red ribbon lion king

Chapter 10 Creating the First Territory (1)
The wasp-waisted lionesses are pregnant, and as their belly bulges day by day, a life problem is posed in front of them.

Although it and the red ribbon form a small family, they do not have a territory of their own, and are still essentially stray lions.If there are no cubs, life will pass by, moving around the borders of other lions, and if they encounter trouble, they will move to the Batia Desert. Sneaking back from the sub-desert to the Rollian Prairie.This successful form of guerrilla warfare must now come to an end.Once the little guy in the stomach comes to this world, it cannot survive without a fixed territory.

Lions belong to carnivorous beasts, and carnivorous beasts have a reproductive characteristic, that is, the childish state of their offspring is relatively long.The so-called naive state refers to the special period from birth to being able to go out with their parents to forage, which is equivalent to the childhood period of human beings.Childhood is undoubtedly the weakest period of life, unable to run, fed by parents, defenseless.

The immature state of many herbivores is extremely short. Cattle, sheep, horses, deer, etc., can run freely with all four hooves in just ten minutes after birth.The cubs can’t do it. After the cubs are born, it takes seven days to open their eyes, half a month to hobble, and a year and a half to barely catch up with the running speed of an adult lion, and to follow the lioness to roam the vast grasslands.In this regard, carnivorous beasts cannot be compared with herbivores.

The immature growth characteristic of a lion cub determines that a lion, an animal, must have a relatively stable living environment and a fixed habitat during the entire breeding period.If there is no fixed territory, and they continue to wander as in the past, once they are chased by other lions, the cubs will not be able to escape, and they will be killed one by one by vicious big lions.

There are still about [-] days before the labor period, so we must hurry up and find a suitable territory!

According to the traditional survival mode of the lion society, it is the duty of the male lion to find a territory.Generally speaking, in a lion family, the male lion is responsible for delimiting and defending the territory, and the female lion is responsible for raising and taking care of the cubs.However, this small family of lions composed of a wasp-waisted lioness and a red streamer breaks the order of male superiority and female inferiority, and implements equality between males and females. It also fell on the body of the wasp waist lioness.

Finding a fixed territory in Luolian Prairie is really more difficult than finding gold ingots.The fertile land with lush vegetation has already been divided up by other lions. They are weak and weak, and it is impossible to dig a piece of land from other lions' territories.The vast Batia Desert is not occupied by other lions, but there is no source of food or water, and there is no shade. Under the scorching sun, not to mention the cubs with delicate skin and tender flesh, even adult lions will be killed. Sun-dried and charred.

The wasp-waisted lioness searched for seven or eight days in a row, but still ran into walls everywhere, unable to do anything.

It seems that they can only make up their minds on the edge of the Bhatia Desert and the Luolian Prairie.It leads the red ribbon and walks along the narrow and barren corridor between the grassland and the desert, hoping for a miracle to find a place where they can safely give birth to their cubs.

At noon on the third day, they came to the northern end of the territory of the Kaza lions, and then went out to cross a rocky ditch, which was the boundary of the Patilu lions.

Suddenly, the wasp-waisted lioness's eyes lit up, and she saw that at the junction of the Kaza lion group and the Patilu lion group, the endless and straight desert line escaped half a circle, and a piece was drawn on the side of the desert. The solitary green land, shaped like a half gourd, may be called the gourd wasteland.

God knows how this sandy sea peninsula was formed. Maybe the rocky ditch played a role. During the rainy season, the rocky ditch turns into a seasonal river, and the river flows into the desert. Over time, it slowly dries up this area. The desert has infiltrated into an oasis; maybe there is a spring hidden under the ground here, and under the scorching sun, the water vapor evaporates to the surface, soaking the grass seeds and tree species carried in the droppings of birds and animals, spreading the limited greenery here. meaning to.

The wasp-waisted lioness ran into the gourd wasteland, sniffing east and west, and surveyed carefully, but found neither lion dung, lion fur, lion footprints, nor the smell of the same kind.That said, this is a land that does not belong to any pride of lions!
I can't figure out why the adjacent Kaza lions and Patilu lions didn't enclose this calabash wasteland into their territory. Maybe the vast and powerful Patilu lions think that this calabash wasteland is too small, so It is worth paying attention to; although the Kaza lions with a relatively small territory and relatively weak forces also want to expand their territory in their dreams, but because this gourd wasteland is just at the junction of the two lions, they are afraid that they will be attacked by Patilu. The interference of the lions caused a border war for a small piece of wasteland, and the gains outweighed the losses, so they ignored it.

Anyway, it's an unclaimed land.

Not all green land is suitable for lions to live in. Whether a land can raise offspring depends on the availability of water.

Water is the most basic element for the survival of all life.Without food, you can travel long distances to other lions' territories to poach and bring the prey back to your own territory to enjoy, but without water, lions cannot gain a foothold on this land.Lions don't know how to use tools, they don't have containers for water, and they don't know how to transport water to another place like elephants. Far water can't quench a lion's near thirst.

Under normal conditions, adult lions can go to other water sources to drink water, but in the process of raising young, they must be very close to the water source.When a lioness gives birth, she struggles in pain, consumes a lot of physical energy, and needs to drink water constantly. After giving birth to a cub, the lioness, like other mammalian females, also has a weak and weak "confinement" stage, and it is impossible to run too far to drink water.And those cubs, once weaned, switch to minced meat and need to drink water several times a day.If there is no water source in the territory, every time you have to run a long way across other lions' territories to drink water, it is too dangerous, and there is little hope of survival.

The wasp-waisted lioness sniffed, smelled, scratched, and digged in search of water in the gourd wasteland.

It searched around the wasteland, but found no water source.It went around again in the opposite direction, but unfortunately, no water source was found.It is a little discouraged, it seems that this is a piece of dry land without water, can not have children, forget it, let's go, try your luck in other places, it thought.

It just stepped out of the gourd wasteland with a red ribbon, stopped again, turned around and looked around with nostalgia.It is not easy to find such an unowned wasteland. If you continue to go forward, you may not come across a land that does not belong to any lion group and is covered with green vegetation.The fetus in the womb grows day and night, and it has little time left, so it must find a suitable territory as soon as possible, otherwise, the baby in its womb will have very little hope of surviving after it comes to this world.

It can be deduced logically that the gourd wasteland is surrounded by three sides of the desert and is still lush with vegetation, so there must be a hidden water source, otherwise, it would have been swallowed by wind and sand and turned into a desert.Moisture can nourish the land, and there is water when there is greenness, so you should look for it patiently.Thinking of this, it returned to the gourd wasteland, walked side by side with the red streamer, moved forward inch by inch, and searched carefully like pulling a net.The sun was about to set, and almost every bush, every rock, and every corner of the gourd wasteland had been surveyed, but no water source was found.

The day was wasted in vain, and it was very depressed, lying on the ground exhausted, and wanted to leave this place after taking a breath.Its eyes fell on the grass in front of it inadvertently, and suddenly, its eyes lit up, and there were several water fern striata growing in the wormwood bushes, the emerald green leaves swaying in the wind, and the bud cores shaped like spring silkworms were bent on the branches. top.What made it even more surprising was that a small frog whose tail hadn't completely molted off was climbing on a fern splendens, swinging leisurely on a swing.

Fern splendens is an ancient plant, divided into two categories, one is dry fern splendens, and the other is water fern splendens.Dry fern splendens has thick stalks, thick leaves, rough shape, hairy bud core, yellowish color, and grows on the mountain; water fern splendens has delicate branches, graceful shape, smooth bud core, oily green color, and grows near the water.These two types of fern splendens can be identified at a glance and are not easy to confuse.Water fern striata, as the name suggests, is a fern striata that grows near water.Many animals know that as long as they see water fern splendens, they have found water.And that little frog, dragging half of its tail, is still in the transition stage from a tadpole to a frog, and the life of a tadpole is inseparable from water.

There must be water here!It jumped up excitedly, rushed to the water fern splendens, pulled out the wormwood with its teeth, and dug up the top layer of floating soil with its claws. Oh, there is a small rocky beach underneath, and a fragrance of water diffuses.It dug out some pebbles, and there was indeed a pool of clear water in a large stone mortar about half a meter deep from the ground.It rolled up the tip of its tongue and tasted it, it was clear and sweet, and the water quality was excellent.

Tired for most of the day, the red streamer was so thirsty that her throat was smoking, she squeezed in, buried her face in the stone mortar, gulped for water, and drank up the small pool of clear water in just two gulps.

The wasp-waisted lioness stood in front of the stone mortar and waited for the spring water to seep out. After waiting for more than half an hour, the water accumulated a thin layer in the stone mortar, which was not enough to moisten her throat.It observed carefully, only to find that this is the smallest water source in the world. There is only a water line as thick as a lion's mane, which leaks from the depths of the stone crevice and flows into the stone mortar.The stone mortar is very shallow, and if it is fully filled, it is enough for an adult lion to drink two mouthfuls.But according to the rate of leakage of the water line, it would take at least seven or eight hours to fill the mortar, that is to say, only three mortars could be stored in a day and night.This little water is barely enough for it and the red ribbon to drink.It will not die of thirst, but can survive. It is a stray lion. It is already a great joy to kowtow to the sky to find such a piece of land that can survive.

For a big cat like a lion, this gourd wasteland is obviously too narrow. The length from east to west is no more than a thousand meters, and the width from north to south is at most 600 meters. Surrounded by sand on three sides, blown by dust and sand, the grass and leaves on the edge of the wasteland are yellow, and there are a few red willows and sand dates growing sparsely. The branches are thin and leaves are half dead, and there is little vitality; only the vegetation in the center near the water source is still luxuriant. ; The wasteland can be seen through at a glance, and there is no prey that can satisfy the hunger. For food, they have to sneak to other lions' territories to solve it as in the past; the water source is also too small to drink freely.In a word, this is not an ideal habitat for lions. Living here is extremely low-grade, equivalent to the slums of human society.

