Where did the Northeast Tiger come from? Why is it called "Wandashan 1"?

On April 23rd, 20021year, a Siberian tiger entered the village of Mishan City, Heilongjiang Province and was frightened and injured. After the tiger was anesthetized, it was sent to China Cat Breeding Center that night. It is a 2-3-year-old sub-adult male tiger. At present, it is in good health and named "Wandashan 1".

"Wandashan No.1" enters the village

Where did this tiger come from?

On April 24th, Science Network connected Associate Professor Feng Limin, deputy director of Northeast Tiger and Leopard Monitoring and Research Center of State Forestry and Grassland Administration, and made an exclusive interview with him. Teacher Feng concluded that this tiger is most likely from the West Hotelling region of Russia.

On April 26th, Heilongjiang Forestry and Grass Bureau held a press conference, at which it was said that the source of the tiger had not been determined, and it might not be from Russia.

This makes the masses who eat melons look embarrassed. Where did this tiger come from? Why are the two official notifications different?

In fact, the views of the two official briefings are the same.

For human beings, nationality is very important; But tigers can cross national boundaries at will, so tigers are grouped regardless of nationality.

In an exclusive interview, Mr. Feng said that there are currently three populations of Siberian tigers: large population, small population and wild population.

With a large population, living in the Sikhotalin area of Primorsky Krai, Russia, it is estimated that there are 500-550 Siberian tigers, accounting for more than 90% of the total number of Siberian tigers in the world; Tigers of this species sometimes cross the Wusuli River and enter the Wandashan area in the east of Heilongjiang Province.

The population is small, living in the cross-border areas in the southeast corner of the Sino-Russian border, including the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park and the Russian Leopard National Park, with about 50 Siberian tigers.

Wild populations, living in the Russian Jewish Autonomous Prefecture and Amur Prefecture, are not naturally formed, but are formed here by wild individuals rescued by Russia. There are more than a dozen Siberian tigers in this population, and some of them will cross the river and enter Xiaoxing 'anling area in northern Heilongjiang Province. The male tiger who killed the black bear in Taipinggou in 2020 came from this population.

The incident took place in Hulin Village, Baiyuwan Town, Mishan City, which is located in the east of Heilongjiang Province, south of Wanda Mountain, closest to Xihaote Alin, and connected by an ecological corridor. Therefore, Mr. Feng speculated that this tiger was "most likely a large population from the nearest Hotalin area in western Russia".

The wild population is too far away from the incident, and there is no ecological corridor for tigers to use, so it is directly excluded; As for the "Northeast Tiger Leopard-Leopard Land", the population is small and far away from the incident, and a research team (Mr. Feng is one of them) is constantly monitoring it. Experts are familiar with the patterns of every tiger. There is no such tiger there.

Schematic diagram of three Siberian tiger populations in Russia, where the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park is located.

Therefore, Mr. Feng's inference is very rigorous.

At the press conference in Heilongjiang province, the official informed that at present, it can only be determined that the tiger has been wandering on the Sino-Russian border recently, and it is impossible to determine which country it comes from. Only by extracting tiger stripes and DNA samples and comparing them with the existing databases in China and Russia can they be finally determined. If there is no tiger in the database of both countries, the source can only be inferred according to the order of discovery.

According to the press conference, this tiger was found in the southwest hills of Wanda Mountain. Although there have been no tigers around for many years, there are still traces of wandering male tigers in Wandashan area in recent years. Therefore, this tiger was named "Wandashan No.1".

Wandashan No.1 was controlled.

In other words, two possibilities were given at the press conference. One possibility is that tigers come from the Russian West Hotalin population, and the other possibility is that tigers are native to Wanda Mountain.

This communique is official and logically correct.

But the problem is that there is no settled tiger population in Wandashan area for a long time. No females have been found here for decades, only a few males are wandering. Even if this Xiao Xiong tiger lives in Wanda Mountain temporarily, it still needs a source. It won't be born by the orange cat in the village, will it?

Tigers in Wandashan Mountain are all wandering from the Russian West Hotalin population.

At present, there is only a male tiger in Wandashan, but there is no female tiger, so the male tiger will not live long, just wandering. In other words, all tigers in Wandashan have "hukou" of Xihaote Alin. Even if "Wandashan 1" is active in Wandashan area recently, it will return to Xihaote Alin to "marry" sooner or later, and the tigress who gave birth to it will almost certainly come from Xihaote Alin.

On 24th and 26th, both official bulletins confirmed that the male tiger came from a large population of "Xihaote Alin-Wandashan", but the difference was that the former focused on the source (or birthplace) of the tiger, almost certainly Xihaote Alin; The latter focuses on the recent activities of tigers, which is really hard to say. It was really caught in China.

Wandashan No.1 is being quarantined.

Teacher Feng is a well-known scholar who studies the tiger and leopard in Northeast China. In an interview, he popularized the knowledge of the existing tiger population in Northeast China for our conscience and made reasonable inferences based on his knowledge. The press conference of Heilongjiang Forestry and Grass Bureau was an official speech, which only stated the incident and did not make further reasoning. The two sides use different words, but they are not contradictory. In fact, they are the same.

Tigers have no national boundaries. Judging from the global tiger protection strategy, it doesn't matter which country the tiger comes from. It is important that China and Russia should establish an effective cross-border protection mechanism to protect the endangered species Siberian tiger.