Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 569: The annual blockbuster Leopard vs. Leopard, entering the film scheduling process

After instructing the keeper who took care of the kittens every day to pay attention to the condition of their limbs, Chen Ying turned around and contacted the keeper at the base.

Given this child's situation, it is questionable whether he can adapt to the outdoor environment at the base.

If the problem of the extremities is not solved, it is impossible to let it move around in the wild. So the question comes back again, should a twin wild cub be kept as a pet cat?

He can't be the only one to worry about this problem. Let's all get involved and pool our wisdom. There will always be a solution.

The following week, all observers stationed in the field were withdrawn.

The surprise at the beginning has now turned into a sigh. In almost a month, they have only found two female cats and one male cat.

In addition, the young male cat that appeared along the way was finally confirmed to have crossed the border and returned to his home.

The results of genetic testing showed that the paternal genes of the three female cats, including Yunyun, all came from that male cat. However, the results pieced together from the memories of Yunyun and the female fishing cats were not very good. The male cat was not young anymore, and it was hard to say whether there would be other male cats to take over his mission.

Such children are the product of genetic hybridization in nature. It is luck that they can be born. No one can conclude whether they can reproduce the next generation.

Among the cubs of the female cat outside the village primary school, there are three females and one male. Not only is the gender ratio not optimistic, but even if the male cats grow up, they cannot engage in inbreeding.

The pressure was put on the ex situ conservation project, and they began to speed up the pilot process. At the fishing cat wild training base in the Sun River Wetland, the artificially bred cubs began the "live fish catch rate test."

After entrusting the disabled cub and its psychologically fragile mother to the project team staff who arrived, Chen Ying and his expedition team prepared to cross the border and head to the Nanha Wetland Reserve to continue the second phase of the observation mission.

"Isn't it clear to everyone about the living conditions of fishing cats in our territory?"

Chen Ying knocked on the table. "I happen to have a collection of DNA feces samples of fishing cats that an international team has collected in this area over the past two years. It shows that the genetic diversity of the population is below the healthy threshold. Our main task this time is to observe the current status of the fishing cats introduced from Tonle Sap Lake and determine whether they have participated in the breeding of the local fishing cat population."

This part of the task is somewhat similar to outsourcing. They take on part of the work that the cooperative organization needed to do when the project was first introduced.

In addition, the Nanha River Nature Reserve had originally planned to introduce artificially bred fishing cats from China within the next one or two years to improve the genetic problems of the local population. Chen Ying and his colleagues' research just happened to be a piece of the puzzle for this plan.

Driven by the International Fishing Cat Alliance and other organizations, the infrared cameras in the Nanha River Nature Reserve have covered more than 60 percent of the core area. After Chen Ying and his team arrive there, they only need to move in according to demand and set up observation points.

Local staff and guides will also be sent to cooperate, so there will definitely not be any major problems with safety. Not to mention that the Dao family also takes it very seriously and has specially sent a security team to assist.

Of course, this security team cannot enter in a high-profile manner, but instead will be disguised as staff members, with each team having one or two people responsible for the personal safety of team members.

What was even more coincidental was that some acquaintances of the team that Chen Ying had previously come into contact with during the Asian elephant project survey were also participating in a joint survey of Asian elephants in the local area. Their task was to take part in the preliminary research on "restoring the ecological corridor on the China-Laos border and adding animal overpasses."

Also because it involves engineering knowledge, there are many non-animal experts in the team.

While chatting with the engineers that evening, Chen Ying gained a deeper understanding of how the two dams in the upper reaches of the Nanha River affect fish reproduction, thereby indirectly affecting the survival of fishing cats.

However, these are not things that he, an animal protectionist, can solve. He can only sigh. After all, in China, many fish species are on the verge of extinction or even declared extinct in the wild due to the same problem.

Between human development and the destruction of nature, it is sometimes difficult to judge what is the right choice.

After two days of preliminary preparations, Chen Ying and her team finally had to separate into three observation points. It would take about ten days to collect biological samples of fishing cats around the observation points, and then determine the end time based on the actual observation situation.

