, they just follow the laws of nature to survive.