Located in the northeast of Qinghai Province and the western border of Gansu Province, there are a number of mountain ranges running northwest to southeast, which are collectively known as the Qilian Mountains. Because the natural resources here are very rich, Qilian Mountain also has the title of "Wanbao Mountain".
Many rare wild animals thrive here, including the mysterious "Red Dog" in the legend. The red dog is also the jackal, which has many names in china, such as red dog, red haired dog, jackal dog, miao wolf and so on.
In October 2020, infrared cameras in the Qinghai area of Qilian Mountain National Park captured a group of 10 red dogs, which is a very rare sight at the moment.
When the name of the jackal is mentioned, in people's minds, the words "jackal, tiger and leopard" always come to mind. Wolves, tigers, and leopards can be seen in most urban zoos in the country, so people are relatively familiar with these three animals, but the red dog is quite mysterious, a very rare animal, why can it rank first among the four beasts? Left people with many mysteries.
In fact, people's understanding of red dogs has always been relatively small, even when they were widely stored in most of china's forest areas, they were not very familiar with them, which further added to their mysterious feeling.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > red dog cunning and fierce, or rumored</h1> fox
There are also many rumors about them in India, the most widely spread of which is the fight between them and the Bengal tigers.
A group of Indian jackals and a tiger quarreled over food, because the difference in size was too large, so more than a dozen Indian jackals were killed, but in the end the tiger's physical strength was exhausted, the jackals rushed up, bit the tiger alive, and won the final victory.
In china's folk tales, red dogs prey on wild boars are also rumored to be gods, and they will use their wisdom to hunt wild boars in a very cruel way.
Many sources, including some literary works, describe the miao wolf as an extremely fierce and cunning and cruel animal, they are haunted in the forest, and they are not even afraid of tigers and leopards, so many people think that the red dog is the rumored fox.
Because from the appearance, it looks very similar to a wolf, but smaller than a wolf, and the tip of its mouth has a three-point fox appearance, which is in line with the rumored image of a fox smaller than a wolf but more cunning. In the forest, wolves and red dogs feed on medium and large ungulates, so the competition between species is fierce, and in daily life, the two sides will fight for survival resources.
Red Dogs' combat moves, like hyenas, will pick the wolf's weakly defended buttocks to attack, so there is a scene of lying on the wolf's back. The fox moves on the back of the wolf with its front legs, which is similar to the scene when the red dog preys.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="19" > like a wolf and a dog, and the strength is higher than that of a wolf</h1>
Their social structure is similar to that of the African wild dog, living in large groups, led by a larger and most experienced individual, hunting in groups in the forest, but in the early spring, they mostly live as families, with a concentration of 3-5 members.
In the animal world, body size often represents strength, and weight difference is strength difference, especially in the same type of organism, this law is more obvious. However, it does not seem to be true on the body of the red dog, which is smaller than the wolf, but because of its extremely fierce and cruel temperament, it is generally believed that its strength is higher than that of the wolf.
The appearance of the red dog is very close to the wolf and the dog, but it is different from the two, the most obvious part is the mouth, the red dog's snout is sharper and shorter, a bit like a fox, so it looks more cunning than the wolf and the dog.
The hair on the red dog is mainly tan or reddish brown, the abdomen is off-white, the mouth and tail tip are black-brown, and the overall coat color will have some subtle changes in different seasons.
Red dog belongs to one of the canines, but also the most mysterious of the 6 species of canines in China, its size is not large, only 15-32 kg, looks like a medium-sized dog, only a very small number of larger individuals can grow to more than 30 kg.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="27" > has disappeared in large numbers and is now slowly recovering</h1>
Before the 1980s, the number of red dogs was relatively large, and it existed in most forests. The sharp decline of red dogs, almost concentrated in the 80s and 90s, compared to the disappearance of tigers and leopards is obvious, the disappearance of red dogs is very fast, and the reasons are more mysterious.
Although the red dog's predation and injury of livestock is not as serious as that of tigers, it is still a fierce predator that preys on livestock. Therefore, the reasons for their disappearance can be roughly classified as retaliatory killings, habitat destruction, wild prey loss, population decline, disease effects and so on.
I believe that many people after the 60s and 70s have the impression that they often appear in the mountain fields, feed on wild boars, and love to frolic, especially in the northwest of Jiangxi, and the number of young wolves is even more amazing. But after the 1990s, most of the country's forests lost track of red dogs.
In recent years, thanks to the ecological construction and animal protection results, the number has increased, in qilian mountain, heishui river, Qinghai Dulan county and a few other ecologically intact areas, have been found in their figures, I believe that with the passage of time, their number will become more and more numerous.
There are many rumors about the red dog, such as when it encounters people who walk at night, it will trail and protect, until people go out of the forest, it will stop and watch people leave; for example, some articles describe the red dog as a beneficial beast, it will not hurt people and prey on livestock, mainly feed on wild boars, specially pick wild boars in the farmland to start, protect people's crops.
Most of these stories are quite mythical, in fact, the red dog is a real wild animal, perhaps it is more mysterious than other animals, but this is also due to its habits.
China's history of cutting "jackals": restoring how jackals disappeared from the sight of the Chinese people