In general, the task is not difficult and the conditions are much better than expected.

However, the drama in reality is sometimes more outrageous than novels and TV dramas.

Just look at this: on the fifth day, an infrared camera captured a jaw-dropping and indescribable scene.

A family of more than ten Asian elephants happened to pass by the second point, which was the largest observation point where Chen Ying was located.

And it just so happened that Chen Ying, her assistant, and a doctoral student had ambushed at a water source with their equipment in advance, waiting for the arrival of the fishing cat.

The fishing cat has been identified as a female introduced from Donsali Lake, and early camera recovery data revealed that the cat is likely to be a mother soon.

The abandoned otter cave in front is the confinement room chosen by the fishing cat for itself.

The conditions here are very good. The forest is deep and hidden, and there is a large pond next to it. Based on current observations, the number of tigers and leopards active here is extremely small. At most, they appear in the camera when passing by, and basically do not appear in the camera frequently for too long.

The fishing cats chose this place to give birth to their cubs, so they must have made a careful selection... right?

Turning my thoughts back to the present, the group of Asian elephants that were supposed to be just passing by suddenly stopped. An hour later, the rest of the adult elephants slowly left, while a young female elephant and two older female elephants stayed.

Chen Ying is not an expert in Asian elephants, but as a veterinary medicine expert, he has basic knowledge of wild animal behavior, not to mention that he can understand the language of animals.

At this moment, the roars coming to his ears were clearly the scent of the young female elephant. It was about to give birth, and it was in great pain and very irritable!

This unexpected scene made the three people who were lying in ambush here look at each other in bewilderment. What kind of incredible good luck was this?
Good luck or bad luck, the scoring object! At this moment, the fishing cat lying in ambush in the bushes a little further away was about to go berserk.

Damn it, don't you know how hard it is for me to choose a place to give birth? Oh, you big guys, of course you don't know, you can just pick a random place to give birth, right? It's not like us, you have to consider the environment, food, and threats from other animals.

The young and beautiful fishing cat was so angry that its mouth was grinning. If it had not dared to provoke these Asian overlords, it would have put its hands on its hips and scolded them for two rounds.

The otter's den is of course by the water, and is actually about a hundred meters away from where the mother elephant gives birth. But the damn thing is that the amniotic fluid and placenta after giving birth will attract certain predators. For elephants, fishing cats that are as cute as kittens do not pose a threat to them, but they still have to be wary of larger creatures such as tigers and leopards. So after the baby elephants are born, they will urge and help the babies to stand and walk, and guide the babies to take the first bite of breast milk.

After that, they will move to another place with their babies and wait until the most dangerous three days are over. After the babies have adapted to walking and feeding, they will bring the babies back to the elephant herd and continue to walk freely in this rainforest.

What they produce and leave behind will attract a lot of predators in a short period of time.

If young female fishing cats want to give birth safely and raise their children, they will have to choose another place.

It's like you bought a new house, and then there was a chemical plant next door that appeared out of nowhere, and a chemical leak occurred... Who the hell can you go to for justice?

Two hours later, the mother elephant finally gave birth. The baby elephant landed on its butt first, falling to the ground in a limp, wrapped in amniotic fluid.

The mother elephant ignored her own fatigue from giving birth and used her trunk to help the baby tear the amniotic membrane. At this time, the two older mother elephants who stayed to assist in the birth also gently pushed the baby with their feet, allowing it to struggle and tear open the bound amniotic membrane.

This process usually lasts one to two hours.

This baby was a good child who did not cause any trouble to its mother. It was successfully born an hour later. Based on past experience, Chen Ying estimated that this baby elephant weighed about 100 kilograms and was a healthy child.

Normally, a baby elephant will learn to stand within half an hour and eat colostrum within two hours. This healthy baby also followed this time schedule and successfully found the food.

(This was taken during the self-guided tour of the Yunnan Elephant Tour Group. I’m borrowing it.)
The baby, who had eaten and drunk his fill, began to practice walking under the guidance of his mother, and the two older female elephants also stretched out their trunks to protect the toddler.

