When watching some videos and articles about Siberian tigers on the Internet, we can often see people describe this big cat as "the largest existing cat, weighing up to 350 kilograms", in fact, the description of this sentence is incorrect, and the truth may disappoint many people.
First of all, from the size of the contemporary wild Siberian tiger, it is similar to the Bengal tiger and the male lion of the great subspecies, which are difficult to distinguish between high and low in a hierarchical range. Secondly, the value of "350 kg" is seriously exaggerated, and from historical and contemporary scientific expeditions, as well as relevant records from authentic sources, the size of wild Siberian tigers has never exceeded 350 kg.
Siberian tiger
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > Siberian tigers have lost a lot more weight than in history</h1>
Siberian tiger is a kind of tiger native to China's northeast, Siberian Far East, the Korean Peninsula, the scientific name is "Siberian tiger", but in different regions, there are different names, Russia calls it "Amur tiger", North Korea calls it "Korean tiger" and so on.
The coat color of the Siberian tiger changes with the change of seasons, and in the summer, the hair is more vivid, mainly brownish yellow; in the winter, the color is lighter, pale yellow, and longer, softer, and denser.
According to the description of the Siberian tiger in the 1981 Mammal Species, the male wild Siberian tiger weighs 180-306 kg and the female 100-167 kg, which is a reasonable range, but it is too wide, obviously making it difficult for the reader to grasp the average weight of the Siberian tiger.
It wasn't until 2005 that scientists from the United States, Russia, and India jointly published a paper that was included in Chapter VI of Tigers in the Sikhote-Arin Reserve: Ecology and Conservation. The paper compares the historical weight data of contemporary Siberian tigers with historical weight data in a scientifically rigorous manner, as well as the comparison with other tiger subspecies, and the conclusions are relatively reliable.
The Siberian tiger in the first half of the 20th century was significantly heavier than the Siberian tiger after 1970, with the average weight of the historical Siberian tiger males being 215.3 kg and the average female weight of 137.5 kg, while the average weight of the contemporary (1992-2003) wild Siberian tiger males was only 176.4 kg, the average weight of females was 117.9 kg, and the individual limit progressive value was 222.3 kg.
Experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences carried out years of scientific research in the Komorov Ussuri Nature Reserve, and in October 2012, a huge adult male Siberian tiger, named Luke, was captured, and the experts measured it with a weight of 212 kg, which is known to be the largest Siberian tiger in the Ussuri Nature Reserve.
Siberian tiger observed in the Amur Tiger Project
There are also many records of large-sized Siberian tigers, such as in 1943, a wild male tiger was killed in the Songhua River Basin, it is 350 cm long, tail length 1 meter, weight 300 kg.
There are also some historical documents that describe the oversized Siberian tiger, weighing up to 318 kg, 384 kg, or even 408 kg, but its sources are very unreliable, roughly similar to the story of "Baihu Wei Village" in our country, not only the above-mentioned scientific research literature is not referenced, even ordinary people do not believe ah!
In recent years, in some villages in Heilongjiang and Jilin in China, from time to time, we will find that the Siberian tiger has entered the village, and in some sightings, we can also take a look at the size of the contemporary Siberian tiger.
On March 12, 2021, a 70-year-old farmer in Heilongjiang went up the mountain to cut firewood and encountered a Siberian tiger, fortunately he wielded a chai knife to scare the Siberian tiger away, and afterwards according to the description of the person concerned, as well as the expert's survey of the footprints, it was learned that this was an adult male Siberian tiger, weighing about 500 pounds, but because there was no actual measurement, this value was only an estimate, and there was a suspicion of exaggeration.
On April 23, 2021, Linhu Village, Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province, broke into an adult Siberian tiger, bit a person and broke the car window, and was later captured and sent to the Hengdao Hezi Siberian Tiger Forest Park for further examination, and the Siberian tiger weighed only more than 400 kilograms, which is the real data.
A Siberian tiger that breaks into Linhu Village
Whether from the authoritative scientific research literature or the real witnessing incidents, the weight of the Siberian tiger has not reached 350 kg, so it can be seen that this value is only described by some people based on their own subjective speculations, or follow the trend, and the real wild Siberian tiger of the contemporary era is not so heavy.
In addition to the direct scientific evidence, why didn't the oversized Siberian tiger appear? We can also find evidence from the evolutionary laws of some species. After the end of the last ice age, the earth's oversized predators became extinct, and medium-sized and under-size predators such as lions, tigers and leopards were able to rise.
In addition to changes in the environment and climate, changes in the size of prey are also important reasons for the evolution of predators. Most of the ungulates in forest ecosystems are not large, so tigers are unlikely to evolve in the direction of large sizes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="2" > the reasons for the decline in the body size of The Siberian tiger are complex</h1>
Knowing the fact that the size of the Siberian tiger has indeed declined, we have to think about the reasons behind it. In many so-called popular science articles on the Internet, most of them have been taken in one sentence, which boils down to: the impact of inbreeding and prey reduction.
In fact, the reasons for the decline in the size of the Siberian tiger are complex, and it is undeniable that inbreeding and prey loss have a great impact on their size, but they are by no means the only factor. For example, between the end of the 19th century and the 1970s, in the wave of large-scale killing of tigers in China and Russia, some large-sized tigers often became the target of hunters competing to kill and show off, resulting in the Siberian tiger being screened again, and the large-size genes were difficult to retain.
Early Russian soldiers hunted Siberian tigers
We all know that tigers are highly territorial animals and need a large range of habitats to accommodate them to survive, and the territory of male tigers often contains 2-5 female tigers, and the territories between female tigers do not overlap with each other. But you know what? This is not fixed, but changes with the level of prey, environmental factors and so on.
Take the Siberian tiger and the Bengal tiger to compare, because the Indian subcontinent is known as "Little Africa" support, wildlife resources are very rich, for the Bengal tiger living here, it is natural to eat and drink, so a Bengal tiger needs territory, it is likely to be less than 70 square kilometers, and the number of female tigers contained in the male tiger territory may be greater than 5. The Bengal tigers are extremely fierce infighting, which is why the Bengal tigers are fierce.
Bengal tigers
The Russian Far East belongs to the alpine region, and the wildlife resources are no better than those of the Indian subcontinent, so the Siberian tigers living here naturally need a wider territory, even more than 400 square kilometers, but a tiger's ability is limited and cannot manage too large territory.
Coupled with the fact that the Siberian tiger has been hunted severely, the number has decreased sharply, making the intraspecies competition smaller, which means that some male tigers that were originally smaller and weaker are not easy to be hunted by strong tigers, and have a greater chance of surviving, and several female tigers are assigned, and this kind of "weaker" genes are also retained in large quantities.
The size of the contemporary Siberian tiger is not larger than before 1970, which is an indisputable fact, in addition, due to the small base, this phenomenon can not be changed in a short period of time, so the statement that "the maximum weight of the contemporary wild Siberian tiger is 350 kg" is extremely incorrect, even artificial captive individuals, in addition to obese, sick normal individuals, it is not easy to achieve this weight.
(Follow me for interesting and informative animal knowledge.) ）