Reborn in the 1980s: I made my fortune hunting wild game in Changbai Mountain

At Grandpa Liu's doorstep, Jinlong slammed on the brakes, and the car came to a precise stop.

"We're here! Get out of the car and come inside!" Grandpa Liu was the first to open the car door, reaching out to help carry the things and leading people into the yard.

Yue Feng and Jin Long are both quick-witted and immediately offered to help carry the things.

Several people unloaded all of Uncle Li's luggage from the car, and then everyone went into the side room where a stove was lit.

Amidst the commotion, Uncle Li entered the house carrying two rabbit-tiger figurines and leading two small dogs.

Yes, you read that right! Not only did the people enter the house, but the eagle and the dog also followed their owner into the house.

Despite this, Grandpa Liu didn't mind at all and gave up his spot with the stove to Uncle Li.

“Sit here! The hawk’s feed will be collected directly in the ashes! You two have some tea and warm yourselves up by the fire for a while, I’ll go to the north room to feed the hawk!” said Grandpa Liu.

"Okay, whatever you say!" Uncle Li sat down generously.

Once Li Fulin was seated, Yue Feng finally had the opportunity to observe the two old rabbit-tigers from head to toe.

In Yue Feng's eyes, a professional hawker, Li Fulin's two rabbit-tigers were quite well-raised.

To assess a falconer's skill in raising eagles, one can examine the eagle's feathers, including the plumage and tail feathers. If the eagle is in poor condition and has been poorly cared for, it is easy to damage feathers, wingtips, and other areas, which will be quite noticeable.

Li Fulin's two old rabbit-tigers had tails as long as the large feathered axe, without even a hint of forking.

After examining the feathers, you also need to look at the eagle's beak hook and claws.

An eagle's hooked beak and claws are similar to human fingernails, and they normally grow naturally.

If eagles are not well cared for, and the quality and combination of their food are not appropriate, such as feeding them only meat for a long time, their beak hooks will become longer due to lack of normal wear and tear, which may even affect their ability to eat.

The same principle applies to claws. If an eagle doesn't work on the ground much, or if it doesn't stand in a suitable place, its claws will grow too long, which will also affect its health.

In these key details, the pair of old rabbit-tigers in Li Fulin's hands are quite healthy. At first glance, apart from the color of their fur being that of an eagle, all other details are similar to those of a newly caught eagle.

"Hehe, Xiao Yue, what are you looking at again?"

Li Fulin placed the pair of rabbits and tigers on his left knee and stood there, then freed his hand to hold the teacup and take a sip of tea.

Yue Feng grinned: "I'm looking at an eagle! Uncle Li, your eagle-raising skills are amazing! The eagle has been caged by people for so long, and its feathers have all molted. Its claws and beak are in their original state, without any extra trimming!"

Praising a skilled falconer is the highest compliment one can give.

Li Fulin was very happy: "Haha, training and raising eagles is a job that requires a lot of care!"

I'm not bragging, but even in Tianjin, many people my age haven't even mastered the basics of falconry!
"A perfectly good eagle, kept in a cage for only a year, and when it was finally released, the fangs on its beak were almost drooping down to its chest! And its claws—they didn't even bother to find some suitable stones for it to perch on and sharpen them!"

At this moment, Jinlong asked curiously, "Uncle Li, Xiao Yue, what if the eagle's beak hook is too long? We can't just cut it off with nail clippers, can we?"

When Li Fulin heard this somewhat uninformed question, he didn't answer it directly, but instead looked at Yue Feng with a smile.

The meaning is simple: you tell your friend.

Yue Feng replied, "It's difficult in some ways, but it's also quite simple in others! An eagle's beak doesn't grow long overnight, and you don't see any wild eagles that are obviously unbalanced!"

For eagles intended for caged environments, with their beaks in perfect condition, the best approach is to simulate the feeding habits of wild birds of prey! The diet should be varied, ideally a mix of soft and hard foods! As the eagle's beak grows, daily feeding causes wear and tear, naturally keeping it healthy!

"What if it's an eagle that's already caused problems by accident? What do we do then?" Jinlong continued to ask.

Yue Feng: "Feed it food to help it gnaw on its beak, such as adding more chicken necks to its food! Don't use nail clippers or other tools to handle it roughly. Improper handling can easily injure the eagle and frighten it, which will affect the bond you've worked so hard to build!"

"Oh! This trick is pretty simple! A friend of mine had a rabbit hawk last year, and its beak hook had a problem, but it wasn't that serious!" Jinlong replied.

