The lion is one of my favorite animals, with the size of a tiger, and is one of the largest surviving cats in the world. Thousands of years ago, lions spread throughout Africa, Southwest Asia and the Middle East, and even in parts of southern Europe, but later with the development of the human world, the habitat of lions showed a large area of contraction, and today, Africa only lives in East Africa, South Africa, and a small part of West Africa, and there are no lions in North Africa. The Asiatic lion has retreated to India's Gil Forest National Park, where it is nowhere else.
African lion
Many people know that lions are the only gregarious cats, with hermaphrodites, but few people know that lions are also the only cats that have tassel-like black hairs at the tip of their tails, and we should not underestimate this inconspicuous place, in fact, the unique tails of lions have an important role in their lives, and lions can use their tails to convey information.
In daily life, the black tufts on the tails of adult lions are the toys of the cubs, and in the high grass, the female lions wave their tails, which is more convenient for the cubs to pursue the lioness, and in battle, the male lion's tail will remain straight.
Asiatic lion
Lions in different occasions, the tail can play a different role, we do not have questions about this kind of habitual small things, but I don't know if you have ever thought of such a thing, why asiatic lions and African lions have a certain difference in appearance?
For example, the mane on the Asian male lion is relatively short and cannot cover the ears, while the African lion has a long mane, which can easily cover the ears. In fact, this is the impact of the environment on organisms, the so-called "one side of the water and soil to nurture the other side of the people", for wild animals, it is the same.
The impact of the environment on living things is actually not a new thing, and Darwin's famous saying "natural selection, survival of the fittest" is also an interpretation of the environment's biological environment.
During the Devonian Period, vertebrates came ashore, and the terrestrial environment transformed the animal shape structure;
During the Triassic Period, dinosaurs appeared and quickly became the overlords of the earth; during the Cretaceous Period, the supercontinents disintegrated, causing the original homogeneous organisms to gradually form reproductive isolation due to geographical isolation; in the Neogene period, humans appeared and changed the world biological pattern again.
So how exactly does the environment affect animals? Taking lions as an example, we discuss the impact of environmental changes on animals from multiple dimensions such as natural environmental changes and human-influenced environmental changes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the effects of environmental changes in nature on lions</h1>
The lion originated in eastern and southern Africa 124,000 years ago, and did not leave Africa until more than 20,000 years ago, reaching the Indian subcontinent as far as Southwest Asia.
Before human civilization was not yet developed, wild animals dominated the world, human beings lived under the fear brought by nature, relatively speaking, this period is the golden age of the development of wild animals, although disease, drought, biological competition and other elements can still interfere with the development of the lion population, but can not completely destroy this species, after all, relying on the regulation of nature, the lion species is endless.
Historical distribution map of lions
Many people have been concerned about the outcome of the lion-tiger fight. There are also many popular science creators who have analyzed the gap between the two, but have you really figured out whether lions and tigers have coexisted in history?
In fact, in history, lions and tigers really coexisted, and the time period was probably during the Holocene period, which began 11,700 years ago, and the coexistence areas were the Indian subcontinent, Central Asia, West Asia and other regions.
Tigers and lions are highly aligned in their survival needs, so there is a strong competitive relationship in the same habitat, but even so, the coexistence of lions and tigers has lasted for thousands of years, which shows that without human intervention, nature's animals can develop into a balanced model.
A historical coexistence area of lions and tigers
The impact of environmental changes on lions, in fact, is subdivided, the most important thing is that the environment affects the lion's prey, and food affects the lion's lifestyle.
For example, in the Galengeti steppe, due to the abundant number of wild ungulates, the food of lions is mainly some fat ungulates, rarely hunting other animals, but lions living in arid areas, there is no such good "living conditions", correspondingly, porcupines will occupy a greater proportion of the lion's food source.
A lion in South Africa fights a Cape Porcupine
Although the porcupine abdomen is soft, but the back and side of the body have easy to fall off the spines, once the lion attacks them, it is easy to be stabbed, this small injury sometimes brings very serious consequences, there are statistics found that in 2019 alone, there are 50 cases of lions because of the porcupine stabbing and death.
If the place where the stab is the chin, gums or nose, the hunting ability of lions will decline, so that they cannot catch food, and these lions will most likely focus on humans, domestic animals and other more vulnerable objects.
