I heard that tigers were introduced to Africa to slaughter lions and destroy the ecological balance. Is it true?/You don't say.

African tiger roar? It is also a hot topic in recent years. Many people on the Internet said that tigers were successfully wild in South Africa, which caused considerable damage to the local ecology and killed many lions. Is this true or not?

What kind of project is African Tiger Roar?

African Tiger Roar is a Tiger Valley project in South Africa, which is located in a free state in central South Africa. This project was originally initiated by a China woman in 2000. Save the China tiger? Li Quan, the founder of the foundation, initiated this project to train the endangered captive South China tigers and release them into the wild in China.

The South China Tiger in Li Quan killed a white-faced red deer.

Li Quan found John, a famous wildlife producer. Working with John Watty. However, the cooperation was terminated in 2002 because Vantage misappropriated funds to buy personal property. Li Quan and Vantage set up their own Tiger Valley project. Li Quan's name is Tiger Valley, Vantage's name is Tiger Canyon, one is Tiger's Chinese Pinyin and the other is Tiger's English.

Vantage's Tiger Valley is completely different from Li Quan's original idea. He has introduced two pairs of Bengal tigers (some of which have crossed with Siberian tigers) and announced that he will establish a wild tiger population in Africa. The two pairs of tigers were Ron and Julie introduced in 2000, and Tao Xi and Phantom introduced in 2006. Vatti paired Sitao with Julie, Ron with Phantom, and they have been breeding for generations now.

As a producer, Vantage made his own story of training and raising tigers into two documentaries, Walking with Tigers produced by Discovery Channel in 2003 and Private Life of Tigers produced by 201/National Geographic, which are well known to domestic netizens? African tiger roar? The story comes from these two documentaries.

Service in Tiger Valley

Vantage's Tiger Valley and himself have websites and social accounts, and the most publicized ones are Tiger Valley's tourism, catering and hotel accommodation services. Therefore, Tiger Valley is Vantage's personal business project, which has a strong profit attribute.

Did Tiger Wild South Africa succeed?

Vantage named this place where tigers are raised as Tiger Valley Private Hunting Reserve. He declared on his website that the tigers here live a free life and no one bothers them. They are all wild tigers. At the end of Walking with the Tiger, Vatti and his trainer David claimed to have successfully wild two cubs, Ron and Julie, and said goodbye reluctantly. In fact, there is no need to say goodbye, because they have been meeting.

The most important thing for tiger wildlife is to get rid of the dependence on human beings and consciously stay away from human beings, which is also the most unsuccessful place of Tiger Valley Project.

John? Vantage (right) and his tiger.

From Walking with the Tiger, it can be clearly seen that Vantage and others have not tried to get rid of the tiger, but have been strengthening the interference with the tiger. The hunting of these two tigers is accompanied by humans. After the tiger finally finished hunting, they tried to snatch the prey to keep their attention on the tiger. Control? .

If Vantage really wants to release tigers in the wild, what's the point of controlling tigers? In fact, Vantage doesn't want to release tigers to the mountains at all, but wants to train tigers, just like training hounds. The difference is that people train hounds to hunt, while Vantage trains tigers to make money.

As seen in The Private Life of the Tiger, Vantage can get close to the tigress and her cubs, shoot them at close range and even touch them, which is impossible for a real wild tiger.

Tiger valley tiger lacks the most basic awe of human beings. Luckily, they were surrounded by a fence. They live in a closed space, or they will be shot every minute for threatening people and animals. Two female tigers once escaped from the fence and were quickly shot by local people.

Tigers in Tiger Valley

In addition, it is doubtful whether the enclosed space of Tiger Valley is a wild environment. The project originally planned to cover an area of 370 square kilometers, as Vantage himself said. Six times the size of Manhattan Island? . However, after Li Quan and Vantage separated, I don't know how much land they each got. Vatti told himself in the film that his field training was completed in a 30,000-square-meter fence, and then the tiger lived in a 600,000-square-kilometer fence.

600,000 square meters is 0.6 square kilometers, which is far from enough to feed tigers. In Wang Chi National Park, the territory of a wild adult female tiger is 20 square kilometers, while that of an adult male tiger is about 150 square kilometers. Chiwan is also an area rich in tiger prey, and tiger territory is generally small. In Russia's Sikhotalin Reserve, a female Siberian tiger has a territory of 500 square kilometers, and a male tiger has a larger territory.

