Snow Leopard Elegy

Chapter 11 Snow Leopard Elegy (11)
The Snow Demon gradually calmed down, imitating the Big Dipper female leopard, motionless like clay sculptures and wood carvings, with only two eyes watching the Tibetan antelopes in the distance through the gaps in the grass leaves.

After more than ten minutes, no suspicious movement was found, and the big horned whistle sheep put down its hoof and lifted the alarm.The Tibetan antelopes cast complaining glances at the big bent-horned whistle sheep, alarmed indiscriminately, which disturbed everyone's heartbeat and severely affected their appetite. What should they do?

The Big Dipper Leopard led the Snow Demon to continue touching the group of Tibetan antelopes.The Snow Demon seemed to have made some progress compared to before, following in the footsteps of the Big Dipper mother leopard, following step by step, carefully avoiding the dead branches and leaves that were prone to noise, and no longer bumping into the bushes and shaking them violently.

The mother and daughter leopards moved silently to the front about 100 meters away from the herd of Tibetan antelopes. The mother Beidou stopped, raised her face, shook her silver-white beard, and changed directions, as if she was testing something.

"Oh, it's testing the wind direction to prevent its scent from being blown into the Tibetan antelope's nose by the wind, and the Tibetan antelope with a keen sense of smell will detect the opening." Qiangba, who is familiar with the nature of animals, said in my ear.

I looked up at the leaves, they were fluttering slightly from east to west, oh, the east wind was blowing, the wind was very weak, about one or two degrees.The mother and daughter leopards are located in the east, and the herd of Tibetan antelopes are located in the west. The hunter and the prey are just in line with the wind direction. If they do not change direction, but still go straight forward, and the distance is closer, the carnivorous beast on them will The pungent fishy smell is likely to expose their targets.

Qiangba's analysis was correct. The Big Dipper mother leopard was indeed testing the wind direction with her sensitive beard, and then turned south, apparently wanting to go around the downwind vent, or at least avoid the upwind vent that is connected in a straight line. location, looking for a blind spot that can blind the nose of the Tibetan antelope.Xue Yao didn't understand this, and stared at the Big Dipper Leopard in surprise, as if she didn't understand why she didn't go in a straight line but had to take a long detour.The Beidou female leopard had no choice but to turn around, stop Xue Yao, kept raising her face and shaking her long beard, and explained over and over again in silent words why she couldn't walk in a straight line, why she had to go around in circles, and why she wanted to stay closer and farther away.The stupid student finally came to a realization under the persuasive temptation. Xue Yao turned around and followed the Beidou mother leopard to turn south.

After about a quarter of an hour, the mother and daughter leopards walked around the grass and shrubs and came to the rocky hill in the south, about 80 to 50 meters away from the group of Tibetan antelopes. After going out, there was a knee-deep grass beach—an open area without shelter.Although this distance is a bit far for the fast-jumping Tibetan antelope, it is still within the effective hunting range of the snow leopard. If they attack silently and suddenly, the astonished Tibetan antelope will be startled and pause at least two times. It takes only a few seconds to run away like waking up from a dream, so that the distance between each other will be shortened to about 1000 meters.The snow leopard is a famous sprinter. It can run at a speed of 1000 kilometers per hour within [-] meters, while the maximum speed of the Tibetan antelope is [-] kilometers per hour. It is sure to capture the target within a distance of [-] meters.

The big horned whistle sheep probably smelled something strange, and suddenly became tense again, flapping its nose in a sniffing motion to capture suspicious smells in the air, the sheep's mouth was about to scream, but the front hoof wanted to be raised But he didn't dare to lift it up, looking hesitant and contradictory.I guessed that the big bent-horn whistle sheep had been complained by the Tibetan antelopes just now because it issued a wrong alarm. It was afraid that the alarm would be wrong again, and the suspicious smell was faintly present, so it became indecisive.

Don't miss the opportunity, the time will never come again, the Big Dipper female leopard rushes towards the Tibetan antelope herd.

The snow leopard also immediately followed the Beidou mother leopard. She was so excited that she didn't understand the significance of exposing herself a second earlier and a second later in the success of the hunt. As soon as she took the first step, she vomited and roared , as if issuing a declaration of battle, the prestige is indeed prestige, but it gave the Tibetan antelope a precious chance to escape.

At the same moment as the snow demon roared, the big horned whistle sheep bleated in surprise and issued a first-level alarm, raised its front hooves like dancing drumsticks, and knocked on the tree trunk desperately, the tree trunk hollowed out by ants was like a huge tree trunk. The wooden drum was pounded loudly by the goat's hooves.In an instant, the Tibetan antelopes ran away like a nest exploded, and a dust belt like light smoke rose from the hillside, quickly extending to the hinterland of the Gamar grassland.The Big Dipper female leopard had just run out of the rocky hill, and there was still at least seventy meters between the hunter and the prey.

This is a veritable life-and-death contest. The Tibetan antelopes do their best to jump to survive, and the mother and daughter leopards also sprint desperately to survive.

The Beidou female leopard aimed at the big horn sheep and chased after it.Because the big horned sheep was busy issuing an alarm to the Tibetan antelopes, it escaped a second or two later than the other Tibetan antelopes and fell at the end. Of course, it became the main target of the mother and daughter leopards.

At the beginning of the hunt, the distance between the hunter and the prey is rapidly shrinking, 50 meters... 30 meters... ten meters... I saw in the telescope that the head of the Big Dipper female leopard was almost attached to the buttocks of the big horn sheep. It was only two or three meters away from being able to pounce on the sheep's back, and the leopard's mouth opened, and it seemed that it could bite the lamb's leg with just one step.At this time, both sides had run about 500 meters away, and the snow leopard reached the limit of maintaining the highest speed. The Beidou female leopard began to slow down, while the Tibetan antelope was an endurance long-distance runner. Speed, the gap between the two sides widened a little bit, five meters... ten meters... 15 meters... 20 meters... The two sides ran about 300 meters away. After chasing in vain, he slowly walked back a few steps and lay down in the grass nest to breathe.

What a great hunting opportunity, if the Snow Demon hadn't exposed himself prematurely by yelling, at this moment the big horn sheep would have been lying on the ground and turned into a pile of mutton to be slaughtered by leopards. The mother leopard felt deeply sorry.

The snow demon who was running furiously caught up from behind, looked at the fleeing back of the big horn sheep, roared fiercely, then flopped, rolled, tore, bit, and made a series of hunting movements, probably venting the killing The impulse may also be to use fantasy to alleviate the pain of defeat.After a while, it turned around in circles again, desperately chasing and biting its own tail, probably expressing its annoyance, regretting why it roared when it shouldn't, scaring away those Tibetan animals that should have been delicacies. Antelope.

The Big Dipper female leopard raised her head and yelled at the snow monster with a gentle and powerful voice.After hearing the call, the Snow Demon stopped making senseless noise and roaring, and walked to the Big Dipper mother leopard.The Big Dipper female leopard turned over and lay sprawled on the ground, closing her eyes and posing in a relaxed and casual posture.The Snow Demon walked around the Big Dipper female leopard twice, and also lay down with her legs bent, but it still seemed to be obsessed with the big horned sheep that escaped. Just after lying down, she stood up quickly, and rushed towards the fleeing Tibetan antelope. Fang Fang roared twice.The Big Dipper female leopard turned over, opened her mouth slightly, and uttered a melodious and soft cry between her lips and teeth. From my understanding, she was using the vocabulary of snow leopards to persuade the snow demon to stop worrying about hunting failure. The past is fine, the important thing is to take the time to rest, recover your strength as soon as possible, and recharge your batteries for the next hunt.Snow Demon seemed to understand the good intentions of the Big Dipper Leopard, and his restless mood gradually returned to calm, and lay down next to the Big Dipper Mother Leopard.

Based on my understanding of snow leopards, I think that correctly treating the success and failure of hunting is also an important survival lesson that snow demons must learn.Although the snow leopard has the reputation of being the overlord of the mountains and belongs to the best hunters in the Gaoligong Mountains, it is not always rewarding every hunting.According to the data provided by the field survey, the hunting success rate of robust adult snow leopards can reach 40.00%, which is considered the best result.In other words, no matter how experienced a snow leopard is, the chance of success is less than half, and hunting failures are commonplace.Facing failure calmly, overcoming the frustration caused by being busy for nothing, and maintaining a sense of normalcy, can one live happily.

The sun was already at its peak, I looked at my watch, it was almost eleven o'clock.

The mother and daughter leopards lay down for about an hour, and then started to move again. They climbed a small hill to scout for any interesting prey. Maybe it was because the aborted hunting just now scared away the nearby herbivores, or maybe it was because the lunch was approaching. The grass beasts went to rest in hidden corners, and they found no targets to catch.

