In many people's minds, the panda is a symbol of cuteness, but do you know? These are confined to pandas in captivity. Once we focus on pandas in the wild, we must forget all our previous impressions and treat them as real bears.
As we all know, wild Siberian tigers have the experience of preying on black bears and some brown bears. Simply put, the Northeast Tiger catches some bears every year to grow a rare tooth, and bears account for a large proportion in the tiger's diet. Northeast tiger? There were 9 incidents in which Siberian tigers preyed on bears, including 3 black bears and 6 brown bears.
According to the statistics of tiger hunting and the study of feces, it is found that bears account for 7. 1% of tiger food sources, of which black bears account for 5.2% and brown bears account for 1%. Since the Northeast Tiger can prey on bears, many people will have this question: Has the tiger ever hunted giant pandas?
The distribution of tigers in modern China experienced the changes and development of the times. Nowadays, giant pandas and tigers live in different environments and have no intersection. Although the giant panda and the tiger are the most powerful beasts in their respective habitats, we don't know who has a higher niche if they live in the same habitat.
China has the largest number of tiger subspecies in the world. Before 1960s, there were five kinds of tigers in China, namely Northeast Tiger, South China Tiger, Xinjiang Tiger, Bengal Tiger and Indian zhina Tiger. With the disappearance of the last Xinjiang tiger, there are only four kinds of tigers left in China.
At present, the mainstream view in the world is that tigers originated in China, when South China tigers lived in China. After several migrations, nine subspecies were finally formed.
Tigers have existed in most parts of China in history, among which South China tigers have the largest number and the widest habitat. Although its name sounds like a species endemic to South China, there are actually South China tigers in many areas such as southwest, north China, central China, east China and Jinnan. It is a subspecies of tiger endemic to China.
South China tiger
Because the tiger is a carnivore, and it is located at the top of the food chain, whether it is wild animals or livestock raised by human beings, or even human beings themselves, it may be preyed by tigers. Now there are no wild South China tigers in China, and the rest are kept in captivity.
Xinjiang Tiger is a branch of Lihai Tiger in Xinjiang, China, which is only distributed in the hinterland of central Xinjiang. Due to the terrain and climate, Xinjiang tiger only occupies a small part of its habitat. During the period of 1899- 196 1, Xinjiang tigers began to decrease greatly.
Among them, in the 1920s, the Xinjiang tiger in the Tarim River Basin gradually disappeared, and in the 1960s, there was no trace of tiger life in Xinjiang. After that, although there were many witnesses, it was impossible to verify the authenticity. Today, Xinjiang Tiger has become a legend.
Xinjiang tiger
The Siberian tiger is also called Siberian tiger internationally, but this name seems to be inaccurate, because there seem to be Siberian tigers everywhere in Siberia. In fact, from the historical and today's distribution area, it is more appropriate to call it Northeast Tiger.
Before the occupation of Outer Manchuria by Russia, the Siberian tiger was a unique species in China. The ancients called it? Northeast tiger? After 1858, the Siberian tiger is no longer unique to China. In fact, the historical changes of the Northeast Tiger are full of twists and turns. Simply put, it is walking back and forth between China and Russia.
Siberian tiger
/kloc-At the end of 0/9, there were 2,000 wild Siberian tigers in China and about 800 in Russia, but hundreds of tigers were killed every year. By the 1930s, there were only 20-30 wild Siberian tigers left in Russia.
Of course, tigers are also smart. When Russia wantonly killed Siberian tigers, they felt the danger and moved to our country. Therefore, for a long time, the number of wild Siberian tigers in China was far more than that in Russia.
After 1947, Russia gradually realized the importance of tigers and took many protective measures. In addition, there are many wild Siberian tigers in China, and the number of wild Siberian tigers in Russia has increased rapidly, reaching 500 at the beginning of 2 1 century.
According to the statistics of China and Russia, there are about 589-600 wild Siberian tigers, distributed in the southeast corner of Siberia and the northeast corner of China, of which only about 27 are in China.
Bengal tiger
Although there are Bengal tigers and Indian zhina tigers in China, they are far from a large scale in terms of historical distribution area and quantity. Bengal tigers are mainly distributed in parts of western Yunnan Province, parts of western Sichuan Province and the southeast corner of Tibet, with a small number; In China, Indo-Chinese tigers only appear in some places in Yunnan, and the number is very small.
