Snow Leopard Elegy

Chapter 13 Snow Leopard Elegy (13)
I can also understand the behavior of the snow demon. It lost its mother's love at half a year old. Half a year old is the period when a cub is most attached to its mother leopard. Its emotions are frozen due to separation. It is only after being reunited with its mother after two years of age that its emotions begin to thaw and hibernate. love is just beginning to wake up.Although the Snow Demon is now two years and three and a half months old, her physical age and emotional age are misplaced. Its emotional age is still in its infancy, and its desire for maternal love is still at the age of more than nine months. The more the better, the better it will never be. Too much and never enough.At this moment, its forehead was picked up again by the bull's horns. All higher beings with emotions are like this. When they are sick and hurt, they want to be cared for and loved, and they want their family to be with them, and they are even more reluctant to leave their mother.

The Beidou mother leopard passionately kissed the snow demon's face, deliberately expressing her reluctance to leave.

I think, if the Big Dipper female leopard had the ability to divide herself, she would be willing to divide herself into two halves, one half would stay in her lair to take care of the litter of nursing cubs, and the other half would go to the crescent-shaped cave to accompany the Snow Demon.It's a pity that it has no skills at all, and there is no way to do this.

After half a minute, the Big Dipper female leopard forcefully pulled the snow demon's claws away, stood up resolutely, ignored the snow demon's pleas, and resolutely walked towards the barren mountain ditch.The snow demon is its own flesh and blood, and the litter of suckling cubs is also its own flesh and blood, with fleshy palms and backs; the snow demon needs it, and the litter of nursing cubs needs it even more, so it will leave no matter what .

Howling in dissatisfaction, the Snow Demon followed behind the Big Dipper mother leopard.The Beidou mother leopard turned into the barren mountain ditch, and the snow demon also followed the barren mountain ditch.In front of the black bear-shaped rock at the entrance of the ravine, the Big Dipper mother leopard turned around, yelled majestically at the Snow Demon twice, and ordered the Snow Demon to stop.I have witnessed the mother and daughter leopards saying goodbye many times. It is as accurate as a computer program. Snow demon does not want the mother leopard to leave. A black bear-shaped rock, as usual, will use the roar to force the snow demon to stop.The black bear-shaped rock is like a forbidden door, and the snow demon is not allowed to enter.At this time in the past, Xue Yao stood in front of the black bear-shaped rock, sobbing sadly, and watched the Big Dipper mother leopard go away helplessly.This time, the situation was different. After the Big Dipper Leopard roared majestically twice, Xue Yao hesitated in front of the black bear-shaped rock. Still following behind the Big Dipper mother leopard.

When the Big Dipper mother heard the footsteps behind her, she turned around again and roared twice in a more severe tone:
——Are you deaf, tell you not to follow me, why are you disobedient?

The Snow Demon stopped and stood where it was. Of course, its position had surpassed the black bear-shaped rock.

The Big Dipper Leopard then turned around and walked forward, and the Snow Demon also moved its limbs and followed closely behind.

If you stop, I will stop, if you go, I will go, follow you to the end, and see what you can do to me!
After four or five rounds like this, the snow demon has crossed the black bear-shaped rock for 50 meters.

The Big Dipper Leopard turned around again, and the Snow Demon stopped again.This time, the Big Dipper female leopard no longer let out a stern roar, but squinted her eyes and stared blankly at the snow demon. There was a gloomy light in her orange pupils, and the seven black spots on her forehead that were arranged like Big Dipper stars twisted into Big Pimple seemed to be thinking nervously about how to use extraordinary measures to deal with the disobedient Snow Demon.Suddenly, its beard was flaring, its bloody mouth was half-opened, its teeth were bared, its limbs were squatting slightly, and it looked like it was about to jump, and it let out a hoarse and rough growl from the depths of its throat.Anyone who has dealt with snow leopards knows that snow leopard's expression, posture, and cry mean that it has entered a state of anger and has reached the critical point of using force to fight.

