Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 523: A Fight Between a Tiger and a Bear. The Bear is Still Here, But Where is the Tiger?

We walked along the tributary for about a day.

It took a lot of time, but the journey was not far, so they had no choice but to look while walking, searching both sides of the river, and even three or two vehicles had to search repeatedly for fear of missing anything.

"Brother Ying, there are none here. We asked the locals and they said there are several sinkholes on this mountain, the deepest of which is 20 to 30 meters. The leader wants us to hike up the mountain and look for sinkholes around here."

There are many different opinions about the origin of the pits on the mountain. Some say they were formed by earthquakes, some say they were formed by meteorite impacts, and some say they were formed by tunnels dug by mountain bandits in the past.

They contacted a local geological expert, who sent them a map that marked several dangerous pits.

"Brother Ying, I just asked an old classmate of mine here. His hometown is in the local area. He said that decades ago, when his great-grandfather was still alive, there were many tigers in the mountains, especially near this tiankeng."

One of the staff members pointed to a tiankeng on the map. It was actually a cirque formed by ancient glacial activity. It was surrounded on three sides and only had an exit on the east side. It was not large, about 10,000 square meters, which was equivalent to one-third of the famous Xiaoguodi tiankeng in Tianshan.

Because the location of this pit is relatively far away from the main tourist attraction, and there are already large and small pot bottoms, similar attractions have not been developed.

Precisely because it has not been developed, this place still retains a relatively original appearance, and the number of wild animals is much greater than that near other scenic spots.

It was not safe to go into the mountain rashly, so they set up camp at the foot of the mountain. Then the local management station arranged three veteran forest rangers to act as guides, and the three vehicles were divided into three teams to go up the mountain.

Klaus insisted on coming along, and even Maddie meowed and said it could help.

Medi has a special little vest with a locator on it.

Last time I let it run away because I wasn't paying enough attention. This time I was fully prepared. I put on a small vest, brought a small camera, and even prepared an alarm for the cat.

The forest rangers were amazed by the full armour, and felt it was better than the equipment they used when going up the mountain.

Medi was clinging to Chen Ying's legs in a super cool way, totally ignoring the pitiful expression of her abandoned owner.

The search area of ​​Chen Ying and his three companions and the cat was from the foot of the mountain to the edge of the cirque pit.

There is an old house left over from a monitoring station in the pit. Just like the original Jiamugou emergency station, it is made of pure wood and was converted from a hunter's cabin decades ago.

That house was their camping site for the night.

There are also safe places to spend the night in the other two directions. The biggest role of the three veteran rangers is to ensure the safety of the search personnel.

The old forest ranger Uncle Alahan who followed Chen Ying and the others was very talkative. As they went up, he pointed out the plants, animals and geographical conditions along the way to Chen Ying and the others in detail.

"There is a small ditch over there. Twenty years ago, water was flowing down the mountain from the ditch, but it suddenly stopped flowing ten years ago. A geologist came to see it and said that it might be that the underground river in the mountain changed its course and dried up without water. But there are a few slightly larger pits over there. At this time of year, the snow melts and water fills up those small pits, providing safe drinking water for animals on the mountain."

Chen Ying took a look through the telescope, but saw nothing.

"Uncle Alahan, if there were a tiger, would it also go there to drink water?"

"I don't think so. The ditch over there is quite obvious. Every time we patrol the mountains, we go there to check the infrared cameras placed there. We have never seen any tigers. We have only seen snow leopards once, and most of them are small animals."

Come to think of it, infrared cameras are usually placed next to watering points. If a tiger goes there to drink water, it is impossible not to capture it.

With a sigh of regret, the group continued to move forward.

Meddy seemed very lively in the forest, and this weather and environment were her favorite. She was very happy along the way, and would bring back any wild fruit she found to show off to Chen Ying.

Klaus put his hands on his hips angrily and said that Medi was a young lady who was easily bored with the same things.

Unfortunately, Medi was too lazy to even glance at him. She looked around seriously, trying to catch some prey to feed Chen Ying.

The most common animals in the forest are squirrels. Those little guys are very alert. When they see someone coming from afar, they will nimbly circle around the tree trunk, jump onto the branch of another tree and run away in the blink of an eye.

Medi was so angry that she meowed, and then she let go.

Fortunately, it ran in the direction they were going up the mountain, otherwise they would have to spend some energy looking for it.

After walking for about ten minutes, Klaus suddenly called Chen Ying.