It was almost dark when the mother elephant took her baby to another safe place to spend the night under the protection of two older female elephants.

After they left, the few people who had been lying there for several hours without daring to move finally breathed a sigh of relief, turned over, and moved their almost stiff bodies.

"Teacher, will the fishing cat come back?"

"Definitely not." Chen Ying glanced through the camera and smiled bitterly. "This female elephant should be giving birth for the first time, and she is not familiar with handling the placenta and fetal membranes. Normal female elephants will swallow part of the placenta to replenish their own losses, but this female elephant didn't even look at it. Wait, the placenta and amniotic fluid will definitely attract other carnivores."

He took a breath and stood up. "Hurry up, set up the cameras and video cameras. We have to leave. There will be a carnival feast by the rainforest natives here."

The three of them hurriedly left behind the stable camera, checked the infrared camera that had already been installed, and then hurriedly evacuated with the equipment.

After returning to the base, Chen Ying found the video, edited it, and sent it to the work group. By the way, she also sent a copy to the Asian Elephant Observation Group group next door.

Wow, both groups were in an uproar at that time!
Basically, no one has ever observed the whole process of Asian elephants giving birth in the wild at such a close distance and from such a clear angle. The emergence of this video can be said to have made up for an important part of the observation of Asian elephants in the wild.

Originally, when Chen Ying was going to stake out the place today, another researcher was supposed to accompany him, but he was sick and couldn't go with him, so the doctoral student Chen Ying brought got the advantage! 狠狠角←_←角(｀)=3
Although their main research topic is fishing cats, who doesn’t want to watch Asian elephants giving birth?
Chen Ying did not hide anything and handed the original film directly to the Asian Elephant Project Team. The local nature reserve management bureau also asked for a copy. After all, the land where the group of elephants stood still belonged to Lao Fang.

It was also because of Chen Ying's generosity that the management bureau had a better impression of him. The official who came to him to get information and deliver supplies chatted with Chen Ying privately for a long time. The next day, Chen Ying divided another team and went to another water area for observation.

Located at the transition point between farmland and wetlands, the biggest danger there is not the threat to the food chain among wild animals, but the threat posed by floods.

"That gentleman used to be a wetland surveyor. The place he mentioned was once densely populated by fishing cats, but later, due to the influence of local people poisoning fish and setting up anti-poaching electric fences in rice fields, the fishing cats gradually moved away."

"However, starting two or three years ago, the local area implemented the 'fishing cat-friendly rice field plan', providing subsidies to farmers to preserve vegetation on the ridges for fishing cats to hide. There have been at least seven or eight records of fishing cats appearing this year. He speculated that now is the peak breeding season for fishing cats, and there should be fishing cats waiting to give birth there. This area is within the territory of the two introduced fishing cats, so it is possible that the mother cat waiting to give birth or the father of the kittens is an introduced cat."

Since there is such a clue, they certainly cannot let it go, so they make temporary arrangements for personnel transfers.

Chen Ying did not plan to go alone. He selected a mature and steady researcher, a graduate student who was good at language and communication and had a high emotional intelligence, as well as a local guide and a security guard, to form a four-person team to go to the wetland.

Not many people stayed, and the workload for each person increased accordingly. Fortunately, everyone in the team worked together to build our business. Although it was a bit tiring, I was still in a good mood.

Due to the episode of the mother elephant giving birth, there were temporarily no fishing cats in that area, but many other animals came. On the third night, a little guy with very eye-catching fur color and pattern appeared in the camera.

This is not the point. The point is that in the tree above the little guy's head, a pair of cold big eyes have locked onto its body.

Chen Ying was reading a paper and discussing the progress of today's work with his teammates in the group. He accidentally looked at the display screen connected to the camera and said, "Am I dazzled?", which alarmed the other two teammates.

"Chen, what happened?"

Chen Ying pointed at the screen and said, "Look, this is a clouded leopard, right? Look here, an Indochinese leopard?"

So what is about to be presented to these viewers is a scene of a leopard-leopard fight that could happen at any time?

(End of this chapter)