The largest mammal in China's Taigarin is none other than the moose. Moose is a typical herbivore of the northern leaf forest, which is distributed in the Altai Mountains of Xinjiang and the Daxing'anling Forest area in northeast China.
Moose mother and child walk on the edge of the swampy wetland. Moose are the largest deer in the world, and they prefer to move in the flat, low-lying areas of the forest and swamps in the forest, and are almost never far away from the forest. (Courtesy of Daxinganling Khanma National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia)
The minimum temperature in taigalin in China can reach -53 °C or even lower. In the extreme cold, there are still some tenacious wild animals, such as moose. The world's largest deer moose is the "resident" of Taigarin, they are named for their towering shoulders, slender legs and tall body like a camel, 2.6 meters long, 2 meters shoulder height, 600 kg of weight, and the size is also comparable to camels, far larger than ordinary cattle.
Moose are typical of the Ring Arctic subarctic coniferous forest, mostly in the edge of the swamp, mainly in the northern eurasian continent and northern North America. In North America, people call moose "moose", while in Europe, people call moose "elk" ("elk" is used in North America to call the Canadian red deer). Animal experts consider the Eurasian moose and the North American moose to be separate species.
At present, China's moose is only distributed in the Daxing'an Mountains and Xiaoxing'an Mountains in the northeast region and the Altai Mountains of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, among which the large and small Xing'anLing distribution areas are not only the southernmost marginal population of the Asian moose distribution, but also one of the southernmost populations of the world's moose.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="7" Why do > moose prefer Taigarin? </h1>
Moose are typical climate-sensitive animals, and from a global distribution, it is clear that they are afraid of heat or cold, and their temperature adaptation strategies may have similarities with reindeer, polar bears and penguins. So, what is the ecological adaptation mechanism of moose in the process of temperature adaptation?
From a biological point of view, it has been found that moose have a low tolerance to high temperatures, and when choosing a habitat, moose avoid high temperature areas: as the temperature of the external environment rises, moose regulate homeostasis by increasing metabolic rate, but there is a key threshold for temperature tolerance, that is, above -5 °C in winter and above 14 °C in summer, which increases their respiratory rate and cardiac pressure, resulting in reduced feeding and weight loss, which in turn threatens their survival.
In addition, the study of moose metabolism shows that moose have a very low tolerance to heat and are more adapted to cold environments, especially in summer temperature limits the distribution boundary of its southern edge. From the perspective of ecology, it is found that the increase in temperature in late spring is the key ecological factor driving the moose to retreat to the north and northwest, and the average annual temperature, the average temperature of the warmest season, the annual precipitation, and the average daily difference are also the main factors affecting the habitat distribution of moose. When summer temperatures exceed 20°C, moose choose areas with higher, denser forest canopy as habitats, a habitat selection behavior that is significantly different from low-temperature environment conditions.
Of course, although they are behemoths, as "residents" of extremely cold places, moose also have unique survival skills: moose have a keen sense of hearing and smell, are quite agile, and can run at speeds of more than 16-17 kilometers per hour when frightened.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="33" > prefer river valleys and have delicate neighborhood relationships</h1>
Moose is a typical plant-eating animal, large refined feeder, can feed more than 70 kinds of plant species, including woody plants and herbaceous plants, these foods can be divided into four categories from the type: leafy foods, dead leaf foods, grass foods.
In summer, moose prefer to forage in swampy wetlands. The moose's horns are flattened, shovel-shaped rather than branch-shaped. Take off once a year. The number of forks in the horn is related to age, the initial angle is a cone angle, the third year is divided into 2 forks, the fifth year is divided into 4-5 forks, and after the sixth year there is no longer a regularity. Only males have long horns. (Courtesy of Daxinganling Khanma National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia)
Moose feed on different species and types of plants in different seasons. Spring, summer and autumn, the moose's food species with the development of leaves and the growth of herbaceous plants and increasing, especially the intake of aquatic plants increased significantly, indicating that the feeding of aquatic plants has an important impact on the food quality of spring, summer and autumn, moose spring, summer and autumn to eat aquatic plants, is to ingest rich minerals and nitrogen elements; in addition, moose in summer in addition to eating aquatic plants, will also eat a certain number of branches and leaves of shrubs such as birch and willow. In winter, due to the harsh climate of the northern forest area, herbaceous plants are covered with snow, swamp ponds and other frozen, and moose mainly feed on shrub branches such as birch, willow, poplar and hazel.