Even so, the wasp-waisted lioness decided immediately to use this small sandy sea peninsula as her territory to give birth and raise her young.Although it's not ideal here, at least it can be demarcated as its own territory.No matter how good other places are, they are not my own.A golden nest and a silver nest are not as good as your own grass nest.It will give birth soon, and the most urgent thing is to have a stable environment without disturbance.Although the conditions here are poor, at least after giving birth to lion cubs, there is no need to worry about being violently expelled by other lions; although there is no food source here and the water is very tight, at least there are shade trees to enjoy the shade and avoid the scorching sun. .

For the world's smallest pride of lions, with only one male and one female, it was a stroke of luck to find such a piece of unowned wasteland.

What remains to be done is to arrange scents around the gourd wasteland and build a scent boundary line to determine the sovereignty of this land.

Lions are mammals, and mammals think with their noses.Lions are territorial animals, and use scent to distinguish and demarcate territories.Lions are social animals dominated by males and multiple females. Naturally, the territory is defined by the smell of male lions.The usual practice is that when the lion group finds suitable land, the male lion who is the leader rubs his body on the conspicuous tree stump, rock, soil ditch or ant mound at the edge of the territory, hangs a few strands of fallen mane, and Drops of urine and feces.

Urine and feces are a kind of smell warning. Once a foreign lion smells it, it will know that a male lion has ruled here.The wisps of mane are like a banner, fluttering in the wind. Those wandering male lions can judge the strength and physical condition of the big male lion who enters this land from the thickness, length, color and luster of the mane.The mane attached to the border has a strong deterrent effect and can effectively scare off ordinary stray male lions.

From the moment he stepped into the gourd wasteland, the red streamer was eager to try, and wanted to use its scent and mane to set up the boundary line, but was stopped by the wasp-waisted lioness.

The wasp-waisted lioness decided to change the customary practice of males laying out boundaries.

In the lion society, whose scent sets the boundaries is as important as who is the head of the household in the household registration book of a family in human society.The wasp-waisted lioness is the head of this small lion family, logically speaking, her scent should also be used to delineate the boundary line.

The reason why it wants to do this is another layer of worry, fearing that the red streamer will relapse due to this, and it will turn its tail on male supremacy again.

The calabash wasteland is not large, and it is not very difficult to arrange the boundaries.After half a day of hard work, the wasp-waisted lioness left her own urine and feces on the east, west, north, south, and north sides of the gourd wasteland, building a tight scent boundary.

But a qualified lion boundary line, in addition to the smell, must also stick some mane in a conspicuous place, which it cannot do.The lioness does not have a mane, but the cheeks, the back of the neck and the back are bald. Like the rest of the body hair, it is only an inch long.The wasp-waisted lioness had no choice but to rub her body on the rocks and tree stumps desperately, replacing the male lion's mane with ordinary body hair. As a result, a lot of body hair was rubbed off, and the body on both sides hurt like burning fire.Alas, there is no way for the Creator to prevent the lioness from growing manes.

After demarcating the territory, the wasp-waisted lioness was exhausted, so she got under a clump of sand dates and fell asleep.With your own nest, you can finally sit back and relax.

A lion's roar awakened the wasp-waisted lioness. When she opened her eyes, the rising sun had risen above the horizon, and the sea of ​​sand was red. The scenery was very spectacular.It thought it was the red ribbon that was hungry and howling, and wanted to wake it up to look for food together. When it turned around, the red ribbon was lying under the root of the palm tree, with its eyes closed and its chest heaving rhythmically, still asleep What about a getaway.

Ugh—the lion roared again, this time it heard clearly, and the roar came from the southwest.It followed the sound, oh, there is a male lion standing beside the abrupt rock on the boundary line, looking for something.

The gourd wasteland is very small, not far from each other, and there is no shelter on the boundary line. It can see clearly. This is a young male lion who has just debuted. The mane on its neck has only grown half, and it is sparse. The embryo is only two-thirds the size of an adult male lion, with immature eyesight, thin and dry, not much of the majesty of a male lion can be seen from top to bottom, and there is a blue-purple birthmark on its chin, which is very conspicuous.It remembered very clearly that it had urinated and defecated on the spot where the little blue-faced lion was standing yesterday evening, and had scratched a lot of body hair on that rock.

It stands to reason that like a young male lion with a green face, his mane has not grown neatly, his body has not grown strong, his bones have not grown hard, and his claws have not grown sharp. If he smells the smell of other lions, he will avoid them and go to the place of other lions. The boundary line is like encountering an insurmountable obstacle, and one would rather detour than trespass without authorization.

But the little blue-faced male lion in front of him has already crossed the boundary line of scent that he worked so hard to arrange, standing in front of the abrupt rock, looking at the strands of body hair hanging on it.It only urinated and excreted yesterday evening. It hasn't rained or blown in the sky, so the smell can't dissipate.

(End of this chapter)