Among the 39 cat species in the world today, except domestic cats, China accounts for 12 species, namely tiger, leopard, snow leopard, clouded leopard, leopard cat, desert cat, Asian golden cat, Eurasian lynx, rabbit lynx, jungle cat, striped cat and wild cat. Judging from the distribution area of these cats, they are large in scale.
The historical changes and living conditions of giant pandas are called giant pandas? Living fossil? It can be seen from this sentence that they have lived long enough, and there were no real humans at that time. The oldest member of the giant panda discovered so far is the Eocene panda, which lived in the late Miocene about 8 million years ago. One of the earliest carnivorous pandas, evolved from a bear-like species, looks a bit like a modern giant panda, but it is not very similar, and its size is relatively small, just like a fat fox. At that time, pandas and saber-toothed tigers lived in the same area.
Later, in the Pleistocene, during the whole Pleistocene, pandas were widely distributed, almost all over eastern and southern China. When Pasteur panda appeared, the whole panda family had entered its heyday. Later, due to changes in the natural environment, especially in the Quaternary Ice Age, most prehistoric animals disappeared, the northern pandas disappeared, the distribution area of southern pandas gradually narrowed, and pandas entered a historical recession.
In fact, from the perspective of the evolution of pandas, it has roughly gone through four stages: primitive pandas, ethnic pandas, butterfly pandas and modern pandas.
Giant pandas like to live in cool and humid places, and the humidity of their habitats is often around 80%. Now the distribution map of giant pandas is not as good as before. The whole habitat looks like a strip, but it is not connected. It is divided into many regions, large and small. Giant pandas are naturally divided into many isolated populations, of which more than 80% live in Sichuan and the rest are distributed in Shaanxi and Gansu. According to the national census in 20 14, the number of wild giant pandas is 1864.
Can wild tigers and giant pandas meet? At present, it is impossible for giant pandas and tigers to meet, but if time goes by, they can meet. Judging from the historical distribution of the South China tiger, it overlaps with the habitat of the giant panda in a large part, and it is not surprising that they met in the wild in ancient times.
In the study of some giant panda maxilla and tooth fossils, it was found that they were widely distributed in Zhechuan County, Henan Province, southwest mountainous areas and other places in the middle of Yangshao culture four or five thousand years ago. Even in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, giant pandas still lived in pan-northern areas such as Henan and Shanxi, but all these places were inhabited by South China tigers.
Distribution map of giant panda fossils
With the passage of time, Chinese mainland entered a cold period, and the time node was from the beginning of AD to 600 years. Due to climate change, bamboo decreased in the north, and giant pandas gradually moved south. From the Sui and Tang Dynasties to the Northern Song Dynasty, there were still giant pandas in the area from Xi to Jiangnan.
During 600- 1000 years, the whole Chinese mainland was still warm, and the distribution area of giant pandas did not shrink much. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, another cold period came, and the distribution area of giant pandas was further reduced to southwest and some subtropical mountainous areas.
From some ancient books and local chronicles, it is not difficult to see that the habitat of giant pandas has been shrinking. Even in the16-19th century, giant pandas were still distributed in southwest, south, central and east China. Since then, pandas in other parts of China have almost disappeared, except southwest China and Gansu, which are suitable for the survival of giant pandas.
Later, the South China tiger was regarded as a pest and was killed on a large scale. It has become a captive species, and pandas and tigers do not overlap under natural conditions.
It is strange to analyze the habits of tigers and giant pandas. Since most of the habitats of giant pandas and South China tigers overlap for a long time, why is it different from the situation that Northeast tigers prey on bears? Even since ancient times, they have never heard of tigers preying on pandas or pandas killing tigers?
I don't know if you have noticed that there are more tigers and fewer pandas. Arguably, the painting level in ancient China was so high that in some dynasties, the giant panda was a symbol of the beast. It's impossible not to leave the painting, is it? In fact, this all stems from the different habits of tigers and pandas.
Tiger-themed paintings
Although the tiger is the top predator in nature, it is a predator in the forest system. It lives alone and often catches its prey by ambush, which means that the tiger is very cautious and will not chase food in the open area like a wolf, or even be unwilling to take risks.
But in the final analysis, tigers are carnivores, and they need to eat constantly to supplement their own energy, which makes tigers have to walk around their habitats frequently in order to find prey, including livestock and even humans.
