Snow Leopard Elegy

Chapter 1 Snow Leopard Elegy (1)
A wild training
A little snow leopard who grew up beside humans is about to be sent back to the mountains.

I received a very special task, to release a one and a half year old snow leopard back into the forest.

The thing is like this, a year ago, a local hunter dug a three-meter-deep animal trap near the snow line of Gaoligong Mountain. The original intention was to trap wild goats. To a little snow leopard born about half a year old.Orion took it home and fed it with milk.

Snow leopards belong to the cat family. The cub looks like a white Persian cat, which is very cute and lovable.The Orion raised the little snow leopard as a cat, which can scare the mice and play with the owner.But after raising it for a year, the little snow leopard grew up to be as big as a calf. It not only frightened mice, but also chased sheep and pigs, frightened poultry and livestock, and made the village restless.The villagers who had a grudge with the Orion on weekdays reported the matter to the local police station.

Snow leopards are hunted and killed by humans because of their precious fur. According to the survey, they can only be seen near the snow line at the southern foot of Gaoligong Mountain. The total number will not exceed two hundred. They are endangered rare animals. It is a first-class protected animal in the country, and capture is strictly prohibited.The hunter who took the snow leopard home to raise it as a cat is clearly illegal and must be corrected.A team of forest police armed with batons drove into the pulu yurt where the hunter lived, and confiscated the little snow leopard together with the iron cage.

According to regulations, all rare birds and animals under national protection that are illegally captured from the wild should be released into the mountains.I am an associate researcher at the Provincial Institute of Zoology, and I am investigating wild animals in the Gaoligong Mountain area. Therefore, the local police station entrusted me with this very special job.

I am very happy to do this. I am very interested in the snow leopard known as the overlord of the mountains, and I am trying to collect materials in this regard.But I know that it must be difficult to do this well, and it may take a long time.

In the imagination of ordinary people, releasing a captured wild animal into the forest is like putting a caught fish back into the water. Restrain and everything will be fine.This is not the case.I am not letting go of this snow leopard, but letting go of this snow leopard. Although there is only one word difference between letting go and letting go, their nature and meaning are vastly different: to let go is to find a random forest, open the cage, and let it out Even if the matter is over, where do we go, just listen to the respect, life and death, good and bad, and resign ourselves to fate; releasing life is different, not only to take it to the mountains, but also to find a suitable environment for its life, not only to open the cage and let it be free, but also to let it go. Try to make it survive in the wild.

If the local police station entrusts me with wild birds, whether it is hawks, golden eagles, or red-crowned cranes, let me release them into nature, and I will not have any fear of difficulties.Wild birds have wings and have a strong sense of direction. As long as you carry a bird cage to an area where such wild birds are infested, find a general position, open the cage, and the wild birds will shake their wings and rise to the sky, quickly find and fly back to where they are familiar. living environment.

If the local police station now entrusts me with reptiles, whether pythons, crocodiles, or monitor lizards, let me release them into the wild, and I will not feel any uneasy feelings.Reptiles are cold-blooded animals. After laying eggs, the mother animal generally does not hold a nest and is not responsible for raising the young. The fertilized eggs are hatched by natural temperature changes.The cubs of many reptiles have never seen their parent animals after hatching, and they don't seem to need to know their parent animals, because they don't need to learn anything from their parent animals. The survival codes, as the body grows slowly over time, the codes will be automatically deciphered one by one, so that they can perform the behaviors necessary for survival without a teacher.In other words, reptiles are born with the ability to forage, build nests, choose mates, and reproduce.Regardless of whether the released animal is a cub or an adult animal, as long as it finds an environment with a suitable climate, water and food, it will surely survive.

