Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, July 29th (Reporter Hu Lu) July 29th is Global Tiger Day. The reporter learned from National Forestry and Grassland Administration that the latest monitoring shows that there are about 60 wild Siberian tigers in China, a substantial increase from about 20 in the 1990s, and the distribution area continues to expand.
Zhang Minghai, director of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration Cat Research Center, said that tigers are large carnivores, which are at the top of the food chain and have extremely high requirements for habitat conditions. The living condition of its population is one of the important signs of a healthy ecosystem.
Over the years, China has implemented a series of measures to protect tigers and their habitats, including completely stopping forest harvesting in northeast forest areas and listing them as national first-class protected wild animals; Establish various types of nature reserves such as Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park and Nature Reserve in the distribution area; Severely crack down on poaching, smuggling and illegal management of tiger products.
Feng Limin, deputy director of National Forestry and Grassland Administration Northeast Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center, said that before the establishment of Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park, the density of food chain in the forest was low, and it was difficult for the mother tiger to feed all her cubs. "Now, more than 50% of Siberian tiger cubs can survive to adulthood. The number of wild Siberian tigers in the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park has grown rapidly, showing a trend of migration and spread inland. "
Following the first discovery of the snow footprint, feces and moving images of the Siberian tiger in the Arctic Village National Nature Reserve in Daxing ‘anling on December 29th, 2021, the image data of the Siberian tiger was found again in the recycled infrared camera on May 30th, 2023. Relevant researchers said that this area may have become an important habitat for the discovered Siberian tiger.
In tiger protection, habitat restoration is the most critical. Affected by economic and social development, some habitats where tigers live are cut by highways and high-speed railways, which seriously affects their migration, settlement, proliferation and reproduction.
"The wild Siberian tigers distributed in China are mainly the large population of Sihot Alin and the small population of Baodi Park, which have moved back from Russia. At present, these two populations are still in a split state in Russia. With the ecological restoration of the Northeast Tiger habitat in China, especially the construction of the migration ecological corridor, these two populations may meet together in the future to promote the better survival and reproduction of the Northeast Tiger. " Zhang Minghai believes.
Zhang Minghai said that with the increase in the number of Siberian tigers and the expansion of their distribution areas, how to alleviate the conflict between humans and tigers is even more important. In the future, it is necessary to deeply study the behavior mechanism of tiger migration, explore the causes and preventive measures of human-tiger conflict in an all-round way, and provide an important basis for alleviating human-tiger conflict.
