Chapter 631: Chapter 524: This Bird Is So Big, It Won’t Fit in One Pot
Chen Ying stood for a while, watching as the old tiger retreated into the woods behind him.
Unfortunately, the phone was playing scripture, and by the time he reacted, the tiger was already out of sight.
A few minutes later, the Little Fox emerged from the bushes and, seeing the snacks spread on the rock before Chen Ying, gleefully dashed over to feast.
“Little guy, I’m leaving. Take care of yourself in the future, and be cautious.”
“Yingying, I will, I can run really fast!”
Its proud tone made Chen Ying laugh. For small animals, being able to hunt to feed themselves is just the basics, evading more formidable predators is the key to survival.
“By the way, I saw a big one over there just now.”
Chen Ying pointed to the tree, and the Little Fox, holding a piece of jerky, stood up and looked in the direction of Chen Ying’s finger.
“That big one? It doesn’t come here often; I only recently saw it. Before, only that big one you took away lived here. After it got pregnant and gave birth to the baby, the big one showed up.”
“Do you know where the little cub went?”
“No idea, I’m quite busy every day and can’t keep an eye on them. But I heard from the fellows in the trees that it seemed to have gotten sick a while ago and drowned while looking for food. Otherwise, that big one wouldn’t have gone mad fighting with the bad one. I also heard it was because the bad one suddenly appeared and scared the little cub into the water.”
The Little Fox is practically an information hub and would probably have a lot in common with the Leopard Sister.
It’s a pity that the Tianshan Mountain Range is too far from Jiamu Gully, otherwise they could probably get information flowing everywhere.
After playing with the Little Fox, Chen Ying mentioned the human base at the foot of the mountain.
The small wooden hut here is not used much, typically as a stop during major mountain patrols, roughly four times a year, for about five or six days each time.
Additionally, other scientific teams occasionally take temporary refuge here.
The Little Fox played around with Chen Ying for a while before planning to go find today’s meal.
The snacks just given could barely fill a tooth gap.
Chen Ying returned to the edge of the crack, the scripture audio on his phone had played several times, and the battery had already dropped by a fifth.
Meidi and Kelas went in another direction, intending to take beautiful photos, and shoot some video footage to edit and post on their social media account later in the evening.
Kelas’ account has quite a few followers, making him somewhat of an internet celebrity. However, he doesn’t promote products, as his main salary is quite high and he’s too busy to manage his account.
Once packed, before they headed down the mountain, Chen Ying reported to the principal about the suspected sighting of a male tiger. However, that fierce tiger was quite hostile to humans, so even Chen Ying couldn’t calm it down, making it even harder for others to approach it.
Meanwhile, he received feedback from the principal that the female tiger had been sent to the rescue center, and although the injuries weren’t too severe, its overall condition was poor. The most serious issue was a parasitic disease.
There are plenty of researchers in China studying parasitic diseases, and there are experts with strong skills in related fields, so Chen Ying wasn’t needed to solve the female tiger’s issue at the moment.
The Little Tiger Cub became much more spirited after receiving special care. It was originally a quite clever little guy, and having first contact with Chen Ying made it more accepting of humans than the female tiger. It could even help veterinarians soothe the female tiger.
“That little one’s almost become everyone’s darling,” the principal said, his tone dripping with indulgence, “Though it accepts human feeding, it doesn’t seem too interested in cut meat. This morning, it even tried to catch birds in the park. The feeding group gave it a half-grown chicken, which it managed to bite to death, but it’s not quite good at plucking feathers to eat the meat.”
Being able to maintain its wildness under semi-captivity implies it won’t have trouble surviving if released back into the wild.
The center and the higher management’s intention is to observe the female tiger in a semi-wild area after its treatment and release it back into the wild once it’s confirmed safe.
Chen Ying, who had been nodding all along, suddenly stopped when he heard this.
He suddenly remembered the system saying, “release after five years,” which could mean that the release plan wasn’t ultimately successful.
Speculating backwards, did something happen to the female tiger? Perhaps it wasn’t successfully treated, or maybe its body couldn’t handle life back in the wild?
With some concern, Chen Ying and Kelas embarked on the next leg of their journey.
Originally, the principal wished Chen Ying would stay behind to help find the male tiger, but no one could guarantee the success or duration of this operation.
There hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of the Talimu Tiger in nearly twenty years, suggesting the tiger must have a rather concealed activity area. Additionally, parts of the uninhabited area in the Tianshan overlap with foreign territory, raising questions if the tiger was native or a migrant from abroad.
It’s said that Talimu Tigers were differentiated from the Caspian Tigers expanding to breed here in the past.
Then, perhaps the domestic tiger clearance actions of ten or twenty years ago forced the tigers to change their habits and flee abroad.
The national border is for humans; would a tiger acknowledge this?
After leaving here, the two headed straight to Kashgar.
On the way to Kashgar, they would pass through the Tashen Kuergan Wildlife Nature Reserve. The reserve mainly protects Snow Leopards, Beishan Goats, and Argali.