Today is the king of beasts. What happened to the tiger more than 70000 years ago? How did the various subspecies of modern tigers evolve into what they look like today? Over the past hundred years, human activities have "shrunk" the territory and sharply reduced the population of tigers. How to protect tigers and let tigers "regain their prestige"? Zhang Jinshuo, deputy curator of the National Animal Museum, said that although tigers have existed for a long time, modern genetic diversity research shows that the ancestors of modern tigers are only more than 100000 years old at most. Some people believe that this may be related to the eruption of Toba volcano on Sumatra island more than 70000 years ago. The volcanic eruption caused the earth to fall into winter for several years, and many animals, including tigers, suffered heavy losses. Fortunately, there are still very small tiger populations left. How did the various subspecies of the modern tiger evolve? Sun Boyang, an associate researcher at the Institute of vertebrates and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that according to the latest research results of DNA molecular evolution, among the various subspecies of modern tigers, the Sumatran tiger was the first to differentiate, which was separated from other subspecies more than 67000 years ago. Since then, Bengal tigers differentiated about 52000 years ago. About two years ago, there were two branches. One branch was divided into Indochina tiger and Malay tiger about 27 thousand years ago. Another branch was divided into northeast tiger and Southern China tiger about 33 thousand years ago. Tens of thousands of years ago, the "top disaster" in nature did not make the tiger disappear, but human activities increasingly occupied the survival field of the tiger, sharply compressed their living space and made the tiger no longer "prestige". Over the past century, the number of several tiger subspecies has decreased sharply, and the tiger has been listed as an endangered species by the red list of endangered species of the World Conservation Union. In China, the South China tiger has basically disappeared in the wild, and the existing more than 240 South China tigers are raised in captivity; The Amur tiger was once widely distributed in the whole northeast region, but its number decreased sharply due to habitat destruction and other reasons. The survey of precious wild animal resources in Heilongjiang Province from 1974 to 1976 showed that the Amur tiger had disappeared in Daxinganling region. How to make tiger tiger "regain its prestige"? Zhang Feng, senior engineer of Chongqing Geological Exploration Bureau and doctor of paleontology, believes that the protection of tigers is urgent and has a long way to go. The territory of a South China tiger needs at least 8 kilometers of forest, and there are also 200 sika deer, 300 wild sheep and 150 wild boars in the territory. If we want to restore 1000 adult South China tiger populations, it is very difficult to consider only the forest area to be restored. "To protect tigers, we need to start from three aspects: protecting the diversity of tigers, protecting tiger habitats and promoting tiger culture. Now people have established July 29 as' global tiger day 'every year, and tiger protection has achieved initial results." Zhang Feng said. At present, China's forest coverage has increased from 12% in the early 1980s to 23.04%, and the forest volume has exceeded 17.5 billion cubic meters. The continuous growth of forest resources provides more adequate habitat for wild animals. In October 2021, China officially established the first batch of national parks, including the northeast tiger and leopard National Park. According to the data released in the same month, the number of Wild Amur tigers in the Amur tiger and leopard National Park has increased to 50 from 27 at the beginning of the pilot in 2017. On the eve of the Spring Festival this year, after decades, the traces of Wild Amur tigers reappeared in Daxinganling. (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit：Li Ling Responsible editor：Chen Jie
Source：Science and Technology Daily
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