Is the Siberian tiger the largest carnivorous felid by body weight currently existing in the world?
Siberian tiger: also known as the Amur tiger, it is one of the subspecies of tiger. It is the largest carnivorous felid by body weight currently existing in the world, among which males can reach a body length of about 2.8 m, with a tail about 1 m long, and a maximum body weight of more than 350 kg.
In the wild, the Siberian tiger's coat is brownish yellow in summer fur and pale yellow in winter fur. The back and flanks have multiple horizontal rows of narrow black stripes, usually 2 close together forming a willow-leaf shape. The head is large and round, and the several black horizontal stripes on the forehead are often connected in the middle, closely resembling the character “” (king), hence the laudatory title “King of the Jungle&rdquo.
The Siberian tiger inhabits forests, shrublands and areas overgrown with wild grasses. It is solitary, non-sedentary, exhibits territorial behavior, and its range of activity can reach more than 100 sq km. It is nocturnal, with keen senses, fierce in nature, swift in movement, good at swimming and good at climbing trees, and rarely attacks humans. The Amur tiger mainly preys on medium and large mammals such as deer, sheep and wild boar, and also eats small mammals and birds. Its hunting method is ambush. The gestation period is 103 to 105 days, with 2 to 4 cubs per litter, giving birth once every two to three years; its lifespan in the wild is 15 to 17 years, with a maximum of 20 years, and under captive breeding conditions its lifespan is 20-25 years.
It is distributed in northeastern Asia, namely the Siberia region of Russia, the Korean Peninsula and Northeast China. Due to habitat destruction and poaching, as of statistics in early 2015, only within 500 wild Siberian tigers remained in the world.
Appendix: Siberia is a vast region in North Asia within the Russian Federation, stretching from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east, bordering the Arctic Ocean in the north, reaching the mountains of north-central Kazakhstan in the southwest, and neighboring China, Mongolia, the Korean Peninsula and other countries in the south, with an area of 12.76 million sq km; except for the southwestern end, it lies entirely within Russia. Some also take the watershed between the Arctic Ocean and Pacific Ocean drainage systems as its eastern boundary.
The name “Siberia” may come from Old Turkic, meaning “land of tranquility” another account is “Xianbei-ria&rdquo, derived from the Xianbei people; on ancient Chinese maps, Siberia was called “Luo Huang Ye” there is also a saying that the name “Siberia” comes from the Mongolian “Shibor&rdquo, meaning “muddy, miry place&rdquo. In ancient times, Siberia was a muddy place, and the Mongolian ancestors living here named the place after its terrain; when the Russians came, they transliterated this sound as “Siberia&rdquo.