Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 403: Brainlessness is the most terrible

Once approved, the remaining work can start at any time as long as enough money is paid.

The good thing about the location of the rest stop is that it is not on the Tibetan antelope migration route, and there is a dirt road leading directly to it.

The bad thing is that if it rains, the road is extremely difficult to travel.

June to August every year is the rainy season in the uninhabited area. There is a thunderstorm almost every day, which lasts for one or two hours.

This time, Chen Ying did not follow the patrol team into Zhuonai Lake to protect the Tibetan antelopes. Instead, he turned his attention to other animals that had migrated away due to the large gathering of Tibetan antelopes.

In particular, a large number of Tibetan antelopes and a small number of black-necked cranes suddenly appeared around a seasonal lake near the side of the snow-capped mountains.

From June to August, when the snow and glaciers on the snow-capped mountains melt, the snow water gathers into the lakes at the foot of the mountains. The originally small lakes can "grow" several times in a short period of time. The overflowing water turns the surrounding grasslands into a swamp.

The breeding period of Tibetan antelopes is also in this season. They are not as "persistent" as Tibetan antelopes in giving birth in a certain place, so every time this season comes, you can occasionally see Tibetan antelopes giving birth.

This time, there are no less than a hundred black-necked cranes in the incubation period near the Tibetan antelope birthing grounds.

The nest of the black-necked crane is very simple, basically made of dead grass. They usually lay one or two eggs in each nest, which are raised by both male and female parents until the chicks hatch after 30 days.

The chicks can walk on the day they hatch, and they look so cute following their parents.

Don’t be fooled by the cuteness of the baby birds. When there are two of them in a nest, fighting becomes a daily routine for them.

Sleep, eat, fight, until life and death.

It is said that the survival rate within three days is only 60%. This behavior will not disappear until one and a half months later, when the chicks become sub-adults and begin to prepare for winter migration.

Chen Ying would certainly not interfere in the fights between the baby birds. What he had to do was to try his best to observe and determine the group's range of activities and living habits, and to be prepared for possible rescue.

The introductions in books and databases are always cold texts and pictures, and many details can only be filled in after he sees the real thing.

Chen Ying sat on the roof of the car, looking at the black-necked cranes foraging in the swamp from afar.

A lot of yaks also came down from the valley, about twenty or so, wandering on the grassland between the swamp and the valley.

The white yak also appeared. It was eating grass leisurely, with the little yak still following it.

A black-necked crane walked past the white yak, flapping its wings and singing loudly.

The yak just looked up at it blankly, turned around, and flicked its tail at it.

This bird is so annoying!
The car was parked far away so as not to disturb their peaceful life. After watching for a while, Chen Ying took his equipment and prepared to go up the mountain.

He had to go and see the location of the new home that Erniu had chosen for the children.

About seventy meters up, there is a rugged cliff.

There is dense grass below the cliff, and this is probably the place Erniu mentioned.

Chen Ying walked over with a trekking pole, parted the grass and observed the environment.

Sure enough, after walking about ten meters, he saw a relatively spacious crevice.

The gap between the stone and the ground is about one meter high, but there is a depression under the rock. The edge of the depression and the place where the rock protrudes are about half a meter apart, which is enough for a large snow leopard to enter and exit.

The key is that the grass is deep and leafy, and when viewed from the outside, the little snow leopard can be perfectly obscured.

The edge of the depression is also made of rock. There are about five small steps, each about five or six centimeters high, going down layer by layer.

At this height, the little snow leopard can go up and down easily.

After looking at it, Chen Ying looked up and decided to go up the mountain to take another look at the cave that the snow leopard had chosen.

Chen Ying has mastered the mountain climbing and rock climbing techniques.

After some effort, I climbed to the entrance of the cave, propped myself up and looked inside.

It was indeed the choice of an experienced snow leopard mother. The entrance doesn't look big, but it's about four or five square meters inside. The ground is flat, and the cave is relatively right-leaning, so the wind from the entrance can't blow straight into the cave. There is also a stone slab about 30 centimeters above, so rainwater won't flow into the cave easily.

Even if rainwater enters, the floor of the entire cave is slightly inclined, so the water will only flow out and will not accumulate in the cave.

After reading it, Chen Ying retreated to the ground, clapped his hands, and when he turned around, he saw a big snow leopard squatting behind him with its head tilted, its two big eyes full of confusion.

It looked up at the delivery cave passed down from its mother, then looked at the belly of the two-legged beast Chen Ying, and a question mark slowly appeared above its head.

"You're going to give birth?"

Chen Ying's eyes turned dark. He gritted his teeth, took a step forward, grabbed the snow leopard's cheeks, and rubbed them hard.

He hasn't been to the top of the mountain yet.

After climbing up, I found that it was the top of the mountain when viewed closely, but when zoomed in, the mountain was just a small mound of earth.

Go down fifty or sixty meters from the other side and walk along a long ridge, and you will reach the starting point of another mountain.

Moreover, the area of ​​the top of the mountain was much larger than he had imagined, with a hillside meadow about the size of two football fields.

After the big snow leopard came up, it went towards the pile of rocks, probably where it had its temporary den.

Chen Ying looked for a while and was about to go down the mountain when he saw a small head popping out of a very hidden cave about five meters in front of him.

Its short, fat and round body and thick hair make it easy to tell its species at a glance.

