I became incredibly cute after dressing up as an animal!

Zhang Wang loved observing the elephant herd with his binoculars and saw Chu Yi and Bao Bao chasing and playing.

Two baby elephants bumped into their aunt's leg, but the aunt wasn't angry. All the family members doted on the two baby elephants.

Everything was so happy and harmonious.

But suddenly, Zhang Wang noticed a huge figure approaching the elephant herd in the distance.

One second Chief Mary was watching the baby play with loving eyes, the next second her expression turned serious, and she turned around and locked onto a certain direction.

A strange scent drifted over on the wind, very strong, carrying the distinctive body odor of an adult male elephant, mixed with the smell of soil and urine, and an inexplicable sense of restlessness.

Mary stared intently in that direction, her eyes conveying a warning.

Soon, the other elephants in the herd also noticed something was wrong.

Angie stopped eating, her ears fully open. Anna walked to the edge of the line, facing that direction warily.

An An pulled Lan Xiaoxiao closer to her stomach. Lan Xiaoxiao peeked half her head out from between An An's legs. In the distance, in the shadow of the acacia tree, a huge male elephant was standing there.

Chu Yi stood next to Lan Xiaoxiao, staring intently at her.

This is a mature male elephant, and at its peak.

It was a shoulder taller than Chief Mary, with a massive body and rough skin covered in wrinkles and scars.

Its tusks are very long, but one of them is broken off, and the edge of the break is worn dull. It must have been broken many years ago when it was fighting with another male elephant.

It stood in the shade of the trees, its ears open and its trunk slightly raised, sniffing in the direction of the elephant herd.

Its eyes were terrifying, staring intently at the herd of elephants.

Male elephants rarely go into heat during the dry season, but it's not unheard of. Once they do, they become very aggressive.

Zhang Wang saw the bull elephant staring at them and immediately broke out in a cold sweat. "Bard, that bull elephant might hurt the calf."

Many male animals in estrus will kill their offspring in order to mate with females.

Mary's family has female elephants of all ages, so it's clear that this male elephant won't leave easily.

Bud observed through binoculars and said something even more frightening: "I've seen it before. It's a well-known stray male elephant. It's a fierce fighter and once killed an adult male elephant that was competing with it for mating rights."

Mia's face paled upon hearing this. "...What should we do?"

As animal protection and rescue organizations, they cannot interfere with animals; everything is a matter of natural selection and survival of the fittest. They cannot intervene; they can only watch.

They can only help if there are isolated elephants like the first-year junior high school student who need rescue.

Or perhaps it's like this: they know someone will harm the first year of junior high, and there's a bounty on the dark web, which is why they've been following the Mary family for so long to prevent those heartless people from harming them.

Apart from these matters, humans are not allowed to interfere in fights between other animals.

Zhang Wang: "We must trust Mary; she is a mature and reliable leader."

Bud thought the same thing, but when he thought about Mary's age, he was still worried.

The bull elephant kept its eyes on the herd and lingered there.

Chief Mary walked to the front of the herd, facing the bull elephant, her ears fully open, her trunk slightly raised, and let out a warning roar!

The male elephant flapped its ears and took a few steps back.

Mary blocked the bull elephant's view of the herd with her body. The two elephants stood facing each other quietly, a hundred meters apart, with only the wind passing between them.

As evening fell, the elephant herd began to move. Mary told her eldest daughter, Angie, to lead the way, while Mary herself led the way at the back to protect everyone.

Walking west along the riverbank, An'an shielded Lan Xiaoxiao under her belly, Chu Yi was sandwiched between An Qi and Anna, and her cousins ​​walked in the middle.

Lan Xiaoxiao walked for a while and then looked back. The male elephant was still following her from a distance!

The dark gray figure appeared and disappeared in the twilight, like a huge black shadow stuck to the horizon.

As one of the Big Five of Africa, the elephant's fighting prowess is no joke.

Elephants will not engage in conflict or fight unless absolutely necessary.

The main reason elephants fight is that during their mating season, two male elephants compete for mating rights.

Male elephants in heat are extremely emotionally unstable, also known as the raging phase, or Musth phase.

This is why male elephants are expelled from their families once they reach adulthood.

Lan Xiaoxiao looked at Chu Yi. Once Chu Yi grew up, her grandmother, aunts, and mother would inevitably drive it away…

The love the family gives to the baby male elephant is real, but so is the expulsion, which is a cruel thing.

When he noticed his little cutie looking at him, he immediately put his nose over and touched her cheek.

Chu Yi noticed a hint of reluctance and helplessness in Lan Xiaoxiao's eyes. Although Chu Yi didn't know much about elephants, it was smart enough to notice that the Osa family and the Mary family had something in common: they didn't have any adult male elephants in their family. Chu Yi could roughly guess the reason.