The territory of wild tigers is highly exclusive, and other individuals of the same sex are not allowed to enter. How many tigers does Vantage Tiger Valley have? There are 26 at most.

Tiger Valley is a 20-month-old tiger.

How did Vantage feed so many tigers in such a small place? Moreover, according to the website, there are cheetahs, serval cats, wild cats, foxes, hyenas, aardvark, monitor lizards, porcupines, cobras and other animals in the valley, but there are no ungulates, which are the staple food of tigers. The answer is also told you in the film, that is, buying ungulates and putting them in the tiger valley for tigers to prey on, similar to feeding live chickens in some wild parks in China.

Vatti claimed that there was the only wild white tiger in the world in his valley. There is no wild white tiger in the world. The problem is that his tiger is not wild either. Both Sitao and Julie carry the white tiger gene, so there is a 25% chance of giving birth to a white tiger. The white tiger in the zoo has serious health problems due to inbreeding, and what's more, it is not suitable for wild life because of the lack of hidden color.

In order to gain eyeballs, Vantage breeds white tigers that are not suitable for survival in the wild, which has to make people more suspicious of his motives.

Vantage pretends to be a researcher in the film. In fact, he is not a scholar at all, and he has never published a paper. His tiger ancient wild project has not been recognized by any academic papers or monographs so far.

The white tiger and her two cubs.

To sum up, the essence of Tiger Valley is a super-large wildlife park, or tiger ranch. The wildness of tigers here is indeed stronger than that of most zoos, but the essence is still captive tigers, which are not as good as real wild tigers.

The Truth of Tiger Killing Lion

There is only one example of a tiger killing a lion in Tiger Valley. The murderer was Tao Xi, a male tiger, and the victim was Savannah, a female lion. Savannah was also born in the zoo and raised by Tao Xi's wife Julie. 20 1 1 June 1, there was a big flood in the local area. In order to avoid the flood, these tigers and lions crowded together and the scene was chaotic. Vatti's gang decided to anesthetize the big cats and separate them. The tragedy happened at this time. Before Savannah recovered from anesthesia, Sitao attacked it and bit its throat. Savannah died of massive bleeding.

Savannah the lioness helped her foster mother raise a litter of tigers.

Savannah is quite big, and it is said that it has 160 kg. Sitao has never offended it. The male tiger killed the lioness, but he didn't recover from anesthesia. I really don't know what to brag about. Savannah and her adoptive mother Julie have deep feelings. They often hunt together and help Julie raise a little tiger. Shortly after Savannah was killed, the helpless Julie was also killed by the phantom, and the former Julie was just fighting with the phantom in its prime.

Some fanatical tiger lovers in China have invented many versions, such as Ron killing two stray lions with one enemy, two tigers killing a group of lions, and the leader of lions, all of which do not exist and cannot be found. Tigers in Tiger Valley have been living in fenced areas, and there are no wild lions at all.

Tiger valley is very fierce in tiger fighting. According to incomplete statistics, among 16 adult tigers in the valley, 12 died at the hands of the same kind, which is like the Colosseum. Personally, this is directly related to the small size of the tiger valley and the high density of tigers. Vatti tried to throw the pot, saying that they were all wild tigers, and it was normal to fight. However, Tiger Valley is only a wildlife park, and poor management is the fundamental reason. Since there is no such big place, don't keep so many tigers.

Two tigers fight in Tiger Valley.

Conflicts between people and big cats often occur. 20 17 a 3-year-old child of an employee in Tiger Valley was killed by a cheetah, which is rare in general. This time, Vantage's response was positive. He said that the cheetah will not be dealt with, because the cheetah has no fault, it is all people's fault. He is the boss and takes full responsibility for it. At the same time, Vantage himself was attacked by a tiger and bit off two ribs. He also shot and injured the foot of a female tiger with a cub by mistake.

Will tigers really destroy African ecology?

At this point, the answer is clear, of course not, because the tigers here have never been successfully wild. Some people do question that tigers will affect the local ecological balance. The official response of Tiger Valley is:

Tiger Valley Project was built on the land of abandoned sheep pasture in 17, and the local ecosystem has been destroyed by overgrazing. On the contrary, the project has positive significance for restoring local biodiversity. Moreover, Tiger Valley is completely fenced, so tigers can't get in touch with local wild animals. It seems that Vantage knows very well whether his tiger is wild or not.

