Introduction: Hoh Xil straddles Qinghai, Tibet, and Xinjiang, with a total area equal to the size of the United Kingdom. In the wilderness of Hoh Xil, in addition to rare animals such as Tibetan antelope, wild yak and Tibetan wild donkey, there is also a very cute wild animal, but it is often mistaken for Tibetan antelope. In fact, it is called Tibetan antelope.
Most of the water in spring has not thawed, only a few trickles, reflecting the clear blue sky of Hoh Xil as always. A group of Tibetan gazelle draped in brown fleece appeared by the river. Among them, a male Tibetan gazelle was courting a female and was about to use his body to rub the ears and temples of the female.
Suddenly, a large male Tibetan gazelle rushed towards this male Tibetan gazelle. The male Tibetan gazelle who courted, felt uncomfortable facing the big male rushing forward and turned and rushed out. The community, running not far away and looking back at a few females not far away, looking reluctantly...
Tibetan gazelle is a typical alpine desert animal, unique to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Distributed in China's Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Xinjiang and other places; abroad, distributed in the alpine mountains of Ladakh and Sikkim in India.
01 When escaping, the snow-white buttocks are like a mirror hanging behind you.
Tibetan gazelle belongs to the bovid gazelle genus, and is also called Tibetan yellow goat, Tibetan gazelle, gazelle, and small antelope. It also has a very vivid name: White Butt, which the locals also call it "mirror sheep", because when it runs and jumps, its snow-white butt looks like a heart-shaped mirror hanging behind it in the sun.
This petite and elegant animal is shorter than the Przewalski's gazelle, small and exquisite, compact, slender and slender, adult body length is 84-105 cm, shoulder height is 55-65 cm, tail is 8-9 cm, and weight is 11 -16 kg.
It has a short and wide snout, a high forehead, a pair of round and large eyes, and a pair of downwind ears that are narrow and pointed; the teeth are relatively small, and the upper teeth have well-developed back horns to form protruding teeth; female sheep do not With long horns, only male sheep have horns. Male sheep have slender horns, with small separation between the horns.
Tibetan gazelle coats all over, with a thick layer, very dense, straight and slightly sturdy coat; especially the coat on the buttocks and hind legs is stiff and elastic, and the coat on the lower limbs is short, close to skin.
Its body hair is changeable. The hair color on the forehead and the lower limbs is relatively light and off-white; but the body hair on the face, snout, neck and back, sides and legs is earthy brown to dark brown, which looks very close from a distance under sunlight Sandy yellow; chest, abdomen, and inner legs are milky white; the underside and side of the tail are white, and the back and tip of the tail are black. What exactly does
02 "love white butt" do?
The brown Tibetan gazelle in Hoh Xil has a white "love white butt" on the buttocks. It is naturally formed by the hair on the butt of the Tibetan gazelle. It is present in every Tibetan gazelle regardless of male and female, and its shape is very neat. What is interesting about
is that its large, heart-shaped white hip spots and small black tail also form an M shape. When running, the vertical hair will spread out, and there will be a red-brown stripe on the edge. The existence of
is reasonable. What is the use of this "white butt"? Some zoologists analyzed that this should not be a disguise, because it is white and dazzling; nor is it for courtship, because there are both males and females. The opinion of some experts in
is that animal hip spots must have unique functions, otherwise it would not have evolved into this way. The white buttocks of the Tibetan gazelle are probably used to convey a message to their companions. As for what to pass, no scholar has reached a conclusion yet.
Others believe that the white buttocks, combined with the various postures of the tail, generally means surrender to the strong and avoid unnecessary struggles within the species.
A mainstream theory is that when the Tibetan gazelle evades its predators, its jumping white buttocks will shake the eyes of predators such as wolves. The reasons for this view are: first, the ultraviolet rays in the plateau area are very strong, when the sun shines on the white heart-shaped hips of the Tibetan gazelle, it will form a dazzling reflected light; secondly, when it runs and jumps, the white heart-shaped hips The pattern is like a continuously shaking mirror, constantly reflecting the dazzling sunlight into the wolf’s eyes; finally, when a burst of strong light strikes, the fierce predator will lose its eyesight in an instant, and the Tibetan gazelle takes the opportunity Escape.
03 I am a Tibetan antelope, not a Tibetan antelope! z1Z
Tibetan antelope is one of the cloven-hoofed genus unique to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Tibetan antelope and Tibetan antelope have the same body shape, the same brown fur, and the fame of Tibetan antelope because of overlapping areas and similar names. The antelope is large, so the Tibetan gazelle is often misunderstood as a Tibetan antelope.
Actually, the difference between Tibetan antelope and Tibetan antelope is quite big. The staff of the Hoh Xil Reserve concluded that there are 6 points:
One, the most obvious difference lies in the striking white butt of the Tibetan antelope, the Tibetan antelope. There is a white heart-shaped hair on her bottom, but the Tibetan antelope does not.
Second, the Tibetan antelope looks smaller than the Tibetan antelope. The Tibetan antelope is smaller than the Tibetan antelope, and the Tibetan antelope is more robust and much larger than the Tibetan antelope.
Third, the coat color of the Tibetan antelope in winter is greenish, while the coat color of the Tibetan antelope is reddish and warmer; the forehead of the Tibetan antelope looks white, while the male Tibetan antelope changes into a black face during the winter estrus... …Z1z
Fourth, the Tibetan antelope always likes to erect its big windy ears, while the ears of the Tibetan antelope are not so conspicuous.
Fifth, the horns of the male Tibetan antelope are bent back into an arc, looking like a sickle, while the horns of the male Tibetan antelope are long and straight, and only bend at the top.