Obviously, the Beidou female leopard issued the final warning: Don't follow me anymore, retreat outside the black bear-shaped rock, otherwise, don't blame me for being ruthless!
Snow Demon still ignored it and stood still, not intending to retreat at all.

I guess, the reason why the snow demon ignored the last warning of the Big Dipper mother leopard was probably out of two considerations. First, it felt that it was injured and died, and it deserved more careful and tender care from its mother. This is not an excessive request; Or, after contacting it for more than three months, my mother is kind and amiable, no matter what it did wrong, she never scratched or bit it.It thought that the Big Dipper's last warning was just to frighten it, and it didn't believe that it would really be punished violently.

The Big Dipper mother leopard swooped towards the snow demon, with a wide range of movements, jumping more than one meter high, forming a momentum of overwhelming Mount Tai, roaring and screaming, the momentum was extremely exaggerated, but after falling in front of the snow demon, Like a comma in the middle of a long sentence, it paused for a while, but didn't immediately jump up and bite.It really echoes a common saying, the thunder is loud and the rain is little, the intention could not be more obvious, give time for the snow demon to retreat, if the snow demon senses that the situation is not good, and wisely pulls out of the barren valley and retreats to the black bear-shaped rock, I think , the Beidou female leopard will stop there, and will no longer display violence.In the final analysis, the Big Dipper mother leopard was unwilling to treat the snow demon roughly with her leopard teeth and claws.

Xue Yao didn't know whether she was startled by the aggressive look of the Big Dipper mother leopard, or she simply didn't believe that the Big Dipper mother leopard was really willing to punch and kick to make it suffer from flesh and blood, so she jumped and retreated without knowing it, but just twisted her neck and put it out A posture of wanting to escape, but the body still stayed in place without moving.

Whoosh, the Big Dipper female leopard finally pounced up, hooked the snow demon's neck with one front paw, and rested on the snow demon's waist with the other front paw, violently overturned the snow demon to the ground, opened her mouth and gnawed on the snow demon's back. a mouthful.With a miserable howl, the snow demon twisted desperately, broke free from the claws of the Big Dipper mother leopard, and fled out of the barren valley like hell.

I looked through the binoculars and saw that the bite of the Big Dipper mother leopard was not too light or too heavy, with leopard fur hanging from the corner of her mouth, and there seemed to be bright red blood between her lips and teeth.Looking at the snow demon again, the fur on its back was disheveled, but it didn't look like it was bruised and bruised. It is estimated that the Big Dipper leopard was lenient, and only bit a row of deep teeth marks on the snow demon's back.

Snow Demon fled a hundred meters in one breath, far away from the black bear-shaped rock, and then stopped in shock, panting, staring at the Big Dipper female leopard with eyes full of fear, and let out a mournful cry.

The Big Dipper female leopard howled fiercely, as if she felt that such punishment was not enough to relieve her hatred, she walked up to the black bear-shaped rock, rubbed her body on the rough rock, scraped off a few strands of remaining hair, spread her hind legs, and poured half a soak on the rock. Urine, growled several times at the Snow Demon.I am very familiar with this set of movements of snow leopards. This is a typical way of delineating a territory and arranging a territory. It uses residual fur and smell to build a scent boundary line, and warns passing by that there is already a young and strong female snow leopard living here. If you have enough strength and courage to defend your territory, please make a detour and walk away. If you break in privately, you will be a despicable invader, and I will make you unable to bear it!As far as what has happened so far, it is obvious that the Big Dipper mother leopard used this special method to build a warning line with residual fur and smell, telling the snow demon clearly: Don't step into the smell warning line, otherwise you will be killed. If not, I will be as merciless as I would treat an intruder!

After finishing all this, the Big Dipper female leopard trotted quickly, got into the barren valley, flashed into the wild grass, and disappeared in a flash.