Two male moose on top frame. Moose males often strike the horns, especially during estrus. (Courtesy of Daxinganling Khanma National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia)
The habitat types of moose in the Great and Little Xing'an Ridge areas mainly include Xing'an larch forest, poplar birch forest, Mongolian oak forest, birch forest, birch-Mongolian oak mixed forest dominated by willow shrubland and swamp plants. In different forest types, moose showed obvious preference or avoidance for habitat factors such as food richness, concealment, snow depth, and human disturbance, while the selection of factors such as aspect, slope, slope, and altitude was not obvious, and more logging sites were used.
With the change of seasons, the habitat of moose varies seasonally due to feeding activities, they mostly inhabit watersides or swamps in summer, on mountainsides or sunny areas in autumn, and move to the top of the mountain in winter, inhabiting the leeward sun. In addition, the proportion of moose in the valley areas is higher in summer than in the winter, while in winter, the snow in the valleys is deeper and the moose will move to higher elevations.
In nature, moose's natural predators are mainly wolves and brown bears. In north American forests, moose are the main food source for wolves, and due to the speed at which moose run, wolves often resort to the "fatigue tactic" of taking turns to chase to exhaust the moose's physical strength until the Taigarin life is exhausted. Lynx and mink bears are also natural enemies of moose, mostly attacking their cubs, as well as old, sick, and frail individuals.
There are resource competitions with moose such as red deer, roe deer, wild boar and so on. From the perspective of interspecific interplay relationship, moose and roe deer are one of the typical representatives of food resource competition, and related studies have shown that roe deer have stronger ecological adaptability and resource competitiveness than moose; in addition, moose and roe deer have a certain degree of habitat separation, however, the population distribution of moose and roe deer is related to the distribution of food resources, that is, the more abundant food resources, the more likely it is for moose and roe deer to appear together in the same area, indicating that the spatial distribution of food resources drives the ecological niche overlap between moose and roe deer. The two do not result in complete habitat separation due to competitive relationships.
A male sub-adult crosses a forest swamp. Such is the case in the Taiga Forest, where rivers and lakes are dense, and there are many such puddle swamps in the forest. (Courtesy of Daxinganling Khanma National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia)
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="34" > population development has mixed feelings</h1>
In recent years, affected by global warming and the rapid development of forest economic construction, the number of moose populations in China has declined sharply, the quality of habitat has been seriously damaged, and the retreat of distribution areas to the north has become increasingly obvious.
By analyzing the historical data of moose in Heilongjiang Province, the researchers found that in the 20 years from the 1980s to the 1990s, the moose in heilongjiang province continued to retreat northward, and many of the populations in cities, counties and forest farms where moose were once distributed have disappeared, and the number of other surviving natural populations has also decreased significantly. Historically, moose in northeast China were distributed in the Daxing'an Mountains, the Xiaoxing'an Mountains and the Wanda Mountains in the east, and were connected to each other. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were no moose footprints in the Guanda Mountains. From the general trend, throughout the 20th century, the distribution of moose in China retreated by 4 latitudes north.
In 2014, the researchers' sample line survey showed that the moose population in the Daxinganling forest area of Inner Mongolia was 2648±158, compared with 3015±290 in the area in 2008, with a reduction rate of 12.2% and an average annual reduction rate of 2.16%. In 2014, the total area of moose habitat in Daxing'anling, Inner Mongolia was about 51,715 square kilometers, a decrease of 21.8% compared with 1989. Protecting and rescuing moose populations in the wild is imperative.
In autumn, a moose feeds in the water, and their large long legs have a particular survival advantage in the swamp. (Courtesy of Daxinganling Khanma National Nature Reserve, Inner Mongolia)
In 2021, China's newly adjusted "List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection" will upgrade the moose from the original national second-level protected animal to the national level, and the upgrade of the protection status shows that this species is in urgent need of protection, on the other hand, it also means that the decline of the moose population has attracted national attention, and there may be hopes of reversing the trend in the future.
From the perspective of the protection of the moose, an endangered species, we recommend that practical and effective measures should be taken, For example: 1. Long-term multi-scale dynamic monitoring and management of the populations and habitats of moose and species with homotopic distribution; 2. The number of roe deer can be appropriately controlled in the moose distribution area to reduce the pressure of interspecies competition in the moose; 3. the protection and management of heterogeneous habitats should be strengthened, and appropriate forest cultivation and felling programmes should be adopted to provide forest community habitats adapted to the different succession stages of the moose; 4. Interforested roads are the main channels for poachers, which have an important impact on the movement of moose, and should be effectively blocked, and the vegetation coverage and concealment conditions on both sides of the road should be improved as much as possible, the impact of roads on the moose should be reduced, and the quality of the moose habitat should be improved; 5 In the period of lack of food resources, we should vigorously protect the plant resources of the moose habitat, and improve the richness of the main food resources of the moose to reduce the pressure on the external environment. (Source Forest and Humanity Magazine Author Bao Heng Yang Kun Jiang Guangshun Editor Wang Qiang)