I didn't expect there are caracals here. Chen Ying immediately raised her phone and took a photo of the slowest cat on the plateau.

When the caracal runs, it sometimes really looks like a cassette tape, suddenly stopping in mid-air for a moment, then continuing to trot, and then getting stuck again.

Don't think it's easy to stroke just because it moves slowly and looks silly.

It can be said that you can pet a snow leopard as a big cat, and if you have a good relationship with it, you can even hold it while sleeping.

But the caracal is an aggressive guy by nature. No matter how long you have been with it, it will turn hostile to you without any hesitation.

The caracals in Qingye are cared for and raised by humans. They are not gentle at all and you have to be on guard against them scratching you at all times.

But snow leopards are different. Those marshmallow-like little guys are so soft and cute that they can drown you in their tenderness.

The camera follows the manul.

It came out of the hole, shook its fur, licked its paws, and stood beside the cave, looking around.

About ten meters away from it, two plateau pikas were feasting on plant roots.

The caracal slowly approached the pika, and the dense grass in summer became its best cover.

When they were more than one meter away from the pika, the two rabbits seemed to sense the danger coming. One of them propped itself up and looked left and right vigilantly.

The caracal crouches down, its gray-white fur camouflaged as a stone when it is motionless, perfectly blending into the surrounding environment.

The pika didn't notice where the danger was, so it lay down again and continued eating.

Close, close again.

Chen Ying's palms were sweating, and the camera followed the target firmly. The rare scene of the caracal hunting the pika was about to be recorded.

It happened in an instant. The moment the caracal pounced, the two pikas swiftly separated and dodged, and the poor caracal was caught between the two rabbits.

This precise mistake shocked Chen Ying.

If it had been just ten centimeters off, a pika would have been in its mouth.

Before the caracal could react, two pikas nimbly crawled into a cave not far away.

The last one to enter turned around and looked at the caracal with its mouth wide open. It was hard to tell whether it was laughing or cursing.

This scene left the other onlookers at a loss for words.

For example, Chen Ying holding a mobile phone, the two vultures resting nearby, and the Tibetan fox with most of its body covered by rocks and grass not far away.

The caracal was furious, but only for a moment, then he got up and began to lick his nose and paws.

Chen Ying held back her laughter and slowly retreated.

Back in the car, Sun Qihai's voice came from the intercom, saying that a herdsman called the station and found a newborn Przewalski's gazelle cub abandoned by its mother in the valley on the edge of the experimental pasture.

Chen Ying immediately turned the car around and headed straight for the place where the police were called.

Przewalski's gazelle is known as the "giant panda running on the grassland" and is one of the most endangered wild animals in the world.

However, the latest investigation shows that Przewalski's gazelle does not live here at all. How could a baby Przewalski's gazelle suddenly appear?
Chen Ying's first reaction was that the herders had made a mistake, mistaking the Tibetan antelope cub for a Przewalski's antelope cub.

But on second thought, that’s not the case. The herdsmen have lived here for many years, how could they make a mistake?

No matter what, let’s go over and take a look at the situation first.

We called Chen Ying and the others because they were closest to the place where the police were called. We walked along the fence and half an hour later we saw the herdsman feeding milk to the cub.

The cub had scratches on its body and was weak, so it must have been away from its mother for quite some time.

"I found it by the stream on the other side of the fence." The herdsman girl took the initiative to explain, "I went to help my mother fetch water, and I saw a lamb lying on the ground. I thought it was someone's cow or sheep, but later I realized it was not the right one. After I brought it back, my uncle said it was a Przewalski's gazelle lamb, so I called you right away."

After a careful inspection, Chen Ying confirmed that it was indeed a Przewalski's gazelle.

It’s unscientific, really unscientific.

Qinghai Lake is hundreds of kilometers away from here, and Przewalski's gazelles are strictly protected there. It's a joke that a female Przewalski's gazelle can travel so far and come to Hoh Xil to give birth to a cub.

So is it possible that someone stole the cubs from Qinghai Lake and dumped them here? If so, we must call the police and find those who did this.

After receiving the alarm, the police quickly found the suspicious vehicle based on the time when the Przewalski's gazelle appeared.

After being caught, the two people who were on a self-driving tour argued that when they were leaving Qinghai Lake, they found a Przewalski's gazelle hung to death on a fence, with its cub wailing underneath the body.

When they found that there was no one around and no surveillance, they tried to take the cub away.

They didn't know the identity of this little guy before, and they thought the mother antelope died tragically, so they thought it was just an ordinary antelope calf.

"Those two guys took the lamb away not because they wanted to save it, but because they were planning to find a deserted place and kill the lamb for meat while they were traveling here."

The policeman who came to check on the lamb angrily told Chen Ying the whole story.

"But after entering this place, they overheard tourists on the roadside explaining the differences between Tibetan antelopes and Przewalski's gazelles, and discovered that the lamb was a Przewalski's gazelle cub."

"I wanted to turn myself in, but the guy driving the car said they were not poachers. They just found the mother animal dead and took the lamb away. If I turned myself in, what if they said they killed the mother animal? The other guy was also afraid that he would be convicted, so the two of them took advantage of darkness and dumped the lamb in a place where they could see Tibetan antelopes before entering the road of the nature reserve."

I don't know how those two thought that since they are both antelopes, the Tibetan gazelle will definitely adopt the Przewalski's gazelle cub. Didn't they think that the two might have different genetic species?
(End of this chapter)