In reality, it is not uncommon for animals to kill babies and eat cubs. Is it true that tiger poison does not eat children?

Tigers are very important to our country. Historically, China was a? Tiger country? , not only ranks first in the world in quantity, but also ranks first in the world in variety. Including the extinct Xinjiang tiger, there are five tiger subspecies: Xinjiang tiger, South China tiger, Northeast tiger, Bengal tiger and Indochina tiger. Among them, the South China Tiger is a subspecies endemic to China and the oldest of modern tigers, mainly distributed in South China, Central China, North China and Southwest China.

South China tiger

Tiger as a forest ecosystem? Flagship species? It can limit the number of most ungulates and some carnivores, and plays an important role in maintaining the balance of the ecosystem. However, for our country, the importance of the tiger is not only reflected in its ecological value, but also in its traditional culture.

Our country? Tiger culture? It has a long history and was mentioned as early as the Book of Changes. In our traditional cognition, tigers can even be compared with dragons, and many idioms have been derived, such as? Dragon horse spirit? 、? Energetic? Wait a minute.

There are also many stories and rumors about tigers among the people, among which the typical ones are? Don't kill tiger three? 、? Tiger poison doesn't eat children? Wait, so it's true that real tigers don't eat their cubs?

Tiger Culture in Paper-cutting

Tiger originated in East Asia, that is, within the life range of South China Tiger in China. In 2005, some scientists used DNA sequencing to prove that the South China Tiger is the oldest of modern tigers, which indirectly proved that the origin of tigers was indeed in China.

About 3 million years ago, there was a species called. China ancient cat? A small carnivore, which is considered to be the direct ancestor of modern tigers. In the stage of ancient cats in China, they lived in the forest, lived alone, stayed up all day and went out at night, and were good at swimming and climbing trees, mainly feeding on various small and medium-sized animals.

China's ancient cats evolved into modern tigers. Because there have been five mass extinctions on the earth before, and there have been no super-large carnivores on the earth since the last ice age, the tigers in East Asia showed strong expansion soon after they appeared, and the tigers in East Asia soon reached environmental saturation, so they began to spread to other parts of Asia. From the direction of tiger diffusion, it can be roughly divided into two parts:

First, along the northwest of China, through natural ecological corridors such as rivers and forest systems, and finally spread to southwest Asia; Second, along the south and southwest of China, it will eventually enter South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the process of spreading tigers to other parts of Asia, they gradually adapted to the local environment, and finally formed nine subspecies, namely: Siberian tiger, South China tiger, Indian zhina tiger, Bengal tiger, Sumatran tiger, Malay tiger, Java tiger, Li Haihu and Bali tiger, among which Java tiger, Li Haihu and Bali tiger have long been extinct, and the remaining six subspecies are Bengal tigers.

Nine subspecies of modern tigers

Except? Ordinary? Besides nine tiger subspecies, we can sometimes see four kinds of tigers: white tiger, snow tiger, pure white tiger and Hu Jin. So what subspecies of tigers are these?

In fact, White Tiger and Hu Jin are not independent tiger subspecies. They are harmless genetic variations of tigers. Unlike individuals with albinism, tigers with harmless variation such as white tigers are very different from ordinary tigers except for their appearance.

At present, all these four mutations occur in Bengal tigers. Although there are rumors that white tigers have appeared in other tiger subspecies, there is a lack of reliable data support.

White tiger is a white variation of tiger, that is, under the action of gene expression, the orange hair of tiger should turn white, but the dark brown stripes remain unchanged; Snow tiger further mutates on the basis of white tiger, not only the orange hair turns white, but also the stripes fade a lot; Pure white tigers are even rarer than white tigers. As the name implies, the whole body is white and no stripes are visible. Hu Jin is a gorgeous variety of Bengal tiger, with brown stripes on the golden background and soft hair, which appears mostly in zoos and is extremely rare in the wild. Four kinds of mutant tigers

Living habits of tigers Among modern cats, all species live alone except lions, but among all the cats living alone, tigers are the most unsociable. The loneliest? Even in estrus, male and female tigers only live for a few days, unlike lynx and other species, female individuals have begun to live together before estrus comes.