"Chen, look at Meidi's position. It seems to have discovered something and is circling here."

Medi was located slightly off the path they took up the mountain.

Uncle Alahan glanced at Kras's phone and said, "I remember there is an abandoned hunting pit here. It was dug by old hunters and used to catch large wild animals. I came here with Ata when I was a child and caught two wild boars here."

Uncle Alaham said this, and Chen Ying guessed that there might be some animal trapped in the pit.

The fact that Medi didn't run away out of fear also shows that the trapped animal was not a ferocious beast.

Uncle Alahan led them over there, and when they got closer, Chen Ying's face became a little strange.

"Wait, it seems like in the pit..." He tilted his head to look at Kras, "You put a camera on Medi before, can you receive the images?"

"Of course." Klaus was stunned for a moment and operated his mobile phone. After a moment, the picture came.

Krass jerked his head back. "Oh my God, what is that? A deer?"

Chen Ying took the phone and took a look. Due to the angle, the camera that Meidi was carrying only captured a dead deer at the bottom of the pit. The image was not allowed to appear in the live broadcast room.

But for Chen Ying and Uncle Alahan, they could tell what caused it with just one glance.

"Are there carnivorous beasts at the bottom of the pit?"

Chen Ying's heart skipped a beat. Could it be the tigress they were looking for?

It’s a pity that this camera cannot transmit voice, otherwise Chen Ying really wants to use voice to control Meidi to shoot from a different angle.

Judging from the shaking of the camera, Medi seemed to be doing something, and one could faintly see fine dirt, stones and grass falling into the pit.

The three of them immediately quickened their pace and ran towards Medi. Twenty minutes later, they appeared in Medi's sight in a disheveled state.

When I got closer, I could already hear Medi's screams.

"Meow, big guy, come up, come up!"

When Chen Ying heard what Meidi said, he tightened the straps of his backpack and slid down the hillside.

The trap pit is right on the animal trail in the middle of the hillside, and it would be faster to slide directly down.

Before he could even stand firmly, Chen Ying rushed to the edge of the pit and looked out, only to meet a furry face looking up from the bottom of the pit.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the tigress he expected.

"Uncle Alahan, there is a newly-adult leopard in there. Its front limbs are injured, and its eyes are also injured. It must have fallen into the pit with the deer it was biting while hunting." Fortunately, it brought the prey with it when it fell into the pit, otherwise it might have starved to death.

The uncle followed closely and upon hearing the words, he took the initiative to call their management station and asked personnel to bring equipment and medicines to meet them.

Chen Ying took a few photos with her mobile phone and sent them to the people who stayed behind in the camp at the foot of the mountain. They would arrange rescue operations in advance based on the photos.

The pit was at least two and a half meters in size. Under normal circumstances, the leopard would have jumped up by stepping on the carcass of its prey. But now it was injured, with its front limbs hanging pitifully in front of its chest. The area from its forehead to its eyes was covered in blood, and it was unclear whether its injured eye could still see.

This leopard must have been injured and trapped for quite some time. Fortunately, the weather is relatively cold now, not to mention at night, which can be used as a refrigerator. Otherwise, the prey would have rotted long ago.

But because the weather was too cold, the poor leopard might have been able to hide under the prey's body to keep warm before, but as the prey's body provided less and less shelter after eating, it was frozen to death.

Chen Ying decisively took out the anesthetic and the blow needle from his waist bag. He could roughly estimate the weight of the leopard with just one glance. After taking the appropriate amount of anesthetic and decisively injecting it into the leopard's body, the already weak leopard fell completely in less than five minutes.

The three of them quickly used the rescue rope they carried with them to make a simple net. Chen Ying went down to the bottom of the pit and caught the leopard with the net. Klaus and Uncle Alahan pulled hard together and finally rescued the leopard.

Ten minutes later, Chen Ying and Klas worked together to treat the leopard's injuries. After applying simple bandages, they waited on the spot for the arrival of support personnel.

"Chen, what were you doing just now?"

While waiting, Klas used gestures to ask Chen Ying what the movements were for when she was checking the leopard's forelimbs.

"That's the treatment method we Chinese veterinarians use to treat animal fractures or bone dislocations."

Kras looked at him blankly, "Manual resetting? What is that?"

Chen Ying scratched his head, unable to explain it to him for the moment. Suddenly he remembered that he had once recorded a teaching video for his junior classmates. He directly found the video from the school's resource library and let Klaus watch it himself.