Many people may ask, the porcupine is very small, even if it is an adult porcupine, it is only about 30 kilograms, for such a little meat, and take such a big risk, is it worth it? It's so worth it!
For wild animals, filling their stomachs is the second big thing (the first big thing is mating and breeding offspring), otherwise there would not be so many lions going to hunt porcupines one after another, because in their eyes, the rewards are worth their own risks.
In the contrast of these differences, in our eyes, lions in arid areas may not have as good as lions in food-rich areas, but lions in both places have adapted to the local environment and have lived here for generations.
Male lions in Calagadi Park in South Africa have porcupine spines on their faces
Having said all this, the main thing I want to say is that in fact, the changes in the natural environment, if not reached such as the Cambrian, let the organisms spring up like mushrooms at once, or as the arrival of the ice age, so that many species suddenly went extinct so much change, relying on the regulation of nature, the number of species can be achieved between the balance of quantities, take the Canadian lynx, the white boot rabbit will appear every 9-10 years a population of fluctuations, and the Canadian lynx will be affected, There is an increase or decrease in the presentation of lag.
Before humans hunted lions on a large scale, relying on mountain and desert barriers, the distribution of lions in the world was stable, and from Africa to southwest Asia, it stagnated, without touching the Asian continent, where more tigers were distributed.
The number of lynx and white-booted rabbit fluctuates
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the effects of human-induced environmental changes on lions</h1>
With the emergence of Homo sapiens, humans have completely changed the distribution pattern of wild animals in the world for thousands of years, breaking the original balance, but re-establishing a new balance closely related to human activities. The first impact of the development of the human world on lions is that their ecological niche has changed a lot.
In the past, the lion as the top predator, it can be said that the hundred beasts are its prey objects, but after the emergence of human civilization, standing above the lion, as well as humans, especially since the feudal dynasty, human technology is more and more developed, hunting lions is no longer difficult.
Of course, in addition to hunting wild animals, human beings are also super ability to transform the environment, historically lions all over the African continent, in addition to the Sahara Desert, which is barren land without lions, they can be found everywhere, but since human beings in order to meet their own survival and development, after the plundering of nature, soil erosion, grassland desertification and other environmental problems followed, for lions, the biggest problem is habitat loss.
Today, the habitat of African lions has been very small, and it is so fragmented that the habitats cannot be connected to each other, resulting in a decrease in the genetic diversity of wild lions.
Map of the distribution of existing lions
The Maasai people in Tanzania used to hunt lions, and the rite of passage of men was to hunt a male lion alone, but now they are the guardians of lions. In the past, human-lion conflicts were common in the maasai area, and due to human activities, the habitat of lions has been shrinking, and the number of lions has decreased by nearly 40,000 compared to 1980.
Now, with the help of environmentalists and wildlife conservation volunteers, the Maasai have upgraded fences that separate humans from lions' living areas, preventing lions from crossing the fence to prey on livestock, while also keeping lions from being disturbed by human life. Apparently, the Marseille lions in Tanzania have adapted to the pattern of adjacent to humans.
Volunteers helped the Maasai build fences
Lions living in Asia, since India in 1965 adopted the Gil Forest as a wildlife sanctuary and the core area as a national park, the Asiatic lion has ushered in a new life in a desperate situation. Overall, the environment of the reserve has undergone two major changes, and the impact on lions is also very prominent.
First of all, in the first few decades of the establishment of the reserve, the indigenous Malhari people in the reserve did not move out, they grazed in it, on the one hand, the local ungulate wildlife population was affected and developed slowly, on the other hand, it also had a considerable impact on the diet of lions, livestock accounted for 75% of the lion's food source, especially those living on the edge of the reserve, the proportion of livestock was greater.
However, since 1972, India has banned human activities in the Gil Forest National Park, and the Malhari have been relocated to the periphery of the reserve, because there is no human intervention, so that the wild ungulates in the reserve have been unprecedented development, the population has grown rapidly, in the recent survey report mentioned that the number of wild boar, gazelle, deer, antelope and other ungulates has increased by 600% compared with before.
