What happened to the "Xionghu Villa" where 1, tigers were once allowed to do family planning?
In the picturesque Guilin area, there used to be a Xiongsen Xionghu Mountain Villa with more than 1,1 tigers, and another name of this mountain villa was Guangxi Rare and Endangered Wildlife Rescue Center and Breeding Base.
Different from other zoos, this villa was built by businessman Zhou Weisen with an investment of more than 3 million yuan. If you wander around this villa, you can see many kinds of tigers, such as Northeast Tiger, South China Tiger, Bengal Tiger and White Tiger, which are very rare in the wild. Even in other zoos, there may be only one or two species, which are not as complete as here.
Although there are so many tigers living here, and the number of tigers is so large, it is very rare. However, from the establishment to the demolition of this villa, the controversy surrounding it has never been broken.
Controversy of the Villa
When the boss Zhou Weisen invested in this villa, it was in the early 199s. The trade of tiger bones was not banned in China, and tiger bones were touted as "aphrodisiac" in Southeast Asia and China (in fact, it didn't have any effect), so Chinese patent medicines containing tiger bones, tiger bone wine and tiger bone powder were very sought after in the market, and the price was very high.
And at that time, wild animals could be "reasonably developed and utilized", so this mountain villa originally planned to protect tigers while making corresponding commodities from tigers that died naturally, so as to maintain the healthy operation of the mountain villa and even realize profits.
in 1993, in order to prohibit poaching and hunting, and to prevent poached tiger bones from being sold as natural dead tigers, China banned all trade activities of tiger bones, prohibited tiger bones from being used as medicine, and prohibited any commercial activities of tiger remains. This forced the villa to turn to another business model: selling tickets.
In 1997, the villa moved from Pingnan to Guilin, a tourist city, with the intention of using tourists from Guilin to boost the tourist volume of the villa. Moreover, in order to attract tourists, the villa also introduced bears, lions and other animals. However, unlike the expected hot scene, the number of tourists in the villa is small and the ticket income is limited. In addition, tigers are still mainly raised in the villa, and tigers feed on meat. A tiger spends more than 2,4 yuan a month, so that the food expenses of tigers need tens of millions of yuan every year. Due to the large number of tigers, the demand for food is large, which exceeds the operating capacity of the villa. In addition, the ticket income can not offset the tiger's food expenses, labor costs, operating expenses, etc., which makes the villa have a large funding gap.
In order to reduce the financial burden of the mountain villa, the mountain villa has to let these tigers implement the "family planning" policy, so that the tigers who have entered sexual maturity can postpone the first pregnancy time, and some female tigers who could have bred and bred will not participate in breeding. However, even so, more than 1 tiger babies will be welcomed in the mountain villa every year, and the number may quadruple if they are allowed to give birth.
Although the state regularly allocates funds to the villa, in order to prevent the abuse and misappropriation of funds, it is generally specified where the money can only be used. For example, China once allocated a sum of 7.5 million yuan to the villa for the expansion and scientific research of the tiger house, but the villa still has to worry about the food expenses of the tiger.
In order to relieve the pressure of the villa, the tigers here have to "work" to make money. The so-called work here refers to renting it to some zoos for exhibitions, so that the villa can not bear the food expenses when the tigers work, but also get an income to feed other tigers in the villa. However, this method has not completely solved the management crisis of the villa.
These tigers in the villa can neither be released into the wild without permission, nor can they be killed at will, nor can they starve to death on purpose, so the owner of the villa described himself as "riding a tiger".
Of course, the most controversial thing around the villa is bone tonic wine. Although this wine is not marked with tiger bones, it is controversial because it sells bone tonic wine while raising tigers.
Some experts believe that the large-scale captivity of tigers is likely to take the protection of tigers as an excuse, and the real goal is to pursue profiteering and sell tiger bone wine.
Controversy on Tiger Breeding
Although there are more than 1, tigers here and there are various kinds of tigers, according to experts, the villa has not bred tigers scientifically and reasonably.
The tiger's reproductive ability is actually very strong. In the wild, the tiger can give birth to 2-4 babies every time she is pregnant, but the living conditions in the wild are harsh, and only a few cubs can survive to adulthood.
tigers don't get estrus during brooding, and the tigress doesn't get estrus again until the cubs are about 18 months old. However, if the tigers die because of various accidents, they will be in heat in a short time, so if they want to increase the number of tigers quickly, they just need not be allowed to take care of their children themselves (it seems that not only humans feel tired of taking care of their children).
The reason why Xionghu Mountain Villa has so many tigers is probably that the tigers were over-bred in the early stage, which led to an excessive increase in the population, which led to a sharp increase in the subsequent feeding costs, so that the tigers had to take family planning measures in the later stage.
In addition to its strong reproductive ability, tiger subspecies are not completely isolated. For example, the South China tiger can cross with the Indo-Chinese tiger and give birth to hybrids.
Therefore, if there is no population gene file for tigers, it will easily lead to the hybridization of different species of tigers, so that the blood of tigers will be impure in the end. Professor Wang Yingxiang, a feline expert at Kunming Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, once said after seeing Xiongsen Xionghu Villa that there may not even be a pure South China tiger in the villa, which is very unfavorable for the genetic protection of South China tigers.
Where did Xionghu Mountain Villa go?
In p>219, due to the new policy planning, the Xionghu Villa in Guilin started to be demolished.
As for the relocation location of Xionghu Mountain Villa, a public announcement in 212 showed that Xionghu Mountain Villa will be relocated to Lingui District, where it will be built into a comprehensive service body integrating wild farming, scientific research, research and development of biological agents, production and tourism.