After the mother tiger is pregnant, her attitude will also change 180 degrees, and she will become irritable, even to the male tiger? Punching and kicking? At this time, the male tiger is often more free and will take the initiative to leave. Therefore, for tiger species, only in mating season or lactation period will more than two tigers live together.

Two tigers

Except for a few small tigers such as Sumatra tiger, most tigers can reach 170 kg or more. They are the strongest predators in the forest ecosystem and have no natural enemies as adults.

It has the most professional teeth and claws among carnivores, and it is fast and bold when hunting. It usually approaches its prey by ambush or crawling. When the prey enters the ambush ring, the tiger will attack quickly, usually hitting the prey's throat with one blow.

Its prey are mostly wild boar, deer, sheep and other medium and large ungulates. For example, the Russian Academy of Sciences conducted a long-term study in the Sihot-Alin area and found that the main prey of the Siberian tiger was red deer, followed by wild boar and roe deer. If the prey is small, it can often kill the prey instantly. If the prey is large, it will suffocate after being bitten.

Tigers prey on wild boars.

Although tigers live alone, they have a wide range of activities. According to the standard, at least 70 square kilometers of forest is needed to satisfy the survival of a South China tiger, and there are many wild ungulates in it. The forest range required for the survival of a Bengal tiger is about 10-30 square kilometers; To meet the survival needs of a Siberian tiger, the scope of the forest is about 400-700 square kilometers.

Tigers have a strong sense of territory. Male and female tigers have no intersection, but they are more tolerant of the opposite sex. Generally speaking, the territory of a male tiger will include 1-5 female tigers.

Siberian tiger

Before talking about whether tigers will eat cubs, it is necessary for us to understand the tiger's cub rearing mechanism. Although tigers are often in estrus from June 165438+ 10 to April of the following year, and when the temperature drops, tigers will increase the frequency of mating, generally speaking, tigers have no fixed estrus, and they can be in estrus at any time of the year except when raising cubs. If the cubs die young, the tigress will return to estrus in a short time.

However, there is a knowledge point that needs to be mentioned. Many people think that after the tiger leaves, the tigress will soon regain estrus, but this is not the case. She will be more inclined to wait 10-24 months before estrus.

Although this feature of the tigress looks unremarkable, it is extremely important to the tigress, especially the Xiao Xiong tiger, because once the tigress is in estrus, it will send out a chemical message. When the male tiger receives this message, he will look for the female tiger everywhere in and around the territory, but the little tigers have not gone far. Once they meet the male tiger, it will be a disaster for the little tiger, because the male tiger will not hesitate to kill them. The tigress waited 10-24 months to get estrus, which undoubtedly gave the Xiao Xiong tiger a chance to grow up and leave.

Tigress and cub

Many people are worried that tigress lives alone. How did the food come after pregnancy? In fact, there is no need to worry, because its pregnancy is very short, only three and a half months, and its belly is not obvious at the beginning of pregnancy, which does not affect the mother tiger's hunting at all.

The late pregnancy will be more than 65,438+00 days, and the mother tiger's stomach will gradually swell and get pregnant, but at this time she still retains strong mobility. It is not difficult for tigers to ambush and find something to eat.

Only in the last three to five days of production will the tigress lose her hunting ability, and at this stage, the tigress's main task is to find a safe shelter with many prey around as her production site.

In the whole raising stage of the female tiger, the male tiger will hardly help, and all this depends on the female tiger. At this stage, the tigress will be more cautious than usual and more efficient in all aspects. According to scientists' research on the Siberian tiger in the Sihot-Alin area, it is found that the female tiger? Vavala? After birth, the range of activities was reduced from 500 square kilometers to 180 square kilometers.

