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[Wolverine]

(04-06-2017, 07:12 PM)peter Wrote:

(04-06-2017, 11:44 AM)Wolverine Wrote:

(03-29-2017, 06:23 AM)peter Wrote: The new National Park is not that far from the alleged former Imperial Hunting Reserve of the old rulers. It was a large and well-stocked reserve, that included the upper part of the Sungari River. The reserve was well protected for a number of centuries. This, according to some, was the reason the animals were larger than average. 

Peter, where is possible to find more information about the former Imperial Hunting Reserve you mentioned?

As I know for many centuries the rulers of Qing dynasty being themselves a Manchurians didn't allow to Han Chinese to settle and colonise Manchuria in order to protect motherland of their ancestors from "Chinefication", not for any "hunting" purposes. That restriction basically saved the Amur tiger.

I read about the Manchurians and the Han Chinese before. After World War Two, the Han Chinese moved to provinces south of the Jang-Tse in order to cultivate wild provinces like Hubei and Hunan. As there also was a government-sponsored program to severely limit the number of wild animals in that period (the Great Leap Forward), it resulted in a slaughter.

The first historical merit for saving of Amur tiger belong to Qing dynasty because it artificially prevented mass colonisation of million Chinese villagers of what is today Russian Ussuriland and North Eastern China until middle of 19th century. Thanks of that large forests of Manchuria remain intacted at that time when China was overpopulated.

Second merit ironically belong to Russian imperialism.... In the end of 19th century Russian Tzar Alexander II occupied and appropriate for Russian empire so called "Outer Manchuria" - todays Primorskiy kraj and Habarovskij kraj - land of the tigers. Inner Manchuria remain in Chinese hands and in the next decades and especially during communist Mao Czedung tens of millions Chinese were forcibly moved to Inner Manchuria totally destroying local forests and fauna and overpopulating the region. But Russian part of Manchuria remain relatively scarcely populated and forests there survived. Today population density in Russian Manchuria (Primorskij kraj) is only 11-12 persons per square km, but density in bordering Chinese part is 80 per square km - 7 times more. Chinese Manchuria is totally deforestated, all land is turned to rise fields, towns and urban landscape, in some arias there is no even single tree survived. In same time in Russian Ussuriland forests in general survived and the tigers too. Could you imagine what will be know Ussuriland now if Russian didn't ocupaed it 150 years ago?? So sometimes ironically Russian imperialism played positive role..... Reply