Snow Leopard is different.Snow leopards belong to mammals, and mammals are the most advanced life forms in the entire biological sequence of the earth.One of the most significant differences between mammals and animals of other orders is that the innate survival skills are very limited, and most of the survival skills must be acquired through acquired learning.For a period of time after birth, mammalian cubs must rely on their mother's milk to survive; after weaning, they must learn survival skills such as feeding, nesting, and socializing from their mothers in order to grow up healthily and safely.Especially for large and medium-sized carnivorous beasts, after weaning, they still need to stay with their mothers for a long time to learn complex hunting courses before they can have the ability to live independently.Research data show that snow leopard cubs are usually weaned after half a year old, but they will live alone without their mothers until they are about two years old.

According to textbooks, during the 30-year long life journey of snow leopards, the most critical period is from half to one and a half years old, which is the golden age for learning survival skills.During this period, the cubs were very interested in learning and had the strongest ability to imitate. The mother snow leopard also began to educate the cubs, and took the cubs out to forage together, so that the cubs could learn hunting knowledge through observation.During this period, all snow leopard mothers are safe from disasters and teach their babies carefully, and if the cubs study diligently, it will lay a good foundation for a lifetime of happiness. After growing up and living independently, it is easier to obtain a living territory , it is easier to find abundant food, it is easier to get a good partner, and the survival probability of offspring is also much higher than the average level.Conversely, during this period, if the mother snow leopard encounters natural disasters or man-made disasters, or if the mother has a weak sense of responsibility, is too lazy to teach or cut corners in the lessons, and the cubs do not study hard because of laziness, they will plant the misfortune for a lifetime of suffering. seed.After growing up and living independently, it is difficult to obtain an ideal living territory, hunt enough food, and find a suitable mate. Even if a cub is born, the probability of survival is very low.

The snow leopard I want to release fell into the hunter's trap when it was half a year old. It has been a year since then.That is to say, it has become a prisoner of human beings before it has had time to receive enlightenment education, and has missed the golden age of learning.It is unimaginable that a cub that has never learned jungle survival skills from its mother can adapt to life in the wild once it returns to the snowy mountains and dense forests, unless it is a child prodigy.It has only been in the wild for half a year, but it has lived with humans for a whole year. It must have very little impression of life in the wild. Whether it wants to go back to nature and become a wild snow leopard is still a big question.Even if it yearns to be a free wild snow leopard, it is still unknown whether it can adapt to life in the wild.In any case, if it is put back into the forest like this, the possibility of it surviving in the high mountains and snowy areas is very slim.

According to the special conditions of the snow leopards to be released, practical and effective methods must be adopted to carry out wild training on them in a planned and step-by-step manner, so as to transform them from a semi-domestic pet state into a real mountain beast.But I don't know much about snow leopards. I just read some introduction articles about snow leopards in books. I don't have any practical experience. I don't know whether I can achieve the expected goal.

Although I am very happy to accept this special task, my heart is heavy like a stone.

The snow leopard is quite different from the ordinary leopard. The fur of the ordinary mountain leopard is khaki or maroon, decorated with dark brown money-shaped or ring-shaped markings. Although it is also beautiful, compared with the snow leopard, it looks mottled and messy; It is silvery white, with snow-white belly and limbs, fine and neat hair on the back, decorated with circles of light yellow patterns, elegant and elegant, coupled with a big fluffy tail, which is pleasing to the eye, and can be called a treasure among leopards.

The one we want to release is a female snow leopard. The hunter who raised her named her Snow Demon. This name is good, very appropriate and very resounding. I decided not to change her name and still call her Snow Demon.

Coincidentally, the hired Tibetan guide Qiangba and I set up a wild animal observation station near the snow line at the southern foot of Gaoligong Mountain. It is only a ravine away from the trap dug by the hunter to catch the snow monster, which is very suitable as a wild animal for the snow monster. It is a cultural base, or a relay station for the snow demon to move from human society to the jungle world.

The southern foot of Gaoligong Mountain is a vague geographical concept, which generally refers to the entire mountain range and a section of the Nu River Canyon more than 100 kilometers long, with an area of ​​at least [-] square kilometers.The top of the mountain is covered with snow all the year round, and half of the gentle slopes are covered with snow and half covered with grass.There are deep gullies and dense forests in the river valley below the mountain, and there is also the vast and boundless Gamar grassland, where there are many herbivores that snow leopards like to eat, such as blue sheep, Tibetan antelope, red deer, and hares.This is a national nature reserve. There are no villages or people in a radius of [-] miles. It is the ideal habitat for snow leopards.