It won't leave the nest for long, and it moves faster and hunts more frequently. Once the mother tiger feels uneasy, she will immediately take her cubs with her? Moving? Therefore, the tigress in nature has more than one nest. Generally speaking, there is 1-5.

Behavior changes of tigress Vavala before and after delivery.

Little tiger didn't master hunting skills until 18 months after birth, but at this time, it didn't have the ability to live independently, so it would choose to live with the tigress for about 4-5 months. During this time, the tigress will hunt with the tiger, and the tigress is the biggest helper at this stage. With teamwork, they can often catch bigger prey, and the success rate is also significantly improved.

After this period of time, Little Tiger will leave the tigress and go out with her survival experience? Are you alone? At this time, the Xiao Xiong tiger and the young tigress are just moving around the tigress's territory and won't leave too far. Until they fully grow up and become strong, Xiao Xiong Tiger has a stronger sense of aggression and competition, and it will further expand its territory.

? Infanticide? It is ubiquitous in nature. Because the male tiger's territory is much larger than that of the female tiger, it was not safe for Xiao Xiong tiger to live around the female tiger's territory at first. Father? It is found that it is likely to be killed, because the Xiao Xiong tiger is mature, rebellious and strong at this time, which is a great threat to its father.

This phenomenon can be seen in many animals, but it is also true in nature. Infanticide? This phenomenon is very common, from lions and tigers killing their cubs to rabbits eating their cubs.

Among our common domestic animals, pigs, horses, rabbits, cats, dogs, hamsters and so on. Killing babies has been observed in pets, and the number is still quite large; In nature, chimpanzees, leopards, lions, killer whales, walruses and so on. It's all about killing babies. Therefore, killing babies and eating cubs are very common in nature, so as an opportunistic carnivore, tigers are bound to have this phenomenon.

In particular, the little tiger sneaked out of the nest to explore the world while the tigress was out hunting. When he met the male tiger, the male tiger would deny their direct attack.

Lion killing baby

Several situations in which a tigress will eat her cubs. Infanticide? If the behavior is mostly male, then if it is a tigress, will it kill or eat the cubs? In fact, it will, and there are many cases of this phenomenon. Many reasons can induce a tigress to eat her cubs.

Theoretically, a tigress can give birth to 1-7 cubs, but most of them are three. Tiger cubs have a high mortality rate, and many cubs died soon after birth. For the safety of other living cubs, the mother tiger will eat those dead cubs directly to prevent them from being smelled by other carnivores and exposing her nest.

In fact, in order to avoid being noticed by other animals, in some cases, the mother tiger will bury or even eat the feces of her cubs, which is one of their survival rules. Of course, the mother tiger eats her cubs not only for the safety of other cubs, but also because she is just hungry.

After several species extinctions on the earth, carnivores that can survive are basically opportunistic, that is, animals that rely solely on predators are no longer suitable for survival in this world. Things that die in nature are basically eaten by other animals unless they are found.

There is a phenomenon in Malala Wildlife Sanctuary in South Africa. There was no rain for a year and a half, and the animals were generally hungry. Several lions found the leopard eating prey in the tree. If this happened in the season of abundant prey, the lions would not hesitate to leave, but this time they were really hungry for too long, so the leading lioness decided to take a chance. She was not good at climbing trees, climbed up along the trunk and finally caught her prey.

Lions can climb trees and compete with leopards for food.

As the saying goes, it's easier to go up than to come down. What about the lioness after that? Under the tree? The problem has been tangled for a long time, finally? In a hurry, it broke its spine while coming down from the tree. A day later, the companions found the body of the lioness. First, they pulled a few times. The next scene in the room made many people feel incredible. These lionesses share the corpses of their companions.

For animals, dead animals are the easiest food to get, so once they are found, they will not be missed. For the tigress, it has no human feelings, and the dead cub is also a ration for it.

The lion fell to his death and was eaten by his companion.