While waiting, the leopard suddenly showed signs of waking up.

Chen Ying had tied it up in advance, and asked Alahan and Klaus to sit a little further away, while he himself stayed beside the leopard.

This leopard is in a rather weak body. I discovered that when I checked it just now. It seems to have signs of fever. Even though it struggles, your strength is visible.

Chen Ying took advantage of the leopard's half-consciousness and quickly tickled its fur. By the time the leopard's eyes regained clarity, it had already become familiar with Chen Ying's scent.

Although this leopard is young, he is quite steady in his actions.

It did not struggle as expected, but just tried to change its prone position, then vigilantly glanced at Klaus and Uncle Alahan who were a little further away, and then looked up at Chen Ying for a long time.

"I smell a familiar scent on you, but it's not yours." It paused and tilted its head slightly. "Are you related to the big guy on the mountain?"

Here comes the key word.

On the mountain! Big guy!

Chen Ying turned over and half-knelt facing it, asking it in a low voice where it saw the big guy.

"In the woods on the mountain. Oh, it used to have a cub, but the last time I saw it, it had no cub and seemed a little crazy."

That’s right, it must be the tigress.

But the next second, Leopard's words made him feel cold.

"When I was hunting before, it seemed like it was fighting with a bear. I don't know what's going on now."

Why does it feel like a dangerous fight when a tigress that seems to be sick or injured is fighting with a healthy brown bear?

He stood up and glanced at Uncle Alahan, "Uncle, when will the contact person arrive? I want to go up the mountain first to take a look."

"It will take at least two or three hours." Uncle Alahan checked his phone, frowning. "The people who are meeting us at the foot of the mountain are already on their way. We estimate they will be here in an hour at most."

"Well, how about you wait here, uncle, while Klaus and I go upstairs to check out the situation?"

"Don't worry, this little leopard is very sensible. It won't struggle randomly. You just need to guard it and don't untie its rope."

As for putting the leopard in a cage and carrying it down the mountain later, there will be other rescue workers. At worst, we can just give it another injection and let it have a good sleep.

In front of the leopard, Chen Ying left a blow needle filled with medicine for Uncle Alahan. He comforted the little leopard with a few words, and continued to climb up with Klaus and Medi.

This place is not far from the observatory. Chen Ying and Klas are both experienced in the wild, so they won't get lost at such a short distance.

An hour and a half later, they finally found the observatory's cabin. It was empty except for some spare firewood.

The ground was relatively clean, and there was a waterproof mat in a small wooden box hidden in the corner. I took it out and spread it on the ground, then put a sleeping bag on it, and I could spend the night.

Chen Ying asked Klaus to bring Medi to rest here, and to clean up the fire pit in the wooden house so that they could make a fire and cook later.

He planned to take a look around while it was still early.

Klaus was not willing to take a rest and planned to take Medi with him to go out for a look.

The two men acted separately, one on the left and one on the right, with the wooden house as the origin and a radius of one hundred meters, and first looked for the fan-shaped area behind the wooden house.

Chen Ying remembered that Leopard had told him before that they saw a fight between a tiger and a bear near a hillside. This small ice pit was surrounded by cliffs on the north, south and west sides, and the east side where they came up was a slope. However, when they came here, they checked carefully and found no signs of animals fighting.

He walked a hundred meters in the northeast direction and was about to turn west when he seemed to hear an unusual howl.

When I wanted to stop and listen carefully, I heard no sound anymore.

After waiting for about five minutes, Chen Ying continued to walk forward. Just when he had walked less than ten meters, the howling sound came again.

This time he heard it clearly, it was the roar of a bear, the sound was filled with pain and panic, and even a little despair.

This bear has complicated emotions.

Chen Ying took out his cell phone and sent a message to Klaus, then headed towards the place where the sound came from.

After walking about fifty meters, the sound disappeared.

He looked around carefully, but apart from a patch of fallen bushes, he did not see any sign of the bear calling for help.

Could it be that there are traps set by hunters here?
Chen Ying thought about it carefully and felt that it was unlikely. If it was true, Uncle Alaham would definitely tell them.

So, did the bear fall into the pit?
If so, where was the pit? The bear that fell into it was still alive, but what about the tiger that was fighting with it? Did it escape, or did it also fall in?
Just as Chen Ying approached the fallen bushes, a brown-red shadow flashed quickly before his eyes.

(End of this chapter)