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Beauty, grace, power - these signs are inherent in only one animal in the whole world. Having seen him, you will never stop admiring him. This representative belongs to the family of cats - this is the Amur tiger. Far Eastern, Ussuri, as they do not call this predator. Such a variety of names associated with the habitat of the animal. In Russia, this tiger lives in the Far East, near the Amur and Ussuri rivers.
Tiger: a place in nature
The Amur tiger belongs to the mammal class and is one of the representatives of the most ancient genus of panthers. The size of this predator will surprise everyone. It is longer in body length than the African lion, which also comes from the genus of panthers.Thus, the weight of an adult tiger varies from 170 to 250 kilograms. With such a large weight, the length of the body ranges from 2.7 to 4.1 meters. It all depends on the sex of the animal, the female is usually smaller. The height of the animal from the ground to the withers is slightly more than a meter.
Characteristics of external data
With such a large mass and body length, the Ussuri tiger moves almost silently, and at the same time gracefully. Such a quiet movement is due to the soft pads on the fingers of the animal. They act as shock absorbers, as small springs, thanks to which the tiger can not fall even into the deepest snowdrifts, and, as is known, in the winter time in the Far Eastern taiga there are a lot of them.
The cold climate in Ussuri was also reflected in the tiger's hair. She is very thick, soft and fluffy. The color of the six resembles the color of rust, the same red and saturated, but in some places, like on the chest, neck and paws, it is white, like freshly fallen snow. All over the body, like a zebra, a predator has black stripes - from nose to tip of tail. Scientists note that, like zebras, tigers do not have two identical colorings. This is a unique pattern that is assigned to each tiger cub from birth.Also, biologists point out that it is the black stripes that make it possible to best camouflage in impassable taiga conditions.
Habitat
Favorite habitats of Ussurian tigers are huge valleys of the Amur and Ussuri rivers, taiga, oak groves, and also places where cedar grows. Thanks to its warm fur, tigers do not need to migrate seasonally due to the cold winters. But in those cases, when the winter is delayed, and there is not enough food, the tigers are forced to go down to the villages and villages in search of food. In this case, food is all that a predator eats. Most often it is livestock.
Features of predators
Many people are mistaken in saying that Far Eastern tigers live in packs. Zoologists claim that wild cats live alone, and each of the representatives of the species has its own territory. So, the female possession does not exceed 500 square meters. In males, the area is four and a half times larger, and is approximately 2,200 square meters. Along the perimeter, each predator puts its tags.This may be deep scratches in the wood or the smell of urine.
It is very rare to see a tiger with your own eyes. Even when hunting, a predator rarely goes beyond its perimeter. Only in fierce frosty weather, when the animal has absolutely nothing to eat, it can afford to go beyond the conditionally fenced territory, and go down to people to search for food. Only in this rare case, when hunger overpowers fear, does the tiger go to the areas where people live. Here, in this situation, the animal will not care what it is. Everything will go into food: livestock, vegetables, fruits, plants, domestic animals such as dogs and cats, and even fish.
Amur tigers in Russia
Immersed in the past, you can learn that even 100-200 years ago, the Ussuri predator inhabited the entire current territory of the Far East. But every year the growth of shooting and hunting for these animals grew exponentially. As soon as the number of killed animals per year exceeded the mark of 155 tigers, the population of wild cats began to decline sharply.
In 1930, predators began to disappear everywhere, they were less often encountered in the forests of the Amur and Ussuri rivers. Only by that time the government began to think about the complete disappearance of the population in the territory of the Far East.Only this reason influenced the accelerated consideration of the law on the prohibition of hunting, as well as the capture of the young of these predators. This happened in 1947. After 11 years, an important decision was made to put the Amur tiger in the Red Book. These necessary measures had a positive effect on the life of wild animals, and by the 1980s, the population received an increase of 200 individuals.
Tiger protection
The status of “endangered species” was a stigma over the Far Eastern tiger until 2007. But in 2008, the administration of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) published an article describing the life of the Amur tigers. From the report it became clear that over the past 70 years the population size has increased quite sharply. After this sensational news, questions came to the WWF editorial board about how much the number of individuals had increased. The answer was that, according to official data from scientists, the number of tigers currently exceeds 500 individuals.