The tigress is emotionally unstable. Will the tigress eat healthy cubs? In fact, it will, but this phenomenon is not common, and it is more common in artificially bred female tigers. Because the feeding conditions in most zoos are not good, either the tiger gardens are too small or the furnishings are too simple to meet the life preferences of tigers, many tigers living in zoos will suffer from various psychological diseases.

For example, we can often see tigers in the zoo? Circle? It looks a little happy, but the reason behind it is very poor. What is this called in academia? Rigid behavior? What about the same kind? Stress disorder? , birds? Hair removal? Wait a minute.

At the zoo? Circle? Tiger

It is not uncommon for a tigress in a zoo to eat her cubs. For example, in June of 20 10, a strange phenomenon appeared in Wuhan Zoo, that is, since? June 1st? After the mother tiger left four cubs the night before, she had a cub every day for three days? Missing? Later, judging from the blood left by the scene, all three tigers were eaten by the tigress. The chief engineer of the zoo analyzed that it may be that the tiger has no parenting experience and the cage is close to the road. Noise and the smell of people will affect the tigress.

Coincidentally, from June 2065438 to June 2005, a female Siberian tiger in a zoo in Busan, South Korea ate her newborn baby for more than 20 days. Experts from the garden analyzed that this female tiger had been trying to meet another male tiger through the cage, but it failed several times. Later, it led to the emotional instability of the female tiger and the phenomenon of killing babies and eating young.

Mother tiger in nature is no exception. When she is emotionally unstable after childbirth or feels threatened for some reason, she may eat the cubs.

A tigress who eats cubs.

In the world, regardless of hunger and thirst, mothers are extremely great. They can usually do anything for their children. When there is not enough food, they would rather starve themselves and try their best to fill their cubs' stomachs, but this is not the case in nature.

In the season of food shortage, when the tigress can't find water or prey after giving birth, she may eat her cubs. Cruel as it is, is this it? King of beasts? The laws of nature. Of course, the mother tiger eats her cubs because of hunger, and sometimes it is to keep other cubs alive.

As I said before, tigers can usually have three children in one fetus, and one will appear in each fetus? Dominant individuals? Usually a male tiger. Dominant individuals? Often bigger and stronger than other tigers, lively and active. We can understand that it is the strongest tiger cub.

Dominant individuals? It will be completely taken care of by the tigress. For example, when food is scarce, the tigress will give priority. In the eyes of the tigress, it will be stronger, and it will have a relatively high probability of surviving in the cruel competition in the future.

During the first 6-8 years after the baby tiger was born, because the baby tiger's digestive system is still developing, the baby tiger's food source at this stage is only the mother's milk. In order to ensure the supply of milk, the lactating tigress will hunt frequently and choose larger prey than usual.

But when food is extremely scarce, the tigress really can't find prey, so will she eat it? Dominant individuals? Other cubs, let yourself be full, so that you can feed this one? Dominant individuals? How much do you eat? It depends on the actual situation, even when you are extremely hungry? Dominant individuals? Will also be eaten.

What about weak motherhood? Women are weak, but mothers are strong? Motherly love is innate, but sometimes it needs to be stimulated. Once it is not stimulated or thorough, various situations will occur. For example, in real life, we sometimes see movements? Mom? A dog will get close to its cub? Punching and kicking? In fact, most of the reasons for this phenomenon are that their motherhood has not been fully stimulated, that is, they don't know that this is their own cub.

This is probably the first time? Mom? An animal, such as a foreign photographer, took such a photo, one? A new mother? Our tigress, because of her inexperience, crushed her newborn cub.

In fact, similar phenomena can be attributed to? Weak motherhood? We can simply understand that they haven't adapted. Mom? Rise to this role.

The tigress crushed her cub to death.

Based on the above viewpoints and phenomena, tiger poison does not eat children? It's just a beautiful vision that we humans impose on tigers. As a carnivorous beast, the tiger in reality is natural. The law of the jungle is vividly reflected in them. Tigers not only kill babies and eat young, but may even eat adult tigers they kill.