However, frequent exploration and experimental activities have also brought harm to other residents of the global village. The decrease of rainforests, the melting of glaciers and the intensification of desertification have squeezed the living space of other creatures on earth. Many creatures are facing a population crisis, and even some creatures have disappeared into the earth's ecosystem. Although these creatures are not the same species as humans, they are also an indispensable part of the earth's ecological chain.
Facing the increasingly serious crisis of animal and plant survival, human beings began to rescue these endangered animals, and the South China Tiger in China is one of them. In order to save the South China tigers, we once released them to the African savannah. So what about these two South China tigers now?
South China tiger
South China Tiger is a subspecies of tiger endemic to China, also known as "South China Tiger", which is only found in China. South China Tiger is a common tiger with a king-shaped forehead, a golden body and black stripes. South China tiger is a typical mountain animal, living in the deep mountains and forests, with a unique personality and often appearing alone. They inherited the characteristics of ancient cats in China, loved nocturnal activities, had a flexible figure and developed sense of smell, but unlike cats, South China tigers were good at swimming and could not climb trees.
2 1 century, the wild South China tiger has basically disappeared. At present, the South China tigers we see are basically kept in captivity. 1989, South China Tiger is listed as a national first-class protected animal in China. In the International Convention on Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora issued by the United Nations 1996, the South China Tiger is listed as the first endangered species, ranking first among the top ten endangered species in the world.
At present, there are three South China Tiger breeding and protection bases in China, namely the Domestication and Breeding Research Center of South China Tiger in Northern Guangdong, the Suzhou Breeding Base of South China Tiger in China and the Meihuashan Breeding Base of South China Tiger in Longyan, Fujian. By 20 18, there will be 1 10 captive South China tigers in the world.
The Survival Dilemma of South China Tiger
South China tigers were very active before the fifties and sixties, and were widely distributed all over the country. As one of the beasts, the South China Tiger is the well-deserved overlord of rivers in the mountains, but it is still at a disadvantage when it comes to human beings. Human development needs to cut mountains and build roads, and wood is needed to build houses and furniture. The exploitation of mountain forests by human beings has affected the survival of South China tigers. The South China Tiger has a strong sense of territory. They will smear their saliva on the plants around their territory to swear their ownership of this land, which will become the habitat of South China tigers. When someone intrudes into their habitat, these tigers with keen sense of smell will fly into a rage and attack humans.
In the early days of the People's Republic of China, tigers often hurt people. 1950, Jianshi County, Enshi, Hubei Province was liberated and the county people's government was just established. The whole county is responding to the call to resume work and production. People are looking forward to the beginning of a new life, but a tiger disaster happened. It is reported that from the beginning of 1950 to July of 195 1 year, in a short period of one and a half years, more than 70 people were eaten by tigers, a dozen people were bitten by tigers, and hundreds of cattle and sheep were eaten by tigers, which was simply terrible. The nickname of tigers was "Four-legged Thief". In view of the serious tiger plague at that time, tigers were listed as one of the harmful animals that affected human beings in the 1950s, on an equal footing with sparrows and mice.
In 1950s and 1960s, when the plan to eliminate harmful animals was put forward, the number of tigers dropped sharply. In the early 1950s, there were 17 1 tiger in Hunan Province, more than 50 tigers in Guangdong Province and more than 60 tigers in Henan Province. By the end of 1970s, there were only 40 to 80 wild South China tigers left in China. Until 1989, the South China tiger was listed as a first-class protected animal, and the number of South China tigers was only over 20. The South China tigers we see now are all descendants of the captive South China tigers caught during tiger hunting.
In addition to the disappearance of wild South China tigers caused by tigers, there are also crazy poaching behaviors. For thousands of years, tigers, as an animal, from princes and nobles to civilian hunters, have regarded hunting as an honor. Tiger hunting has a long history. Tigers, almost all treasures, can be eaten with meat, fur can be made into majestic cloaks and coats, bones can be used as medicine or soaked in wine, and tiger teeth can be made into tiger tooth necklaces or other handicrafts, which have economic values such as food, medicine and clothing.
The high economic value of tigers drives people to hunt. Although China has already issued a ban on tiger products, the number of tigers is getting smaller and smaller, and a large number of tiger products are still circulating in the market every year. It is said that a bottle of tiger bone wine has been noisy to tens of thousands, and the price of tiger skin is at least several hundred thousand. In the face of huge interests, tiger theft has been repeatedly banned.
In addition, the living environment of South China Tiger is narrow, and its habitat is divided due to human development. According to experts who study the South China Tiger, the South China Tiger has higher requirements for its living environment. First, its habitat must have cloven-hoofed animals for it to prey on. Second, the water in its habitat is clean enough for drinking and swimming. Finally, the habitat space is large enough, and there is a large area of woodland for it to play.
