I have a wildlife zoo

Her eyes looked towards the tourists, revealing a dignified presence in their calmness that drew cries of amazement and admiration from several visitors.

Through the dark green, murky water, one could still faintly see her limbs stirring beneath the surface. Suddenly, she started playing with a piece of floating bark, pelting it with her paws. She blinked to avoid the splashing water and sent the bark sinking before swimming forward gracefully.

Wang Jinxuan felt a rush of excitement and wanted to share her feelings. But turning around, she saw Yuan Yu was still queuing.

Her attention, originally focused on watching the tiger, was now somewhat diverted.

At that moment, her gaze was captured by a large educational display board hanging on the wall between two glass curtain walls. It featured an image of a ferocious tiger mid-roar, and she couldn\'t help but walk over to take a closer look.

"Tigers are the largest and most awe-inspiring of the big cat family; they are powerful predators, known for their extraordinary strength and agility..."

Beside it were several smaller pictures, each detailing the capabilities of various parts of the tiger!

Seeing the golden fur, Wang Jinxuan thought of a question she had never considered before, and a doubt arose in her mind. Right, with such conspicuous coloration, how do tigers hunt?

"To human eyes, a tiger\'s fur appears golden, but the majority of mammals, including the main prey of tigers like deer, horses, and sheep, are red-green colorblind and do not perceive bright red or orange hues.

Through their eyes, the golden fur is nearly indistinguishable from the color of trees, allowing the tiger to blend in with its surroundings and stalk its prey."

"So that\'s how it is!"

Wang Jinxuan had an epiphany and then thought, "Does this mean the red fur of the red panda is also a form of camouflage?"

The evolution of these creatures is truly fascinating.

Her interest piqued, she began wandering around the exhibition, looking at other educational displays.

One particularly noticeable display asked, "Why protect tigers?"

Wang Jinxuan could guess some of the reasons; she had learned in high school biology that producers, consumers, decomposers all play their roles, and a complete ecosystem can\'t function without any of them.

But her understanding was limited to that.

"Living in the forest, tigers are carnivorous and reign supreme at the top of the food chain.

Their main prey includes wild boar, deer, and wild sheep. They control the population of these herbivores, preserving the forest\'s vegetation.

If there were no predators like tigers in the forest, a chain reaction would ensue.

With no natural predators to keep them in check, herbivore populations would rapidly increase, leading to large-scale consumption of plants in the forest, affecting other animals and plants that depend on this vegetation.

Eventually, unchecked herbivore populations would collapse due to disease and starvation, leading to the collapse of the entire forest ecosystem."

More and more news stories about wild boar overpopulation, damaging crops, and even harming human beings are emerging, mainly due to the lack of natural tiger predation.

Protecting a single tiger can maintain a healthy and balanced state in the forest ecosystem within its territory.

A healthy forest purifies the air, cleanses water sources, and prevents landslides and mudslides, whereas an unhealthy forest may lead to animal sicknesses, potentially promoting zoonotic diseases.

Based on a study in South America, in areas where jaguars frequently appear, locals have a decreased chance of contracting diseases like HIV and avian influenza.

These large feline predators can control disease outbreaks caused by herbivores, thus preventing diseases from spilling over to humans.

"If we do a good job in protecting tigers, then the ultimate beneficiaries are not just the tigers themselves but also the forests and other animals, as well as us humans."

Wang Jinxuan suddenly gained a solemn respect for tigers upon realizing that they were not just fierce and beautiful creatures but also played such an important role in the ecosystem that calling them the guardians of the forest wasn\'t an exaggeration.

Originally, she only liked cute animals like red pandas and didn\'t have any special feelings for tigers, but now she suddenly found herself liking tigers as well. The feelings were different; she admired tigers more!

Protecting animals and nature, the concept that green mountains and clear waters are as valuable as mountains of gold and silver, had been heard many times, but it never really sank in with practical feeling.

Some even think that humans have evolved to become the rulers of the planet just so that they can freely control other living beings, don\'t they?

Tigers, leopards, wolves—these animals are menaces! Should we not eradicate them completely and dare to coexist with them? .net

The Earth is human territory; where is there space for these unruly beasts to survive?

It would be best to capture them all and put them in zoos and circuses, turning them into spectacles and playthings to perform tricks like jumping through hoops, to display the might of humankind.

This lack of respect for nature and the supremely arrogant mindset of humans have already led to numerous severe disasters.

The growing number of emerging viruses is largely the result of ecological destruction and the wildlife trade.

As humans encroach on the wild, the risk of new epidemics breaking out has greatly increased.

However, even now, there are still many people who have not come to realize this.

This attitude is like a child waving a torch, carelessly setting fire inside the house they live in; they\'re happy to see the pillars catch fire, but when the flames grow too large and the house collapses, it\'s too late for regrets and tears.

Wang Jinxuan took a few more steps and looked at a nearby exhibition board titled "The Current Status of Tigers."

"About 2 million years ago, the tiger originated in central China.

Out of the eight subspecies of tigers, the Bali tiger, Caspian tiger, and Javan tiger have become extinct.

Only the Amur tiger, South China tiger, Indochinese tiger, Bengal tiger, and Sumatran tiger remain.

A hundred years ago, there were over 100,000 wild tigers roaming the wilderness, but now the number has plummeted to less than 4,000.

Our country\'s current total number of wild tigers is less than 100. (Optimistically estimated, the conservative figure is less than 30.)"

Wang Jinxuan was shocked by these alarming numbers, her eyes widened in disbelief: "Are there only so few tigers left now?"

She had just learned that tigers are the guardians of the forest, and now it turned out that the guardians had fallen.

"The South China tiger, the ancestor of all tiger subspecies, also known as the Chinese tiger, is a subspecies unique to China.

The South China tiger was actually not limited to the southern regions; it once ranged across northern, eastern, and central China.

Due to human activity and hunting, their habitat drastically shrank to the southern regions, thus earning the name South China tiger. Its rarity far exceeds that of the giant panda.

At the founding of the People\'s Republic of China, there were still 4,000 South China tigers. In just 20-30 years, that number dwindled to 40, a 99% decrease.

After 1986, the last sighting of a live South China tiger was in Anren, Hunan, and since then, no confirmed records of wild South China tigers have been found. Only a few captive tigers remain in zoos, barely clinging to survival.

The less than fifty South China tigers kept in zoos nationwide, due to multiple generations of inbreeding, have shown severe signs of degeneration in their vital characteristics.

From a biological standpoint, when a species\' population drops below a thousand, the likelihood of natural reproduction becomes virtually nil.

..."

The heavy lines of text on the educational exhibition boards made Wang Jinxuan sigh deeply.