Cheetah in Tiger Valley

Tigers in Africa destroy the ecology, mainly because of the concerns of domestic netizens. They have two concerns. One is that the tiger runs too fast, and the other is that the tiger eats too much. To be honest, these two concerns are ridiculous.

The film has repeatedly stressed that tigers are ambush hunters in the jungle and need shelter to get close to their prey. Speed has always been a weakness of tigers. Some people were surprised when they saw tigers killing antelopes and ostriches. What a fuss!

In Walking with the Tiger, the antelope killed by the tiger is mainly white-faced red deer, which runs very slowly and will not be faster than the tiger's natural staple, white deer. In the film, the tiger also killed three springboks. Springboks do run very fast, with a speed of 80-90 kilometers per hour, but all three springboks were captured in the rugged canyon area, and one of them slipped under his feet, so the speed advantage of springboks could not be exerted in this environment.

In kalahari desert, where springboks are abundant, the ratio of springboks in the diet of lions is 13%, and that of leopards is 65%. Lions and leopards can also kill gazelles. In Serengeti grassland, Down's gazelle accounts for 7.5% and 30~70% of the food of lions and leopards, respectively. The habitats of Kalahari and Serengeti are endless, and it is more difficult for big cats to hunt than Tiger Valley. Hunters really don't have to run faster than their prey. As long as big cats ambush and approach, they can also catch prey.

Tiger cubs chase springbok

Besides, ostriches really don't blow that fast. According to the actual measurement of scholar Alexander, the speed of a 40 kg adult female ostrich is 6 1 km, which is only slightly faster than that of a tiger. According to Dr. Schaller's calculation, a 230 kg male tiger has a speed of 56 kilometers per hour. Judging from some scenes in the film, the tiger really can't outrun the ostrich on the open ground.

Enthusiastic tiger fans had an argument more than ten years ago that tigers are the only cats that can catch ostriches besides cheetahs. This is really ignorance. Lions, leopards and even Karakal have records of killing ostriches. The speed of lions and tigers is almost the same. A lioness with a weight of 150 kg measured by Shale has a speed of 59 kilometers per hour.

At the end of Walking with the Tiger, Ron and Julie caught seven antelopes a day. Some people worry that tigers will eat all ungulates when they enter Africa. In fact, cats ambush predators without long-distance chase, and their food intake is relatively small compared with dogs. Teacher Song made statistics in Wang Chi Park. An adult tigress only needs to catch 45 prey a year.

Studies in the Far East and South Asia have found that it is difficult for tigers to control the number of prey under normal circumstances. More importantly, the number of prey in turn limits the number of tigers. Because tigers prey mainly on young or adult males, they are far inferior to wolves in controlling their prey. Only when the prey population is at a low ebb due to diseases and other reasons can the tiger's predation temporarily delay the recovery of the prey population.

Flying ostrich

Two tigers catch seven antelopes a day, which is called hunting behavior, and it often happens when the activities of prey are limited. The sheep in the sheepfold are the most likely to stimulate the killing nature of cats. In extreme cases, a lynx or puma can kill hundreds of sheep overnight. The antelopes in Tiger Valley are artificially put in, and a large group of them are crowded in the valley, unfamiliar with the environment, and it is easy to become the target of domestic tigers. In a healthy natural ecosystem, killing usually doesn't happen.

What is the significance of the Tiger Valley Project?

Some opponents say that tigers are untenable in Africa, which is biased. There is a shortage of tigers in Africa, because it is cut off by the vast grasslands and deserts in West Asia. Tiger Valley is located along the Orange River, with rich vegetation and rugged terrain, which can provide cover for tiger hunting. In addition, there are no large beasts such as lions and hyenas around for a long time, and this area is quite suitable for tigers to survive.

The environment of Tiger Valley

However, it is a layman to introduce tigers outside their origin, which has no ecological protection value but only economic value. Therefore, some conservationists criticized Vantage for just manipulating tigers to make movies to make money.

This paper mainly criticizes Vantage, because his name is Wild Tiger, and it is really for profit. But objectively speaking, Vantage did provide a high-quality life for his tiger, far better than crossing the zoo, which I admire him very much. Pursuing profit is human nature, don't be so high.