Sixth, from the perspective of personality, the Tibetan antelope feels more lively and lighter, like a twelve or three-year-old boy; in contrast, the Tibetan antelope, especially the female Tibetan antelope, is slightly dull, like a six Seventy-year-old man.
04 Female sheep generally live alone, but male sheep live in groups. The
Tibetan gazelle is distributed in low-density and small groups throughout the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. For most of the year, female and male Tibetan gazelle basically live separately.
In different seasons, Tibetan antelopes will form groups of different sizes. Male Tibetan antelopes generally form small groups of 2-8, and large groups of more than 20 are generally rare.
This is because the food in Hoh Xil is very scarce. Large clusters will increase the food competition between individuals within the cluster, and the lone sheep will face a greater risk of hunting, and the cluster size of 2-8 can take into account the risk of hunting and killing. Can avoid individual competition and balance the two.
The strange thing is that female Tibetan gazelle doesn't like to live with females. They are generally scattered, more like single mothers, living alone with their cubs. Especially in the breeding season, in addition to "falling in love and mating" with the male, the female Tibetan gazelle lives alone after being pregnant.
Some experts said that after the female Tibetan gazelle is pregnant, the male Tibetan gazelle stays away from the female and the female herd. On the one hand, it is to ensure sufficient food resources for the female and larvae; on the other hand, because the male individual has consumed it during mating. With a lot of physical strength, the ability to defend against enemies is weakened, so it forms a relatively concentrated cluster that can jointly defend against enemies. However, he has such a big heart, he is not afraid that the female Tibetan gazelle will be eaten by the wolf?
05 found natural enemies and fled, and jumped up from time to time when running. The main natural enemy of
Tibetan gazelle is mainly the wolf. Due to their small size, Tibetan antelopes tend to be the first prey of wolves; of course, jackals, snow leopards, lynxes and brown bears will also attack them; of course, steppe eagles, golden eagles, alpine vultures and vultures also prey on their young .
Don't look at the cuteness of Tibetan gazelle, their agility is amazing. Although its sense of smell is not very sensitive, it has excellent hearing and vision, and it can detect enemies even 3 kilometers away. Once
finds natural enemies, they will run away soon. It is said that it can reach about 80 km/h in a few seconds and can run for 2-3 hours in a row. When
ran, his ears fell backwards, his short tail was cocked, his heart-shaped white butt looked upside-down, and the little black tail dotted in the middle was still swinging from side to side. The posture was also quite interesting, which made people bear Can't help but want to laugh. The funny thing about
is that he jumps up from time to time while running. You know, every time the Tibetan gazelle jumps upwards, it consumes a lot of energy and its running speed is much reduced. After
waits a certain distance, it will stop and look back to see if the natural enemy is still chasing it. If natural enemies are still chasing behind, they will continue to flee until they are far away from danger.
However, its courage is also quite big, often after throwing away the enemy for a certain distance, while grazing calmly, while looking back, it gives people a sense of unhurriedness.
06 do not eat carex, not only eat morning and evening, but also eat Chinese food
TibetanThere are three peaks of foraging for gazelle. Early morning and evening are the main feeding times. During this period, they often go to lakes and rivers to drink. In addition to morning and twilight, there is also a foraging peak between 11 am and 13 am. It seems that it has to eat Chinese food.
Food is abundant in summer and autumn. Tibetan gazelle spends most of the day resting in low and secluded places; in winter and spring when food conditions are poor, they are foraging most of the day during the day. They need to get enough food. They often move to sunny and sheltered valleys or hills to inhabit.
Tibetan gazelle is a ruminant animal that feeds on various grasses. They most like to feed on legumes, Cyperaceae, and grasses such as dicotyledons and Artemisia edulis. However, the small Tibetan antelope is far less resistant to coarse food than the Tibetan antelope, and cannot tolerate low-quality plants, such as the caress in northern Qiangtang and Hoh Xil.
Different phenological periods, the dietary habits of Tibetan gazelle change significantly. Leguminosae and Rosaceae accounted for significantly lower proportions in the grass dry period than in the grass green period, while the proportions of Gramineae, Compositae and Cyperaceae were significantly higher than Grass green period.
07 The cubs can run with the ewe within 3 days of birth.
Tibetan gazelle breeds once a year. By the end of November, it is also the love season for Tibetan gazelle. At this time, the female Tibetan gazelle came down from a high place and began to mix with the male Tibetan gazelle. At this time, the female and female Tibetan gazelle gathered together and began to live in groups. In order to show their own excellence in front of females, males always take the trouble to launch a chasing battle within the group, and gain a ray of love from their sweetheart by showing their superiority. Once the male Tibetan gazelle succeeds in courtship, they will quickly mate with the female. The average gestation period of
female Tibetan gazelle is 165-180 days, most of them give birth in June to August, usually 1 litter per litter, and occasionally there are 2 litters. Z1z
’s newly born cubs follow their mothers and can run around with the ewe within 3 days of birth. The male Tibetan gazelle grows to about 10 cm in horns in 12 months after birth. Generally, the Tibetan gazelle is sexually mature in the third year after birth.
As a national secondary protected animal,
can be seen almost everywhere on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. However, due to the interference of human factors such as reclamation and mining, and the increasing phenomenon of excessive hunting and hunting, its number has dropped sharply. The number is between 20,000 and 50,000. In recent years, heavy snowstorms, stray dogs, and domestic animal-borne diseases have inadvertently pushed this humble, petite and elegant animal to extinction.
Xueling Valley Animal Laboratory/produced by
Reference materials: China Science News, China Zoology, China Green Times, Nature Exploration, Sichuan Animals, China Forestry Net, China Wildlife Conservation Association, Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences
