Back to 1984: Hunting in the Mountains

Chapter 143 Musk Deer Baby
The rhododendrons all over the mountains look like a burning sea of ​​fire.

As the breeze blows, the petals sway gently, like dancing fairies, showing endless charm and style, making the entire forest immersed in a dreamy beauty.

Yu Qiutang was really surprised to see large areas of rhododendrons in autumn.

Rhododendron is a very delicate flower.

She is known as the most beautiful flower.

They have very strict requirements on the temperature for flowering, generally 15 degrees Celsius, but they don't like sunlight.

Therefore, most azaleas bloom before June every year.

But there are always exceptions to the survival of all things. Because of some special conditions, some special environments and geographical restrictions, there are always some special species that emerge out of thin air. Under the selection of nature or humans, new varieties are gradually formed and new states are displayed.

At this moment, Yu Qiutang's position is quite special.

Because the two sides around it are relatively high and covered with forests, there is a hillside in the middle that serves to keep the room warm.

Therefore, a relatively closed and internal circulation location is formed here, and the temperature is relatively constant.

Therefore, this kind of azalea that blooms in large areas only in autumn and winter appeared, which is similar to the four-season azalea and golden autumn azalea that people often plant later.

Rhododendron is one of the main foods of musk deer. Some older musk deer even eat rhododendron leaves and stems.

If there are musk deer nearby, there will definitely be musk deer visiting such a large area of ​​rhododendrons. The probability is relatively higher than in the moss area below.

Therefore, Yu Qiutang asked the other two to wait downstairs and came up himself to increase the chance of encountering the musk deer.

Yu Qiutang found a tall branch and hung all his packages and unused items on it, leaving only the crossbow on his back.

He picked up some one or two meter long tree trunks with green leaves on them, held them in his hands and began to search for any signs of musk deer.

I once heard from an old hunter that traps are needed to hunt musk deer.

That is to collect some of the musk deer's feces or musk, make a trap, and then attract other musk deer to achieve the purpose of hunting.

But Yu Qiutang has no musk deer in his hands now, let alone musk deer. Everything is difficult at the beginning. The first musk deer is the most difficult to catch.

The only solution he could think of was to smell the sea of ​​rhododendron flowers as quickly as possible to determine whether musk deer had really appeared here.

Of course, it won't check all of these hundreds of acres of rhododendrons.

Firstly, his sense of smell is stronger than that of ordinary people. Therefore, every time he moves forward, the area and number of lines of radiation will be very large.

Moreover, he has a lot of energy, which is unmatched by ordinary people. In principle, as long as a forest musk deer appears here, he will definitely be able to find it.

Then, in the sea of ​​​​red azaleas, a gray, very uncoordinated figure appeared. He leaned over, like a curled-up beast, and checked the azaleas.

After working, he gradually entered a state of ecstasy. Before he knew it, he felt that the rain seemed to have stopped and he no longer heard the sound of rain hitting his raincoat.

But when he looked up, he found that the rain had not stopped at all, but that he had reached a higher altitude and the rain had completely turned into snow.

The sound of snow falling on your body is not as loud as rain.

Fortunately, the snow is like light salt grains, not very big, and it seems that it will not settle on the ground even if it falls for an hour or so.

People here like to call this kind of snow ground oil.

This means that although it will not accumulate very thickly, when spread on the ground, it will make the ground extremely slippery, just like people stepping on oil.

However, this kind of ground oil is basically useless when it falls on the mountains, especially on soft slopes like rhododendron.

Because the soil here is not hard at all, but soft and uneven. When the oil falls on it, it will quickly mix with the soil and it is difficult to make people slide.

However, Yu Qiutang is still worried, as this kind of snow is often a precursor to heavy snow.

If heavy snow fell on the mountain, he would have to give up the search.

Moreover, forest musk deer prefer warm and humid environments. Once it snows heavily, they will hide in their dens and not come out, and because the heavy snow covers their food, it will make them more cautious.

In that case, you have to put in more effort to catch it.

He had to race against the weather.

During the search, he also saw two little red foxes in the azalea bushes, estimated to be only two or three months old.

Cute, still quite adorable.

Maybe because they had never seen humans before, they were not very afraid of Yu Qiutang.

When Yu Qiutang saw them, they just squatted there and looked at Yu Qiutang carefully, as if they wanted to observe what he was doing here and what he was.
Yu Qiutang usually doesn't hunt and kill these little guys, what he cares about is a long history.

After all, he was reborn from the future. He knew that many animals might face extinction and endangerment in the near future, but he still hunted them on a large scale. He was really a bit psychopathic.

More than two hours passed, Yu Qiutang was still sore in the waist and back, but he still had no goal.

Normal musk deer hunting is not like his method. It often takes longer and uses traps, drugs, and even nets to increase the success rate of hunting.

But no matter how many means you use, it will ultimately come down to waiting.

As long as the musk deer doesn't come out, people can only sit and wait.

Yu Qiutang's proactive approach is inherently a shortcut and a side path, and has a relatively lower success rate.

The snow fell heavier and heavier, and a thin layer of white began to appear on the rhododendrons all over the mountains, like white sugar sprinkled on tomatoes.

"Hurry up!"

Yu Qiutang urged himself.

Once heavy snow falls, all traces of movement will be concealed. It will be almost impossible to find the musk deer by taking the initiative, and the only thing you can do is stay in the mountains and wait.

That's hard to say.

Musk deer are more afraid of cold and may not appear. Although red musk deer are relatively cold-resistant, their numbers in this area are scarce.

Musk deer prefer to eat grass, so they would prefer Gansu rather than the Sanqin area where Rongcheng is located.

After encouraging himself, he started looking again.

Hard work pays off.

Not long after he set out again, he suddenly smelled a peculiar fragrance.

Although it was not very strong and was almost buried in the thick scent of azalea, it still could not escape Yu Qiutang's full-strength "dog nose".

He quickly rushed towards the source of the fragrance.

Soon, the target was locked within a range of ten meters.

Crouching down, he carefully examined the nearby azaleas, searching for the shadow of the musk deer.

But soon, he discovered that there was no sign that the azalea had been eaten, and even the leaves were preserved intact.

This confused him again.

Such a strong smell proves that a musk deer must have been nearby, but it didn't eat anything. So what was it doing?

Sleeping? Definitely not.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

This ghost thing is quite cunning. He used his feet to push away the thin layer of snow on the ground, carefully observing it bit by bit, and soon found the traces.

Because the snow had just fallen and the temperature in the mountains was low, it did not melt and the ground was still dry.

But among the many dry soils, there was one place where the color was obviously wrong, and it was obvious that it had been turned over.

He squatted down, broke off a branch of azalea, gently removed the buried soil, and sure enough, he found musk deer excrement inside.

This confirms the fact that musk deer appear here.

This gave Yu Qiutang great encouragement.

The next thing is quite simple. With this base point, the anchor point is relatively set.

The search target has been narrowed down a lot.

Soon, Yu Qiutang locked onto the activity routes of several musk deer, then found a location with a good view, hid in the azalea bushes, and began waiting for the musk deer to appear.

This kind of waiting involves a certain element of luck.

But there is no better way.

He marked an intersection through several defecation routes of musk deer. This guy has a certain path dependence. No matter where he comes from, he will pass the same place and then hide in different places in the sea of ​​rhododendrons.

It is equivalent to the intersection of thoroughfares.

Then he just needs to hold this point.

He carefully hid among the azaleas, keeping his body as low as possible.

Not only can it hide, but it also allows the azalea to disguise the scent of its own people as much as possible.

Time passes slowly.

No target appeared.

Yu Qiutang's body was almost stiff as he lay there, and no one knew how much snow had filled his neck.

But apart from some small animals that were not afraid of the cold running around, there was no sign of a single musk deer.

I don’t know if it’s due to the weather, or if the musk deer that appeared here have already completed their mission and moved to a new activity territory?
Do not……

It should be impossible.

Once musk deer find such a large patch of rhododendron, there is no need to move away, as rhododendron is one of their favorite foods.

There's no reason to move when there's plenty of food here.

For wild animals like them, finding a suitable area to reproduce and live is not as easy as it is for humans. If this place is not suitable for living, they will just move to another city.

That really could be the weather.

Yu Qiutang looked at the sky helplessly. Although the snow did not continue to fall heavily, it still did not stop. It was gloomy and cloudy, and with the tall trees on the surrounding mountains, it gave people a very depressing feeling.

He looked at the target point again, and making sure that there was no target for the time being, he stood up and stretched his muscles, rubbed his palms to make his limbs more flexible.

In other words, he has a healthy body and a strong temper. If he were an ordinary person, he would not be able to hide for so long.

If he fails to catch the musk deer, he might get frostbite.

He stretched his arms and looked around, but the moment his eyes turned back, he suddenly turned back in surprise and a small forest musk deer appeared in his sight.

"Snapped!"

Without any unnecessary movements, he fell directly into the azalea bush without any hesitation.

He also didn't care that the branches of the azalea would hurt his body.

After lying down, he tried to lower his body as low as possible, broke off a rhododendron flower and put it on his head, then he carefully raised his head and observed the little musk deer.

This forest musk deer looks very small and probably not yet fully grown.

An adult forest musk deer can grow to be sixty to seventy centimeters in length. Under normal circumstances, it takes one and a half to two years to reach adulthood.

The lifespan of musk deer is similar to that of cats and dogs, approximately fifteen to twenty years, but because they are very dangerous in nature, it is rare to see wild musk deer live for more than fifteen years.

But if they are artificially bred, they can live for more than 20 years. The same principle applies to cats and dogs.

In principle, cats and dogs can live for more than 20 years, but the lifespan of wild cats and dogs is very short. Cats basically only live for three years, and wild dogs live a little longer, probably more than five years.

Lack of food and protection from the cold in winter, as well as various infectious diseases, are unavoidable disasters that take their lives.

Therefore, wild cats and dogs are actually in line with nature's selection and will not really become rampant. Even in a small community, if there are too many wild cats, they will die quickly. This is the reason.

The fur of this forest musk deer is dark in color. Because the light is dim, Yu Qiutang finds it difficult to distinguish the specific color. He vaguely thinks it should be brown, with some orange mixed in.

He had to concentrate and keep his vision refined.

Now I can see it more clearly.

It was indeed orange-red in color, without any spots on its entire body, its head was black, and there was yellow hair on its face, which confirmed that it was indeed a baby musk deer.

Only baby musk deer that are less than two months old have yellow hair on their faces. After more than two months, the color of the hair gradually darkens until it becomes completely brown or brown, basically the same as that of an adult musk deer.

The musk deer was originally lying sideways, waiting for something. When it turned its face to the front, Yu Qiutang was sure that it did have downward-curved canine teeth and was a male musk deer.

Female musk deer do not have canine teeth.

Yu Qiutang estimated that the distance between him and the musk deer was about seventy or eighty meters. The crossbow had a limited shooting range and it was difficult to hit the musk deer.

Moreover, there is no point in capturing such a small musk deer.

Their organs are not mature and their bodies are quite weak. They might be suffocated by a crossbow arrow.

What Yu Qiutang was more concerned about was where the parents of this musk deer were?
The gestation period of musk deer in different regions is different, and even in the Qinling Mountains, it is not exactly the same.

Musk deer near the Shaanxi-Gansu region usually choose to become pregnant in October, while those in Sichuan and Chongqing will become pregnant a little earlier, possibly in September.

The gestation period of the forest musk deer is about six months to eight months. If it is conceived in October, the baby will be born in June or July of the following year. From this time, we can also know the current age of this baby forest musk deer.

Yu Qiutang suppressed the joy in his heart and waited motionlessly.

What made him upset was that he didn't see where the musk deer came from.

Therefore, the large range of musk deer activities is unclear.

Then just keep waiting.

Now that he has a goal, waiting is much easier and he has plenty of patience.

“Mi mi…”

“Mi mi…”

The little forest musk deer waited for a while and then began to frolic happily among the azalea flowers.

Musk deer will make a "mi-mi" sound when they are particularly excited, for example, when they see delicious food, when the male and female are interacting intimately to the peak, or when a young musk deer sees its mother.

Hearing this voice, Yu Qiutang was no longer sleepy.

(End of this chapter)