Although the giant panda retains the appearance of a bear and has the digestive system and fighting system of carnivores, it has become a very? Lazy? Again? Timid? Creatures are called. Bamboo hermit? Because the panda's absorption rate of bamboo heat is much lower than that of meat-eating, on the one hand, it needs to eat a lot, on the other hand, it needs to reduce consumption. The direct result of increasing income and reducing expenditure is that giant pandas either eat or sleep all day and rarely go out for activities. Because I have to eat and sleep in the forest? Do you want to go out to play together? The number of times is much less, and the probability of meeting people and tigers is naturally small.
On the other hand, giant pandas are not good at fighting, but? Is it necessary to guard against people? Wild giant pandas are very vigilant, which is why they were not discovered in Ya 'an until 1869, when the whole world knew nothing about pandas.
It is good at climbing trees and usually climbs trees to inquire about the situation. When it senses that danger is approaching, it will instinctively flee. When it encounters danger, it will immediately climb a tree and even sleep directly in it. Although tigers can climb trees, they are still inferior to pandas. In addition, the tiger's cautious personality is not willing to do too much entanglement with adult pandas with strong combat effectiveness.
Analysis on the Fighting Capacity of Giant Panda and Tiger In history, the distribution area of giant panda coincides with that of tiger, but there is no data to show that tiger preys on it, and there is no data to show that panda can kill tiger, so at present, it can only be analyzed theoretically.
Panda nickname? Iron eater? It has a good bite force. A giant panda 1 17.5 kg, the bite force of canine teeth is about 18 15.9 Newton, which is equal to 185.3 kg, and the quotient of bite force is 14 1.8. The bite force quotient is 90.3, while the bite force of a 177.8kg tiger is 2 164.7 Newton, and the bite force quotient is 129 438+0.
In wild animals, besides bite force, height and weight are also one of the most important indicators of combat effectiveness. Adult giant pandas have a body length of 1.2- 1.9 m, a shoulder height of 0.6-0.9 m, and an average weight of 100- 15 kg. The larger males can reach 654,338.
In Xiong Ke, giant pandas are not as big as polar bears, brown bears and American black bears, ranking at the bottom, but they are similar to spectacles bears and Asian black bears, but not much smaller than them, and belong to medium-sized bears.
Although the giant panda has a strong bite force and a large weight, it is not as strong as the net transmission. Because there is no need to hunt, its canine teeth are deteriorating. They are smaller than most carnivores. Accordingly, in order to eat bamboo conveniently, it is more appropriate to enlarge the molars? Grinding? Food.
Besides, although giant pandas have claws, their length is the shortest in Xiong Ke, and they are not very good at fighting. Plus, they don't need to hunt animals, so the fighting skills of modern giant pandas are greatly weakened.
Let's look at the tiger again. South China tiger is a relatively small tiger, only a little bigger than Sumatra tiger. The adult male tiger weighs between 130- 175 kg, while the female tiger is relatively small, about100-15 kg.
Tigers are the most famous and powerful predators in nature. It can kill almost any animal in the forest. Its claws and teeth are carnivores? Top configuration? The part of the canine teeth exposed from the gums is about 4-5.3 cm, which is much longer than that of the panda.
From the data point of view, although the South China tiger does not have any advantage in weight, what if the tiger and the giant panda distance themselves? Fighting to death mode, there is no doubt that I support the tiger to win, but in real life, the most direct reference is the Northeast Tiger and the Brown Bear.
Northeast tiger? There is a record in the project called. Dale. The Siberian tiger weighing 202 kilograms is the largest tiger found in this project. It killed four brown bears, all females, and one of them weighed between 150-200kg. In addition, Dell was injured in the process of hunting brown bears.
According to the data given by this project, only adult male tigers can kill brown bears, but adult male bears are not in the range. It can be seen from the examples observed and recorded by people at present that the brown bears preyed by the Northeast Tiger are mostly female bears or underage individuals.
Most of the time, Siberian tigers are unsuccessful in killing brown bears. For example, 1973, 198 1 year, it was observed that the Siberian tiger tried to kill brown bears, but failed. In addition, according to WCS statistics, brown bears also kill some weak tigers, and tigers even account for 0.5% of their food composition.
Simply put, the hard power of the South China tiger is indeed higher than that of the giant panda, but it is impossible to kill the panda easily. Therefore, when there are other food choices, the South China tiger will not risk putting adult pandas on its first hunting list, just as the Northeast tiger is not sure to hunt male bears.
But if you ask the South China Tiger if it has ever preyed on the minor individuals of giant pandas? I prefer to eat some. After all, in the same habitat, panda cubs have poor fighting capacity and slow movements, and they can easily become prey of South China tigers, just as Northeast tigers prey on brown bear cubs.