Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 390 Our juicy little cabbage!

There were four or five Tibetan antelopes lying on the ground in front of us, and a brown bear dragged the corpse of a Tibetan antelope to the side and was eating it.

On the other side, a mother snow leopard with her two cubs ate while looking around vigilantly, while her two cubs ate without even raising their heads.

Judging from its size, this should be the snow leopard cub born last year. It is not even one year old yet and still needs to stay with its mother to learn various survival skills.

In addition, there were many vultures guarding nearby, eyeing the remaining Tibetan antelope carcasses.

It didn't look like the animals were killed by snow leopards or brown bears, so Yin Li dressed up and prepared to go over to see what was going on. If the animals died of disease or other causes, the bodies could not be allowed to be eaten by other wild animals, as this would cause irreparable losses.

Several people got off from other cars, and even Xiao Song was preparing to get off with a medical kit in his hand.

Chen Ying stopped her and took the medicine box from her.

"Duanmu, you drive the car. Xiaosong, don't go. Just wait in the car."

"Brother Ying, I can do it."

"What can you do? If I'm not here, then you should go. This is your job. But I'm here, so it's not your turn."

Xiao Song let go of his hand silently.

Chen Ying caught up with Yin Li in a few steps and distributed anti-epidemic masks and gloves to the team members.

"I'll go first, you guys come slowly and follow my gestures."

When faced with a brown bear that has just emerged from hibernation and a mother leopard with cubs, it is never too careful.

Chen Ying did not challenge the two top predators right away. He first approached a corpse that had been partially eaten by vultures.

After a brief observation, it was determined that the gazelle died from its claws.

After checking one by one, we found that they were all hunted by large carnivores.

What kind of animal would kill so many Tibetan antelopes in one go? And wouldn't the Tibetan antelopes run away, standing there waiting for you to kill them?

If it wasn't a single beast, then what other beasts would come together to kill their prey? Among the top big cats, only lions hunt in groups, while other large cats hunt alone.

Even if there was any killing, it would not be possible to continuously kill prey as large as the Tibetan antelope.

Judging from the distribution of the prey, if the corpses were not dragged after death, the distances between them would not be far. For these Tibetan antelopes, they should have died at about the same time.

The female snow leopard stared at Chen Ying's hand coldly. After making sure that he did not steal the food from her and her children, she swept her long tail across his knees, signaling him to leave quickly.

Chen Ying slowly retreated, and only after reaching a certain distance did he look at the brown bear farthest away.

He did not check the body of the Tibetan antelope because he did not dare to provoke the bear, which had been hungry for the whole winter.

Take samples and take photos.

After finishing the work, everyone returned to the car.

“Brother Ying, we may have to set up camp here in advance. Although these Tibetan antelopes don’t look like they died of illness, this situation is too rare. We must find out the reason.”

Chen Ying understood that she couldn't ignore other dangers just because Erniu wasn't in danger yet.

Although he was emotionally tormented, his reason told him that Yin Li was right.

The campsite was not far from the body of the Tibetan antelope, with a slope behind it, providing some shelter from the cold wind.

Standing on the roof of the car, you can use a telescope to clearly see the eating behavior of the three snow leopards and brown bears.

The brown bear left first, and it packed up the uneaten meat and took it away.

Studies have shown that brown bears have the habit of hiding food, although they often forget about it.

The mother and her two snow leopard cubs ate with their stomachs bulging, and if one snow leopard was not enough, they would have another.

Under normal circumstances, a snow leopard can survive a week without hunting after a full meal. Even if they want to have a snack, they can still eat rabbits and marmots.

The three snow leopards kept eating until night fell and then slowly left.

Behind them is a carnival of scavengers.

Chen Ying asked Yin Li to borrow the drone and flew it twice in the direction he guessed, but still could not find the target.

Duanmu came over and said, "Brother Ying, don't worry. I believe Erniu will not be in danger. She is the messenger of the Snow Mountain Goddess."

Chen Ying glanced at him, shook his head and chuckled.

I understand, but I am still worried.

At around one in the middle of the night, the weather suddenly changed, and strong winds mixed with hail fell on us.

When the tent was almost unable to hold up, the wind finally gradually died down.

When the hail stopped, everyone carefully opened the tent door, and a bunch of ice marbles rolled in.

The big ones are as big as quail eggs, and the small ones are about the size of peanuts.

"Fortunately, the hail was small this time. If it was bigger, the tent would have been scrapped." Patrol member Lao Yang grabbed a handful of ice marbles and sighed, "That year I was still in the old management bureau, and I went out with the captain, and we also encountered hail."