In 2011, a well-known expeditionary group with the name of an endangered tiger noted in its report that seven tigers were discovered in the Ussuriysky reserve, which covers an area of 468 square meters. The scientists' astonishment had no limits, because in such a small area the density of tigers hardened.After this joyful news, zoologists demanded an increase in the area of the reserve. Today its area is 40,432 hectares, and 41 tigers inhabit its territory.
What do tigers eat
The predator's diet consists mainly of ungulate herbivores. It can be a deer, an elk, a roe deer, and even a wild boar. However, with a long fasting predator will not sort out prey. In this state, not only small animals, such as a mouse, but even fruit of fruit trees will be eaten. On a successful hunt in places where a lot of deer or deer in a short period of time a tiger can gain a fat layer of 4-6 centimeters. Thanks to her, a wild beast can live close to the week only on the same water. Knowing what a tiger is during a hunger strike, it's better not to appear on his eyes.
How tigers hunt
Despite the huge size of a tiger, its strength and grace, its sense of smell and sight, only one of the twelve attempts on a potential victim becomes successful. It's all about dexterity and speed of movement of the victims. Researchers of Amur tigers point out that a huge predator very rarely pursues prey. It is much easier for a tiger to track a new victim than to chase the previous one.Therefore, tigers spend more time tracking, and then more on a long preparation for the jump.
Caution wild predator can only envy. Having found its prey, the beast is selected almost silently, while its back is arched, and the whole body practically lies on the ground. If the victim is small, the tiger, holding its paw, simply gnaws at her throat, if the victim is large, for example, it is a deer, then the beast floods the ungulate with his whole body, and only then gnaws his neck, making it impossible for the herbivore to live. Holding the whole carcass with two paws, the tiger tears off the pieces from the ungulate, and at the same time it does it lying down, like all types of cats.
Far Eastern tiger and man
Many believe that the Amur tiger is a direct threat to humans. But fortunately, this is not the case. The nature of this animal rewarded so that there is no human in its diet, but there are different types of ungulates, such as roe deer, boar or gazelle. But since the Ussuri tiger is a predator, it may, under unclear circumstances, consider human prey. But such cases are rare, and most often the person is to blame. Zoologists argue that for a healthy lifestyle, the Far Eastern tiger needs about 75 ungulates. Very often the Ussuri predators use cunning and do not hunt prey.Smelling the smell of people, including lumberjacks, tigers find traps set up in the forest or all sorts of traps for small animals, where prey have already been caught.
Sometimes you can hear the news that the next tiger has become a cannibal. It is difficult to disprove this fact, but it is worth considering that the tiger will not attack a person just like that; Although sometimes it is worth noting the fact that the animal could be hurt or was injured. A tiger will never go to the place where people live, and even more so will not kill them, because it is afraid of people.
Interesting facts about tigers
To describe such a magnificent creature is a pleasure. The Far Eastern tiger is too beautiful, strong, and apparently has such a charm that sometimes you forget about the fact that it is a deadly predator. It is for this reason that all veils need to be stated about this striped animal:
- A few hundred years ago, hunters and fishermen living near the Amur River were so afraid of this beast that they didn’t even say his name aloud. Realizing how strongly this creature they worshiped him, as a certain god who had power over everything that happens in the world, and as gratitude they brought him gifts in the form of dead deer.
- Chinese folk doctors have long believed that the bones and teeth of dead tigers have healing properties like rhino horns or mammoth tusks, and can heal from the most powerful ailment.
- The subspecies of the Amur tigers is listed in the red book because The population of these animals is very small.
- It strikes the most beautiful and at the same time the most deadly weapon of a tiger - its fangs. The old predator, they can grow up to 13 centimeters.
- Scientists have found that the most common method of killing herbivores is gnawing at the throat, but there are also cases when a predatory cat chokes a victim, leaning on its neck with its whole body.
- Jumping wild tiger can be entered in the book of records, because in length the predator is able to jump 6.5 meters. In height, on the same 5.1 meters.
- The speed of the tiger is also worthy of the book of records. The maximum recorded speed of the tiger was 68 kilometers per hour.
The Ussuri predator is able to accelerate to 60 km / h. - The black stripes on the forehead of the animal will not tell the Russian person anything, but in China they mean a hieroglyph that translates as “king”. Therefore, in the land of the rising sun, this is truly an ancient and powerful animal.
- It's no secret that shooting and hunting for Ussuri tigers is prohibited. For example, in China, for the killing of this beast is threatened with execution.
Video: Amur tiger (Panthera tigris altaica)
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