At this point, Li Fulin added, "If it's a rabbit-eagle, Xiao Yue's method is the most suitable! If it's a rabbit-tiger, besides gnawing on chicken necks, there's another, albeit less-than-ideal, method that can also achieve the goal!"

"A solution that isn't a solution? How so?" Jinlong's curiosity was piqued once again.

"In Tianjin, there's another group of people who use incense sticks as beaks for their rabbits and tigers! They light incense and use the heat to hook the eagle's beak and burn off a small part of it!"

"Making mouths for rabbits and tigers, that should be considered a bad custom, right?" Yue Feng couldn't help but comment upon hearing this addition.

The eagle was perfectly fine; it could have solved the problem by focusing on its diet. Instead, it chose to use extreme methods to supplement its diet. In Yue Feng's opinion, this was somewhat outdated, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a bad habit.

"Xiao Yue, what you're saying is a bit biased! When it comes to talking, it depends on how you look at it!"

Before they can grow into adult falcons, the falcons that need to be trained for their beaks are mostly the young falcons that were caught in nets years ago.

The rabbit-tiger has an incredibly sharp mouth; whether it's a human hand or its own kind, a single bite can take a huge chunk of flesh!
If a rabbit and a tiger that you haven't even held firmly in your hands start biting each other, it's easy for them to both get injured and crippled!
If you use the incense stick to clean your mouth, even if you do it again, it won't cause that much damage!

Furthermore, an eagle that has already developed problems from being caged by hand, like someone gnawing on a chicken's neck, won't be fixed in a day or two! Since the eagle was fed daily in the hands of a person, even if its beak was burned by the hook, it's not a major issue; with normal care, it can recover!

Yue Feng grinned after hearing this: "Uncle Li makes a good point, but there's a problem here!"

"What's the problem? Tell me!"

"What if the falcon with the beak modified accidentally drifts away? The beak hooks have been smoothed out, so it's safe, but the falcon has lost most of its ability to quickly kill prey or tear apart food!"

Li Fulin nodded after listening: "That's true! There are indeed risks involved in this kind of work!"

"Haha, Uncle Li, you don't shy away from the topic at all!" Yue Feng grinned and laughed, thus ending the conversation.

“A truly skilled falconer can make a fairly accurate judgment about the falcon’s condition before it lands! In the traditional rabbit-and-tiger hunting game, the rabbit and tiger don’t need to fly high; they usually chase the prey at a low altitude of less than ten meters with a greyhound, and they rarely lose the falcon!” Li Fulin continued.

"So it's a paradox! If you really need to make a beak for an eagle, then your training and nurturing skills will definitely be lacking! Someone like you, Uncle Li, an old hand, doesn't need to make a beak; you can handle an eagle perfectly well!"

"Haha, people are different! Only those who truly love eagles are willing to put in that much effort to serve them! Most of the eagle handlers around here are just mediocre; I, Li Fulin, wouldn't even look at them!" You can glean a lot of information from just one sentence from Uncle Li.

Tianjin is a place with a well-known tradition of falconry and hound-following culture.

However, the development of traditional falconry techniques in the three northeastern provinces, Inner Mongolia, and Xinjiang, the places where they truly originated, was not as prevalent in modern times.

Wherever there are people, there is a social hierarchy, and even among hawk masters, there is a hierarchy of contempt.

From Li Fulin's words just now, it's clear that the old man is most likely at the top of the social hierarchy.

From this perspective, Li Fulin and Xiao Ying Liu both take their eagles very seriously, and they share similar temperaments, which explains why they can become such good friends.

Just as they were chatting, Grandpa Liu, who had returned from feeding the hawks, pushed open the door and came in.

What were you guys talking about just now?

"Haha, nothing! We were just talking about making beaks for falcons!" Yue Feng replied casually.

"Those scoundrels, they never take the right path, they come up with crooked and evil ways!" Old Liu said with a sneer, offering no polite comment.

From the old man's statement, it can be seen that Grandpa Liu and Yue Feng have similar opinions: this thing is a bad habit.

"So be it! Anyway, my apprentice won't let the eagle burn its mouth. Hey, Old Liu, where are the big batches of chicks you've filled this year? Aren't you going to show them to me?"

Li Fulin didn't dwell on the matter any longer and shifted the topic to the baby bricks in Grandpa Liu's hands.

"Okay, I'll go get it!"

Before Grandpa Liu could even sit down, he turned around and went to the north room to fetch the hawk.

Soon, Grandpa Liu brought a small albino peach blossom with a slightly bulging crop into the house.

The old man held a sparrow with its head half-eaten in his hand, while the eaglet flapped its wings, begging for food and pecking at the meat.