About half an hour later, the Big Dipper mother leopard brought the snow demon back to the snow line, and came to the tree hole where Qiangba and I were hiding, poking around as if looking for something.I was a little nervous, so I asked Qiangba in a low voice: "Will they find us? Well, they didn't catch the Tibetan antelope, and they are very hungry. Will they treat us as snacks?" Qiangba comforted me. Said: "Don't worry, I've lived for more than 40 years, and I haven't heard of snow leopards attacking people. Oh, they don't seem to have found us. Look, they seem to be looking for something else."

I looked over again, and sure enough, the Big Dipper female leopard walked about 30 meters away from the tree hole where we were hiding, suddenly turned a corner, and walked towards a snow-covered cliff.I breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down to continue observing.

The Big Dipper female leopard jumped to the bottom of the cliff, creaking and stepping on the snow, sniffing with her nose on the snow.The Snow Demon also imitated the Big Dipper mother leopard, pawing here and there, scratching on the snow.After a while, the mother and daughter leopards seemed to have confirmed a certain location, lying on the snow and quickly shaving snow, ice slags splashed everywhere, and a snow pit appeared.The Big Dipper female leopard dragged something out of the snow pit with her mouth.I adjusted the focus and took a closer look, oh, it turned out to be half a wild goat.

There is no doubt that this is what the mother and daughter leopards ate yesterday.Adult snow leopards eat with their stomachs open, and can eat about [-] pounds of meat in one meal, while wild goats weigh about eighty or ninety pounds. Obviously, they didn't finish their meal yesterday, so they dug a snow pit under this hidden cliff , Refrigerated the leftover half of the wild goat.All cats, whether they are lions, tigers, leopards, cats or lynxes, have the habit of hiding unfinished prey for the next meal.This is a survival strategy. For predatory wild animals, the fate is unpredictable and the world is unpredictable. It is difficult to get food evenly when they are full and hungry.It often happens that when luck is good, a large herbivore is captured, and the stomach is round and full, but it still can't last; Bite off his own tail to satisfy his hunger.Only by learning how to store food can we avoid being eliminated by the harsh life.

I have read such a document, a Russian scientist who has been studying wild snow leopards in Daxing’an Mountains for many years reported such a little-known phenomenon: female snow leopards know how to store excess food better than male snow leopards.Almost all female snow leopards will take the leftover prey in their mouths, climb or jump to the snow mountains where other animals cannot reach, bury the food deeply in the snow, make marks that only they can identify, and then leave far away , will find exactly where to bury food when needed.However, only about 30.00% of male snow leopards can store excess prey so skillfully.What's even more incredible is that many female snow leopards bury their food in more than one place.The Russian scientist witnessed a female snow leopard bury her food in as many as eight different locations.Further investigation found that the amount of buried food is directly proportional to the survival ability of the mother snow leopard, and is closely related to the survival rate of the cubs.It can be said that burying leftover prey is a survival skill that female snow leopards must master.This important requirement of life ability is not acquired through genetic code, but acquired through acquired learning.

Snow Mountain is a large natural refrigerator, and food is buried under snowdrifts, which is anti-corrosion, anti-theft, and anti-deterioration.The Big Dipper female leopard dragged half of the wild goat to the sun, using the sun's light and heat to roast the food until it was softer, and the mother and daughter began to eat it with relish.

As far as I can remember, the Snow Demon never refrigerated and buried leftover food. If it didn't have the Big Dipper mother leopard, it might not learn how to store food in its lifetime and live on a budget.

For animals like the snow leopard, the mother is the only excellent teacher. Only by relying on the tireless precepts and deeds of the leopard mother can the cubs gain the life experience they need to survive.

Soon, the small half of the wild goat turned into a few criss-crossed bones.

The Big Dipper female leopard washed her lips, beard and paws, then rubbed her soft chin on the Snow Demon's forehead for a while, and ran towards the snowless barren valley on the right side of the snow line.Vomit, the Snow Demon let out a displeased cry, trying to chase after it, the Big Dipper Mother Leopard turned her head, Yoho—— roared majesticly, the Snow Demon had to stop.

The Big Dipper female leopard burrowed into the snow-free mountain valley, and disappeared without a trace after three jumps and two jumps.