On the one hand, the number of wild ungulates has increased, and on the other hand, due to the relocation of humans, the number of livestock in the core protected areas has dropped significantly, and the diet composition of lions has also changed greatly, and the proportion of livestock has dropped to 25%.
Asiatic lion herd
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" increases human-lion conflict > climate change</h1>
In recent years, we often hear about the problem of climate, and all countries have paid attention to it, so what is the impact of climate on wildlife? I believe everyone knows that the snow leopard, is a feline living near the snow line, the impact of global warming on it is various, first of all, their habitat is reduced, the forest line moved, experts estimate that in the next few decades, the snow leopard habitat will retreat to the higher altitude of about 30%.
Climate change has also brought them new challengers, previously the snow leopard and the golden leopard one above the forest line, one below the forest line, when the temperature warms, the golden leopard's hunting range expands to higher altitudes, and the chance of encountering the snow leopard becomes much greater.
In fact, the activity area of the snow leopard and the activity area of the golden leopard have overlapped in verticality, and on the day of February 28, 2016, the infrared camera on a ridge in the Gongga Mountain Reserve in Sichuan province has photographed the leopard and the snow leopard, they appear in the same place, but the time point of the two is not the same.
The Golden Leopard was photographed at 4:42 p.m. and the snow leopard was photographed at 6:56 p.m., both ferocious predators with the same feeding habits, and are likely to trigger a fight.
The Golden Leopard and the Snow Leopard appear in the same location
Rising temperatures also have a significant impact on lions, and a new study suggests that as temperatures rise, conflicts between African lions and humans increase. Over the past two decades, African lion populations have declined by 42 percent, with habitat loss and violent conflict between humans being the biggest contributor to this phenomenon.
Lions kill livestock or attack humans, and people retaliate, but in some parts of eastern Africa, there is not much conflict between humans and lions because the human living area is far from the lion's habitat.
But research suggests that rising global temperatures will lead to changes in the geographic scope of tsetse-borne diseases. When tsetse flies feed on cattle's blood, they transmit the virus they carry to cattle, causing the disease to spread among livestock, killing 3 million african cattle herds each year.
The study found that over the next 30 years, rising temperatures could lead to an increased risk of disease transmission in parts of Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Uganda, and a decrease in Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, and other places.
Future changes in the range of diseases transmitted by tsetse fly diseases
The risk of disease transmission decreases in some areas, which will lead to the migration of cattle and sheep to the region, and due to temperature, the threat of tsetse fly-borne diseases may disappear from most of the lions in eastern Africa by 2050, and in some areas where lions are not distributed, or few lions are distributed, the risk will increase, and if no measures are taken, farmers will move to areas with a lower risk of such diseases, thereby increasing human-lion conflict. The consequences of the intensification of the human-lion conflict are obvious and a clichéd topic, and I will not dwell on them here.
A lion who died in a trap
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the effects of captive environments on lion behavior</h1>
If you look at a quiet lion alone, can you tell if it's wild or in captivity? This can be a bit difficult, after all, whether it is an animal in the wild or in captivity, they have little difference in appearance, and the wild one may be thinner.
But if you can observe behavior, I think the problem will be very simple, and people with some knowledge of wildlife can easily distinguish it. Captive environments can indeed directly influence the behavior and lifestyle of lions in many ways.
In 2014, researchers compared three sub-adult African lions in Chengdu Zoo before and after the enrichment of the captive environment, and the experiment was divided into three stages, namely: the first phase was before the abundance, the lions were locked in a small quarantine hall, and the second and third phases were during the enrichment period and after the abundance, the lions were transferred to the lion tiger garden.
The observation results show that the rest behavior of lions in the first stage is significantly lower than that of the second and third stages, and the behaviors such as exercise, vigilance and feeding are higher;
The rest behavior of lions in the second period is higher than that in the third period;
In the third period, lions exercise and played a relatively high proportion.
Data from a study of African lions
Studies have shown that lions move from small spaces to larger spaces, and their behavior changes significantly. Coincidentally, some other researchers have also conducted similar observation experiments on three Siberian tigers in Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo, and found that the behavior of tigers before and after enrichment has also undergone obvious changes, especially the vigilance behavior and feeding behavior, the change is the most obvious.
In fact, we only need to go to the zoo to see that in addition to the low wild nature of these lions and tigers, the alertness is also worse than that of pure wild, and the rest time is significantly longer.