The local police station helped me hire six migrant workers and a pair of dog sleds to transport the snow monster together with its iron cage to the wildlife observation station.Our observation station is located under a leeward cliff, with steep cliffs on both sides, and a solid fence built with round logs thicker than bowls on the other two sides, with a dark green military tent inside, which looks like a small castle from a distance .We placed the iron cage in a corner under the steep rock behind the tent, and covered it with a layer of birch bark, making it a temporary nest for the snow demon.

My specific idea is to let the snow demon live in the wildlife observation station for a period of time to adapt to the climate and environment here, gradually transition to a wild state, and finally return to the mountain forest.

The Snow Demon is one and a half years old, a little smaller than an adult snow leopard, and has not yet fully matured. Applying human growth stages, it should be regarded as a teenage snow leopard.It looks very pleasing, with round ears and a short face, a nose like black jade, eyes like sapphires, thick long hair on the back that shines like broken silver, and a slender and streamlined body.

For the first two days, the Snow Demon was still a little strange to me and Qiangba, hiding in the iron cage and not coming out, feeding it food, it would not eat until we left the iron cage and returned to the tent.But after a week, it became very familiar with us. Whenever its name was called, it would shake its fluffy leopard tail and run over and rub its face against our pant legs; when we fed it, it would be friendly. After eating, stroke its back with your hand, it will roll on the ground coquettishly, retract its sharp claws into the claw sheath, and use its soft claws to pat our legs, and we Play around.

Maybe it's because the field life is too boring and the observation station is too lonely. Qiangba always likes to play with the snow demon when he has nothing to do. He puts a piece of beef on the charcoal stove and roasts it deliciously, luring the snow demon to salivate, and then holds the beef in hand to train the snow demon to cook Perform movements such as standing upright, rolling over, lying flat, and rotating.Qiangba is a hunter who has been in the mountains and forests for many years, and he likes to deal with animals. According to his boast, no matter how useless a wild dog is, after being trained by him, he will become a good hunting dog that gallops all over the hunting field, just like a talented animal trainer.Strange to say, in just a few days, the Snow Demon has learned several acrobatic moves, and when Jamba yells, it will perform with great interest according to Jamba's signal.

"How about it?" Jamba said to me proudly, "I'm not bragging, but the most ferocious Bengal tiger is in my hands. I want it to be as round as I want, or as flat as I want it to be, and become an obedient cat. .”

If he hadn't said these words, I would not have realized the seriousness of the problem. As soon as he said these words, I immediately became alert, thought for a while, and said to him very seriously: "Qiangba, from now on, if you don't Don't train it to do these silly moves. Well, please don't play with it anymore, and don't be too close and kind to it."

"You..." Qiangba widened his eyes in astonishment, "Why are you doing this?"

"Quite simply, we're not raising a cat or training a good animal performer for a circus. Our goal is to turn it into a normal wild snow leopard." I said, "Have you ever seen a cat in the world?" Is there any wild snow leopard who is so close to people? Wild snow leopards should fear people, avoid people, and keep a certain distance from people."

"You mean, do you want me to scold it and beat it to alienate it?"

"It's not necessary to scold it and beat it, but the attitude must be indifferent, let it understand that if it leaves us, life will be happier. You are right, we must alienate it and let it develop an independent spiritual character .Believe me, it will be good for him and get him back into the bush as soon as possible to get used to life in the wild."

"Maybe what you said is really reasonable." Qiangba said with a sad face, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

After that, Qiangba and I made a 180-degree turn in our attitude towards the snow demon. We no longer played with it, and we no longer caressed its back intimately.When feeding it, throw the meat into the bowl, then turn away coldly, not caring if it flicks its fluffy tail at us gratefully.It was sticky and wanted to rub our pant legs with its fluffy leopard face, so we roughly pushed it away.If it doesn't care and wants to come to us, we will scold it with a straight face and kick it away with our feet.

When I did this, because I controlled my emotions scientifically and rationally, and knew that although my actions were unreasonable, my intentions were not bad, so I acted calmly without feeling guilty.Qiangba is different, he is a bloody Tibetan man, he can't wait to show his heart to whoever treats him well.Xue Yao got along very well with him a few days ago, and suddenly he was asked to turn his back on him and treat Xue Yao coldly, as if asking him to do something outrageous. When scolding, his face was flushed and he couldn't swear, and when it was time to kick, his legs seemed to be suffering from myasthenia, and he kicked limply without any prestige.

I dissatisfied and said to him: "Qiangba, are you accusing it of scolding it, or are you singing a love song to it? If your tone of voice can be regarded as scolding it, its bones will be crumbled by you." ;Are you kicking it with your feet, or are you scratching it with your hind paw? If you are kicking and kicking it, its heart will be drawn closer by you .”

Qiangba seemed to have a lot of coptis stuffed in his mouth, his whole face was wrinkled like a sun-dried bitter gourd, and he murmured: "It did nothing wrong, I... I really can't bear to hurt it for no reason."

"I can understand your feelings. To be honest, being an unreasonable villain is also very painful for me, but you have to understand that the snow demon is already one and a half years old. If it lives next to the mother snow leopard, the mother snow leopard will not It’s time to treat it like a newborn cub, and it’s time to be cold and alienated.”

I say this with a scientific basis.According to field investigation data, the emotion between feline mother and child gradually fades over time, which can be roughly divided into five stages.When the cubs are just born, the mother beast loves the most, hugging her in her arms and licking and kissing her constantly, and she is reluctant to leave for a moment, which is called the loving period; When the cubs are free, they use their tongues to groom the cubs, which is called the pampering period. After the cubs are one year old, they start to learn to hunt with the mother. Hold the little ones in your warm arms, but no longer lick their fur several times a day, which is called the love period; when the cubs are about one and a half years old and have a certain defense ability, the mother beast will let the cubs play by themselves. They no longer rush to look for them if they don't see them for a while, and sleep with their cubs at night, which is called the relaxation period of love; Except for sharing with the cubs, they no longer stay with the cubs at other times. If the cubs are sticky and come to play around with the mother, the mother will growl impatiently and drive the cubs away, saying: For the annulment of love.

These five stages are very important, and they are indispensable. They are the emotional journey that cannot be omitted from life from childishness to maturity.If there is no love period, the cub cannot survive; if there is no doting period, the cub cannot acquire a sound mind; if there is no love period, the cub cannot thrive; if there is no love relaxation period, the cub cannot get rid of childishness and gradually mature; if Without the abolition period of love, the cubs cannot develop an independent and unruly character, and of course they cannot gain a foothold in the wilderness jungle where the jungle is preyed upon by the jungle.

Judging from its age, Snow Demon has passed the relaxation period of love and entered the abolition period of love, so I don't think it's appropriate to play with it anymore.

"I hope what you said is right." Qiangba said, "I'll just scold and kick harder from now on."

Due to our unfamiliar attitude, after a few days, the snow demon became cold with us. After eating, he stopped running to us to have fun with us, but squatted quietly in front of the wooden fence, looking at the woods, In the mountains, snow fields and grasslands, there is a light in the eyes that jumps out of the barriers and yearns for freedom.

This is completely consistent with the behavioral characteristics of wild snow leopards.According to the book, in the natural state, when the little snow leopard grows up to one and a half years old, it no longer misses the nest where it lives with the mother snow leopard, and will gradually have the idea of ​​running away from home.

Two First Hunts

The first time hunting, the snow demon roared and screamed, scaring away the prey.

I decided to take the Snow Demon out hunting together to see if it has the ability to find and capture food by itself, which is the key to whether it can become wild on its own.For wild animals, the most important part of life is to seek food that can sustain life.People depend on food, and animals depend on food even more.

(End of this chapter)