It is certain that the mother Beidou hurried back to her lair to nurse her cubs.

I looked at my watch again, it was twelve o'clock at noon.It has been five hours since I saw the Big Dipper female leopard coming to the crescent-shaped cave in the early morning.For a lactating female snow leopard, the time away from home has been far too long.

Snow Demon faced the direction where the Big Dipper mother leopard disappeared, and stood in a daze. After a long time, it let out a few mournful calls, and went back to the crescent-shaped cave dejectedly.

Obviously, Xue Yao didn't want the Big Dipper Leopard to leave her, but the Big Dipper Mother Leopard didn't want to take Xue Yao home.

From the day the mother and daughter met each other in the snow mountain, the Beidou mother leopard insisted on coming to the crescent-shaped cave every day. The wind and snow never stopped, ranging from two hours to half a day, like a loyal nanny and teacher, Take care of the snow demon's diet and daily life, take the snow demon out for food, and let the snow demon grow up through practice.

Tutoring the Snow Demon to learn how to hunt is by no means an easy task.

The golden age for a little snow leopard to learn hunting skills is half to one and a half years old, and the snow demon is two years old. The biological clock in the body has missed the time scale when the ability to accept and imitate is the strongest.

Just as we feared, Snow Demon behaved very poorly. Compared with the half-year-old to one-and-a-half-year-old snow leopard, the learning progress was obviously slower, like a repeater with low IQ, the teacher worked hard for him Make up lessons, but the effect is not very ideal.

For example, raise your face and use your silver-white beard to test the wind direction. Every time it sneaks up on its prey, the Big Dipper mother leopard will make this special posture and show it to the snow demon tirelessly. The snow demon can watch it carefully dozens of times, but It is difficult to understand the mystery, and it is always unclear where is the upwind that easily makes the prey suspicious of smell and where is the downwind that makes the prey lose their sense of smell.

Another example is that snow leopards like to prey on all kinds of antelopes. Most antelopes have horns on their heads. They need to eat delicious lamb and beware of being stabbed by sharp horns. The most important hunting skill is that after catching up with the target, At the same moment when it jumped up from behind and hugged the sheep's neck and overturned the antelope, the leopard's mouth penetrated into the antelope's soft neck, biting the throat tightly, causing the antelope to lose its resistance and suffocate to death in a short period of time.I have seen the Big Dipper female leopard hunt and kill antelope several times, her movements are as fast as the wind, her bite is ruthless and accurate, she can be called a first-class professional killer, but the demonstration and teaching effect is very little, the snow monster can't kill the sheep with a single hug The prey is overturned, or the leopard's teeth bite sideways on the neck muscles, and it is always impossible to subdue the prey cleanly.The prey struggled desperately after being bitten by muddy water, and twice, if the Big Dipper female leopard hadn't come out to help, opened her bloody mouth and bit the antelope's kiss in time, the snow demon would have been pierced in the chest by the antelope's horns.

To make matters worse, Snow Demon seems to have difficulty walking towards the hunting ground calmly and calmly dealing with failure.Its mood fluctuates greatly, and when it sees its prey, it is so excited that its fur stands on end; when it attacks the prey, it can't help but roar excitedly, several times, it scares the prey away because of its untimely roar; Once the prey escaped, it whined sadly, jumped and jumped for no reason, and behaved very manically.

I said: "Snow Demon may suffer from mild manic schizophrenia. Oh, hunting is the triggering factor. When he sees the prey, he becomes highly excited and enters a morbid state, unable to control his emotions."

Jamba pouted at me: "I've never heard that animals can suffer from mental illness."

"Then tell me, why can't it learn to regulate its emotions like the Big Dipper mother leopard?"

Qiangba thought for a while and said: "This may have something to do with his childhood experience. He lived in the village for a year, and I heard that he had eaten dog milk, slept in a dog shed, and had been with dogs for a long time. Oh, the dog is With this virtue, when seeing strangers or prey, they will bark and howl wildly, for fear that others will not know. It ran around with its tail, making piercing howls."

I nodded in admiration.Jamba is right.Snow Demon has dealt with the dogs in the village since he was a child. During the period when he was half a year old to one and a half years old, his receptivity and imitation ability were the strongest, and he was exposed to the behavior habits of dogs. From this, he developed a strange habit and disposition that is neither a dog nor a leopard. , like a fixed brick, it is very difficult to change its shape.

(End of this chapter)