In the first year of junior high school, Lan Xiaoxiao wrote: "Xiaoxiao, I will leave after I grow up, but I will not go far. I will stay and protect you."

Lan Xiaoxiao asked in surprise, "Do you have mind-reading abilities?"

A first-year student wouldn't be modest enough to say, "I'm smart."

My partner is very confident and doesn't understand what humility is at all. She speaks in a gentle and charming tone.

Lan Xiaoxiao smiled, another day of being captivated by the first-year student.

As night fell, they found a place to rest.

The male elephant neither approached nor left.

For the next few days, it lingered in the distance, sometimes stopping under a tree, sometimes drinking water by the river, but it followed far behind the herd every time it moved.

They maintained a distance, neither attacking nor giving up.

It's like a stubborn plaster that I can't shake off!

The young female elephants in the herd began to get nervous. The older females, who are usually very lively, have become much quieter in the last few days. They no longer wag their tails and chase each other around when eating, and they walk faster.

My cousin even sleeps close to her mother at night to feel safe.

Chief Mary is keeping a close watch on the baby every day and doesn't have time to play with him.

Lan Xiaoxiao was half asleep in the middle of the night when she got angry just thinking about it and couldn't help but curse, "Is it sick? It's so annoying."

On the first day of the lunar month, he patted her with his nose and said, "Don't be afraid, go to sleep, and have sweet dreams."

Every day, Mary would walk alone to the back of the elephant herd, stand facing the bull elephant for a while, silently watch it, and then return to the front of the group.

After a few more days of peace, one day at noon, the male elephant approached, closing the distance to less than fifty meters!

The older cousins ​​huddled together, and An'an used her nose to push Lan Xiaoxiao behind her. Chu Yi followed Lan Xiaoxiao to her side.

Blue Little heard Mary make a very low and deep sound. It usually makes sounds, but this time it was completely different.

The voice sounded like it was being ground out from the deepest part of the chest, muffled and carrying a warning.

The male elephant stopped and stood still.

Mary let out another sound, longer than before, like a low growl.

Mary charged straight at the bull elephant!

Mary ran much faster than Lan Xiaoxiao had imagined; her body was like a moving mountain, and the earth trembled slightly beneath her feet.

The bull elephant was caught off guard by Mary's sudden rush and hesitated for a moment before charging towards her as well.

Just as the two elephants were about to collide, Mary turned to the side and slammed her shoulder into the side of the bull elephant. The bull elephant lost its balance and staggered to the side, slipping and almost falling to its knees.

When it regained its balance and stood up again, Mary had already turned around and rammed into its chest a second time, pressing down with all of Mary's weight.

The bull elephant struggled to take a few steps back, letting out a muffled roar. Its ears were pressed tightly against its head. It retreated more than ten meters away from Mary before stopping. Then it turned around and walked away into the distant grassland without looking back, until it became a blurry black dot.

Mary stood there, panting, watching it walk away, its ears slowly lowering as it returned to the herd.

Lan Xiaoxiao peeked out from behind An'an's legs, opened her ears, and rushed over with small, quick steps!

She bumped into Mary's thigh and cried out, her voice soft and delicate.

"Grandma is amazing!"

After watching Mary fight, Lan Xiaoxiao could only exclaim two words: Awesome!

Mary gently touched Lan Xiaoxiao's forehead with her nose, her voice low and soft: "Baby, don't be afraid."

Lan Xiaoxiao felt that Grandma Mary was not an elephant, but a mountain, a wall, the most powerful presence on the grassland!

At first glance, the little cutie looked at Chief Mary with admiration and thought that when it grew up, it would be just as powerful and wanted to be looked at with those bright, sparkling eyes by the little cutie.

With the crisis of the stray male elephants resolved, the atmosphere in the herd visibly relaxed, and they were eating more leaves.

In the first year of junior high, I try my best to eat more every day so that I can grow up quickly and become strong!

The dry season continues, and the water supply to the grasslands here has clearly decreased.

Mary led the chieftain on their migration, and as they walked, the sky grew overcast.

Lan Xiaoxiao was quite happy because it might rain, which would mean some cooler weather.

As the elephant herd moved towards the low-lying area, Lan Xiaoxiao and Chu Yi suddenly noticed that something was wrong with the atmosphere of the herd. Why did it feel so sad?

At first glance, Chu Yi had a keen eye and immediately spotted an elephant skeleton in the distance. In a low-lying area of ​​the withered yellow grass, the elephant's white bones stood out starkly.

Chu Yi tapped Lan Xiaoxiao with his nose and pointed in that direction: "Look over there."