A few days ago, in a forest farm in Hunchun City, Jilin Province, the remains of a Siberian leopard were found after eating. It was investigated and determined by a joint investigation team composed of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park Administration, Hunchun City, Jilin Province** and the Northeast Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center of the National Forestry and Grassland AdministrationThis is a rare incident of Siberian tigers killing Siberian leopards
What does it mean for this rare natural phenomenon to happen?CCTV reporters rushed to the scene with the investigation team of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park as soon as possible, and combined with the investigation process of the expert group in the past few days to uncover the truth of the incident.
The footprints confirmed that the Siberian tiger was the "culprit".
Haw Par has been through a fight to the death
On the morning of the 23rd, when several workers drove past the Chunhua Forest Farm in the northeast of Hunchun City, they saw the remains of a Siberian leopard not far from the roadside and on the northwest edge of the forest farm. Since it had just snowed, the scene of the mess was particularly conspicuous.
Forest District Staff:Traces were found around 8:30 a.m., and we moved on to find the dead leopard and report it immediately.
At around 10 o'clock in the morning, the local ** arrived at the scene of the incident, and through the on-site investigation, it was preliminarily determined that this was an adult Siberian leopard, which was hunted and eaten a few hours ago.
The Amur leopard acts as a predator at the top of the food chain in the Northeast ForestSiberian tigers are almost the only wild animals that can hunt Amur leopards, and the tiger footprints at the scene of the incident confirm this hypothesis。Traces at the scene show that after the encounter between the Siberian leopard and the Siberian tiger, there was a desperate struggle, and the Amur leopard was finally defeated and died.
Expert: Amur leopard killed "at home".
The number is confirmed to be 73 by comparing the database
Feng Limin, deputy director of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and associate professor of Beijing Normal University, introducedEach leopard has its own unique stripes, just like a human fingerprint. The pattern was compared with the database by the ** of the dead Siberian leopardIt was determined that the slain Amur leopard belonged to the group of leopards in the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park, and the number was No. 73
Experts say No. 73 is a male Amur leopard about 8 years old. In 2016, No. 73 left his mother to live independently, and as an adult, he established his own territory in the area where the death site was located, and has already bred multiple puplets. Number 73 has been recorded more than 800 times by the surveillance system, the most recent of which was recorded in September this year. "It has been occupying this territory for 7 years and is already very familiar with its territory. ”
Perhaps it was in the territory he was most familiar with that No. 73 let his guard down and eventually became the prey of the tiger. Up to now, the investigation team of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park and the expert team are still conducting on-site inspections to further confirm the identity of the tiger involved.
Why does it happen that "Siberian tigers prey on Siberian leopards"?
This rare phenomenon?
The Amur leopard is listed as critically threatened on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, with a global population of only about 200 individuals. It is extremely rare for such a rare Siberian leopard to be killed by Siberian tigers.
Adult males tend to weigh more than 200 kilograms, while male Amur leopards weigh only 50 to 80 kilograms, a huge difference in weight and strength, so Siberian leopards are also potential prey for Siberian tigers.
But in the course of a long period of natural evolution,The Amur leopard learns the art of surviving in the territory of the Siberian tiger: Siberian tigers mainly prey on medium and large prey, while Amur leopards mainly prey on small and medium-sized prey. The activity time of the two is misaligned, and the activity area does not intersect, the Siberian tiger mainly moves at low altitudes, and the Amur leopard mainly moves at high altitudes. So,The Amur leopard is misaligned with the Siberian tiger through the feeding niche and spatiotemporal niche, which minimizes the encounter with the Siberian tiger and achieves coexistence in the same habitat.
Although the Amur leopard tries to avoid encounters with the Siberian tiger, it is difficult to avoid it completely. The site survey also found thatThe incident took place in an open area, which made it difficult for the Amur leopard to escape when it encountered the tiger and leopard up close
On October 12, 2021, the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park was officially established, and data from the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park Administration show that the number of Siberian tigers in the wild has grown to about 60, and they are at the peak of breeding and the population is growing rapidly, with more than 50% of Siberian tiger cubs surviving to adulthood.
When Amur Leopard 73 first settled and established its territory, there were no other Amur leopards and Siberian tigers in the area. With the establishment of the Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park and the further restoration of the ecosystem, Siberian tigers, which have higher requirements for their living environment, have begun to settle and breed in this area, and the probability of tigers and leopards encountering each other will also increase.
While 73 is strong enough and knows its territory well, this happened when it encountered another formidable predator, the Siberian tiger, who also knows the terrainThe second rare natural phenomenon of tigers hunting leopards.
Feng Limin explained that in the countries where tigers and leopards are distributed, especially in India, there are incidents of "tigers hunting and killing leopards", and it is the first time that such a rare natural phenomenon has been found in China, which provides a very good observation opportunity for the conservation and study of tigers and leopards in the northeast.
Experts say that the overlap between tigers and leopards will inevitably cause friction, but it will not affect the population size, and after a period of adjustment, the ecosystem will tend to balance as the habitat of tigers and leopards spreads further.
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