"Oh my god, the ice marbles were as big as ping-pong balls and as big as thumbs. The tent was destroyed in less than ten minutes, and even the windshield of our car was shattered. If the station hadn't been worried and came out to look for us, I'm afraid we would have been left in the no-man's land that time."

(In 20, Maqin, Qinghai was hit by a hailstorm with the largest hail reaching 40 mm, setting a record)
While listening to their conversation, Chen Ying climbed onto the roof of the car, ready to take another look at the surroundings.

As soon as I climbed up and before I could stand firmly, I saw a leopard crawling out from under the chassis of the car next to me.

"Ahh, Two-legged beast, are you looking for me?" The leopard looked disheveled, with a collar around his neck.

Chen Ying suddenly burst into tears, slid down the car, and hugged Erniu.

I stroked it all from head to tail.

Sure enough, Erniu's belly was much bigger than before.

Yin Li heard the noise and hurried out to check. When he saw Erniu appear in front of him, he couldn't help but rush over excitedly and rubbed her hard.

"You silly leopard, where have you been these days? We couldn't find you anywhere. Do you know how worried we were?"

Erniu didn’t quite understand what Yin Li said, but it didn’t matter. This biped was also a good person and could make warm nests and delicious food for them.

Erniu shook her head and licked the back of Yin Li's hand gently.

The rough tongue made Yin Li feel more real.

"Go in quickly, it's so cold outside and she's a pregnant woman."

Erniu stepped into the tent and felt a little uncomfortable because there were so many people inside.

Chen Ying led it to a corner and let it lie inside, while he sat outside to block the sight of others for it.

Xiao Song has already prepared the ultrasound machine, which has sufficient power to perform the examination.

"Wow, our second girl is amazing. There are four little ones in her belly?"

Yin Li was watching the fun from the side. He felt very happy that Erniu could have so many children.

But Chen Ying and Xiao Song's expressions were not very good. Duanmu also came over to carefully identify the situation of the cubs.

"Let me do it. This cub might have some problems."

Duanmu took the probe and operated it again.

"Currently, we can clearly see that there are four cubs, but only two of them are of normal size and development, and the other two are too small."

Snow leopards usually have 2-3 cubs in a litter, and occasionally 4 or 5 cubs, but there is basically no record of all of them surviving.

As for the snow leopards with cubs that Chen Ying and his friends saw, there were at most three of them, and usually only two cubs.

Erniu's health was not particularly good to begin with. After all, she had suffered too much congenital damage, and the gap could not be made up by later remediation.

Normally, before a female leopard gives birth, the male leopard will stay with her and provide food for the mother and child, who have a hard time hunting in the late pregnancy. The male leopard will not leave until the cub is weaned and enters the estrus period.

But Chen Ying had observed carefully just now, and except for Erniu, there was no sign of any male leopard around. That is to say, after Erniu became pregnant, she would have to rely on herself for all hunting.

It must have a hard time hunting since it carries so much food. Small animals such as rabbits and marmots cannot provide the nutrition it needs.

The more Chen Ying thought about it, the angrier she became. The corners of her eyes turned red, and she had the urge to drag the wild boar that had eaten her cabbage to pieces.

But the problem is, he still doesn't know where the pig that stole his cabbage is!

MD, the more I think about it, the angrier I get!
Erniu seemed to sense Chen Ying's anger. She gently placed her paw on the back of Chen Ying's hand, and looked at him with clear and innocent eyes. The corners of her mouth were slightly raised, as if her heart was full of joy.

"My dear, how could you be so stupid?"

Chen Ying picked up its big head and rubbed it gently.

"Come back with me, I will take care of you until you give birth to the baby."

Chen Ying also wanted to try to apply to take Erniu away and put her on the snow-capped mountains of Jiamugou, so that at least she wouldn't have to be separated for several months.

After finding Erniu, Chen Ying was focused on providing it with nutrition, but problems arose again.

The patrol was less than two-thirds done, so they couldn't leave alone at this time. But if Erniu was with them, hunting would be a big problem.

Snow leopards can attack Tibetan antelopes, Tibetan gazelles and Tibetan wild donkeys, but they cannot. Therefore, how to solve the food problem for Erniu has become a major problem for the forest patrol team.

Erniu didn't seem to be too bothered and didn't go hunting the whole next day.

Chen Ying and the others just thought that it had eaten enough before and could last for a day or two.

Normally, a snow leopard can eat enough for five days for one meal. Since it is a pregnant leopard, it should be able to eat enough for three days, right?

If you have only eaten rabbits, marmots and the like before, it probably won't last more than three days, and you will need to hunt once every day.

The next night, when Chen Ying was considering whether to help catch two wild rabbits to feed Erniu, the team member in charge of alert issued a warning that a wild animal was approaching.

(End of this chapter)