Under the above three dilemmas, the number of wild South China tigers in China has completely disappeared from more than 4,000 before the founding of the People's Republic of China.
"release the tiger to the mountain" plan
In order to protect the only remaining South China tiger, China has established three breeding bases to cultivate the South China tiger. However, because the existing South China Tiger 100 is only bred from the previous six wild South China Tigers, the captive South China Tiger cubs have high inbreeding and neonatal mortality, and the surviving cubs also have defects such as infertility, deformity and short tail. Genetic defects and loss of genetic diversity of South China tigers caused by inbreeding are the difficulties in breeding South China tigers at present.
In addition, the second difficulty is the small area, lack of cloven-hoofed animals, frequent human activities, broken habitat, and no environment suitable for the survival of South China tigers. The last one is the repeated circulation of tiger products, which makes it difficult to protect the South China tiger in China.
In 2000, a Beijing girl named Li Quan felt the difficulty in protecting the South China Tiger in China. She and her husband set up the "Save the South China Tiger International Foundation". When Li Quan visited the African Wildlife Conservation Project, she saw an idea to protect African wildlife. Since Africa can save endangered animals by releasing them into the wild, why can't our South China tiger also be released into the wild for survival and reproduction?
Li Quan hurried back to China. She inspected the environment of several protected areas in China, and even went to the deep mountains and forests and found that there was no place suitable for releasing the South China tiger in China, so she contacted Africa to transport the South China tiger to their prairie to live.
In September 2003, the first batch of South China tigers "Hope" and "Guotai" were transported from Shanghai Zoo to Tiger Valley. At that time, they were just a few months old cubs. They came to this strange grassland from the zoo. At first, the two tigers were very afraid of life and didn't want to play on the grass. Team Li Quan's staff had to lure two cubs with basketball and put it on the grass to attract them to play under the grass.
At first, Cathay Pacific wanted to eat fresh meat prepared for them. Later, in order to train their predation ability, the staff prepared meat and lured them with live chickens, hoping that they could hunt by themselves. Unfortunately, Cathay Pacific and Hope are so afraid of these little animals that they don't even dare to go near them. But the team did not give up. After all, Cathay Pacific and Hope have just come out of the comfort zone of the zoo and can't accept their prey soon.
In constant practice, the two tigers overcame difficulties and began to dare to catch live animals, but they still dared not eat or bite. After a period of training, the two tigers began to grow and learned to prey on small animals.
Although Guotai and Hope can chase antelopes, they can't catch up with antelopes who are good at running and lack catching skills. The staff trained them specially for this weakness. After special training, the tiger finally caught and preyed on the antelope. After taking the first step, the road of domestication of the two tigers in the wild became smoother and smoother. The two tigers they saw were ready to give birth, but the male tiger hoped to catch pneumonia and finally died in May 2005.
Breeding work has stopped. After consulting with relevant departments in China, Li Quan's team decided to continue the breeding work and deployed a tiger from China. This tiger is called 327 and comes from Suzhou. Because I was very afraid of strangers when I first arrived in a new place, the reproduction with Cathay Pacific failed. So I had to let the second batch of male tiger Woods who came to Africa mate with Cathay Pacific first (Tiger Woods is the object of the tigress Madonna). Although there were some twists and turns in the middle, Cathay Pacific finally got pregnant.
After Hulu was born, everything seemed to be on the right track. Soon after, Guotai was pregnant again. This time she gave birth to twins, and Madonna was pregnant, but one of her two children died in childbirth, and the other died of a virus a few days after birth. But Madonna's second child went well, and she gave birth to twins completely in the wild.
What about the South China Tiger in Africa now?
By 20 13, there will be 15 South China tigers living in Tiger Valley in Africa. There is basically no human intervention in Tiger Valley, and most of them are brought up by tiger mothers themselves.
The second and third generation tigers are easier to receive field training than their parents, because they have lived here since birth and have become accustomed to grassland and hunting life. The African wild domestication project seems to have achieved remarkable results. However, due to the divorce lawsuit of its founder Li Quan, the South China Tiger, which originally returned in 2008, is still stranded in Africa, making it difficult to return to China.
From the case of the South China Tiger, we can see that these little tigers from the zoo will have no difficulty in survival and hunting after being released into the wild. They may be unfamiliar at first, but even if they are temporarily forgotten, the instinct carved in their bones will be remembered one day. What really causes the survival crisis of South China tigers and other animals is the frequent activities and over-exploitation of human beings, which makes the ecological environment worse and worse and animals have no place to stand.
In the final analysis, protecting these animals means protecting the biodiversity of the earth, which requires human beings to learn to live in peace with animals. Whether it is to establish a nature reserve or release it into the wild, it is a temporary expedient measure. To fundamentally solve the crisis of biological extinction, we should protect the environment, reduce carbon emissions and slow down the pace of large-scale development. Only in this way can we stop the extinction of living things and build a harmonious and beautiful global village.