Data from studies of Siberian tigers
The "transformation" of lions in captivity is also manifested in reproduction, wild lions rely on their natural development and can reproduce endlessly for generations, but lions in captivity sometimes occur infertility because of "too good food".
Changzhou Hongmei Park Zoo has two lions, male lion called "little lion", female lion called "big tiger", due to long-term feeding of high-fat food, cage sports field narrowing and other reasons caused by the "big tiger" is too fat, "little lion" can not climb and failed to mate successfully, and later after a series of adjustments, "big tiger" finally pregnant.
It may be a bit funny, but the knowledge behind it is right, even in the season when the prey is abundant, the lions cannot eat too fat on their own, because their predation process consumes a lot of calories, in addition to the limited amount of meat they eat, and the fat content is not as high as artificial food.
And artificial lions, if the food is not controlled, if the area of activity in the cage is increased, obesity can easily become a common disease of animals.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > the effect of asphalt roads on lion hunting patterns</h1>
With the development of the human world, infrastructure and so on will also have an impact on wild animals, and this effect, most of the time, is harmful, but sometimes it can help them to some extent.
Lions living in the Savoti region of Botswana's Chobe National Park, for example, have to face shortages during the annual drought season.
Although Chobe National Park is home to a wealth of wild ungulates, between August and November each year, it is the dry season, and herbivores that rely heavily on aquatic plants migrate on a large scale and leave for areas where aquatic plants are more abundant.
When the ungulates that had depended on them were gone, the lions here could only focus on the elephants, who usually drove out the herd in groups and then attacked until they knocked them down and obtained food.
More than 30 lions are observed joining forces to hunt elephants, and they separate an elephant from the herd by expulsion, and then the lions rush up from all directions to tear the elephants, some bite the legs, some bite the tail, some jump to the back and bite, and finally the elephants are knocked down, and the lions get a large enough meal.
Lions prey on elephants
Coincidentally, in South Africa's Kruger National Park, lions face the same dilemma and set their sights on an animal larger than a wildebeest: a giraffe. Although giraffes are a herbivore and do not have sharp fangs and claws, they are as difficult as elephants, their large size and powerful hooves can inflict heavy damage on lions, so it is not easy to prey on giraffes, but lions living in modern times seem to have found a simpler and more effective way to use the asphalt roads built by people.
Lions chase giraffes
The lions will first chase the giraffes to the asphalted asphalt, and the friction between the smooth and hard pavement and the giraffe's hooves becomes very small, so the giraffes will easily fall in the fear of being chased by the lions, and once the giraffes fall, it is relatively simple for the lions to hunt it.
Adapting to the environment and taking advantage of the environment, the South African lion has done a great job in this regard, and equally outstanding is the coyotes in North America, which have expanded by 40% in the past century and have penetrated into most cities in North America, becoming "new residents" of the city.
A giraffe that fell on an asphalt road
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > frequent visits by tourists will increase the psychological stress of lions and increase the risk of disease</h1>
In addition to the static environment can have a huge impact on lions, humans, as a member of the earth's environment, can also have an impact on lions, and this influence is not only manifested in hunting, encroachment on habitat, etc., and even people do not do anything, just look at them can affect them.
Through a study of lions in Ado Elephant National Park in South Africa, the researchers found that they have different psychological stresses when there are tourists and when there are no tourists, which is manifested in their behavior and actions.
The study found that when there are tourists watching them, the lion yawns, stands, sits down, walking and other uneasy behaviors will increase significantly, and when there are no tourists, the lion rolling, licking the hair and other relaxed behaviors will increase significantly, in addition, the researchers also measured the number of breaths per minute of the lion, in order to determine the psychological pressure of the lion, found that when there are tourists, the number of breaths per minute of the lion will increase, indicating that they have greater psychological pressure, experts said that if the lion faces this psychological pressure for a long time, It may reduce their immunity, thereby increasing the risk of developing some diseases.
It is not difficult to understand that human beings are in a state of high pressure and tension for a long time, and they are also prone to produce some bad emotions, or increase the risk of disease, and for animals, they are also the same animals living in zoos, due to narrow environment and other factors, they will be more likely to have problems such as stress disorders.
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