The eagle is already over six months old. In the wild, it would have already left the nest and become independent by this time of year. Even if it sees its parents in the wild, it will most likely not linger and may even be driven out of its territory by its parents.

But this little guy was completely at ease with Grandpa Liu, as if he still had the intimacy of a fledgling bird with its parents before it left the nest.

This alone is enough for those in the know to recognize how rare it is.

"Tsk tsk, these pure white peach blossoms! Beautiful!" Uncle Li couldn't help but comment when he saw this scene.

Grandpa Liu glanced at the rabbit-tiger perched on Li Fulin's lap with its hat on and warned, "You'd better keep a close eye on these two old rabbit-tigers. If you take off their hats and give them a swipe, the little eagle can't take the strain!"

Li Fulin patted his eagle: "Don't worry, my two rabbits and tigers never cause trouble when they're wearing hats! Look at their plumage and the feathers around their crotches, they're all spread out! The eagles know that with me around, they're safe and sleeping soundly!"

Falcons can be tamed and become more stable the longer they are raised. These five- or six-year-old falcons have already developed a strong bond and understanding with their owners.

"By the way, did your two rabbits and tigers lay any eggs this year?" Grandpa Liu continued to ask.

"It's over! There's no way to get them to tame. There are too few tamed falcons! I've tried taming the few families around here who have old falcons (male saker falcons)!"

I, a hairy-legged sea creature, wouldn't even consider it! If we're not a match, there's no chance of fertilization, let alone incubating eggs and hatching chicks!

Grandpa Liu continued, "Xiaofeng said that the foals raised from these young can be artificially inseminated! That way, we can artificially inseminate your rabbit and tiger and breed them!"

"What the heck? Using sperm from a pile of worms to crossbreed a rabbit and a tiger? The size difference is so huge, isn't this like a mouse having sex with an elephant? That's a bit ridiculous, isn't it?"

Upon hearing this news, Li Fulin's first reaction was that it was a bit too far-fetched, given the huge difference in body size.

“They’re both falcons, a female saker falcon and a male grey-backed falcon, they actually have a chance! It’s just that the offspring may not be able to reproduce! It’s similar to a horse and a donkey having a mule!” Yue Feng continued.

"Who told you that? I've never heard of different species of eagles interbreeding!"

Yue Feng continued, "I heard some of it from the older generation in my family, and then I asked a friend in the local forestry bureau to get some breeding information from abroad!"
Different species of falcons can interbreed! In fact, natural hybridization can even occur in the wild!

As far as I know, the Altay Falcon in the Altay region is very likely the offspring of a natural hybrid between the Grey Gyrfalcon and the Saker Falcon!
The Altai falcon clearly exhibits characteristics of both the saker falcon and the gyrfalcon!

For example, its larger size and weight, and the crescent-shaped markings on its tail feathers, are typical characteristics of the gyrfalcon! However, details such as its head, face, and wings are closer to those of the saker falcon!

Hearing this, Li Fulin scratched his head: "Well, now that you mention it, it does make sense!"
A few days ago, a strange-looking rabbit-tiger was born in Hebei. A friend and I went there specifically to see it after hearing the news!
The seller said it was a grey gyrfalcon, but many of its features and weight didn't match the legendary gyrfalcon! The price was too high, and we weren't sure, so we hesitated and gave up!

"Could it be that the eagle you mentioned is the Altai falcon?"

"Uncle Li, how long ago was this?" Yue Feng's heart skipped a beat when he heard the news.

These Altaic falcons are valuable. Even if you don't need them yourself, you can still tell Brother Jun the information. If the species is right and the quality is good, you can sell them to those people with a piece of cloth on their heads for an astronomical price.

"About half a month ago! The rabbit and tiger live much later than the eagle and the like. This eagle, it is said, was accidentally caught in a net while catching an eagle!"

"Has it been sold yet?" Yue Feng continued to ask.

"I'm not sure, but it's probably still in my hands! Asking for two thousand yuan right off the bat, he's gone crazy for money!"

The price of two thousand yuan is indeed a bit frightening. Tianjin and Hebei are not provinces that lack eagles. Unless you encounter a big boss like Ye Jianjun who is not short of money and has special channels, it is impossible to complete the transaction.

"Do you have their contact information? Could you help me ask if they still have it?" Yue Feng continued to ask.

At this moment, Jinlong noticed the urgency in Yuefeng's tone, and his expression became noticeably more restrained.

"There's a phone call. Do you want to go take a look?" Li Fulin nodded and then asked.

"If it's really a good bird, it's worth the higher price! Uncle Li, could you please call and ask what's going on?" (End of Chapter)