Snow Demon wailed one after another, his eyes were bewildered, his face was full of bitterness, and his mournful cry was like weeping, as if he had suffered a great grievance, and he had a stomach full of bitterness to pour to the sky and the earth.The Big Dipper female leopard had been walking for several minutes, and she was still howling endlessly.It hit a ginkgo tree with a thick bowl mouth with its body, and the crown trembled, and the fan-shaped ginkgo leaves that had just bloomed in early spring were shaken to pieces; There was a crisp sound, and the mouth was full of sand and gravel, as if he was using a slight self-inflicted method to relieve the pain in his heart.It was not bitten badly, it was more heartache than pain, it probably never imagined that its always kind mother would turn her back and bite her beloved daughter mercilessly, the psychological damage was worse than the physical one. I don't know how many times the damage will be greater.

I feel sorry for Xue Yao, anyway, we have raised Xue Yao for a long time, and we are much closer emotionally than the Big Dipper female leopard, so of course we will consciously or unconsciously think from the standpoint of Xue Yao.I think the Big Dipper Mother Leopard has gone too far. Even if the Snow Demon didn't listen to it, and crossed the black bear-shaped rock, leaning behind it and trying to go back to the lair with it, this mistake is justifiable and undeserved Bite.You know, the snow demon is still in the cub stage mentally. He was injured while hunting, and he is reluctant to leave his mother. He wants to stay with his mother to get more care and care. This is a normal thing. It works, what's the crime?Why are you so fierce, why are you so evil, why are you so vicious, why do you treat your daughter like an enemy?I know that the Big Dipper mother leopard does not let Snow Demon go to her lair out of maternal caution, because there is a litter of cubs still nursing in the lair.But I think everything should be done in moderation, not too much. There is only one step between truth and falsehood. To ensure the safety of cubs, caution is of course necessary, but excessive caution becomes neurotic, which is not advisable .What's the big deal even if you bring the Snow Demon back to its lair?The cubs that are still breastfeeding are your own flesh and blood, and the snow demon is also your own flesh and blood, so what's wrong with living together as close relatives!

There are many social animals that live together for generations, such as elephants, golden monkeys, gibbons, and African lions.In some animals whose core is a small family, the female animal also has the phenomenon of mixing the young animals of the previous crop with the young animals of the next crop.For example, arctic foxes, because they live in the cold area close to the North Pole, the young foxes grow slowly. When the mother fox is in heat and mates again, the previous fox cubs are not able to live independently, so they have to keep both the upper and lower fox cubs in the nest. .Even those animals that are used to waiting for the previous crop of cubs to grow up and run away from home, and then give birth to the next crop of cubs, will use workarounds in critical times. The most famous example is the "helping jackal".The silver-backed jackals living in the Riquka Snow Mountain on the northern Yunnan plateau, the female jackals live in poverty when the prey is reduced due to abnormal weather. When the young jackals grow up, they will not drive them all away from home, but Choose the most sensible, strongest and most obedient female jackal, stay and help raise the next crop of young jackals, or mother and daughter team up to catch food, or leave the female jackal in the den to look after younger siblings when the mother is out hunting.According to the statistics of scientists, the survival rate of young jackals in silver-backed jackal families with helper jackals is significantly higher than other silver-backed jackal families.Young female jackals who have worked as helpers beside female jackals have practiced how to be a wife and mother, and have accumulated rich life experience. After establishing their own family, it is easier for young female jackals to find a good husband than those young female jackals who have never been helpers Jun, it is also easier to feed your offspring.Both parties can benefit, and both parties can get benefits. To use a buzzword that modern entrepreneurs often talk about, it is a win-win situation. If this is the case, why not do it?

Of course, I also know that snow leopards do not have the concept of "helper leopards". It seems that no one has ever discovered that a female snow leopard mixes the cubs of the previous crop with the next crop.But nothing is absolute, so why not set a precedent in this regard.Since there are "helper jackals" in the world, why can't there be "helper leopards"?
I have a lot of complaints about the excessive behavior of the Big Dipper Leopard biting the Snow Demon for no reason. I whispered to Qiangba beside me: "The Big Dipper Mother Leopard is really unreasonable. Why are you so stubborn and determined not to allow the Snow Demon to approach its lair?"

"I think it is worried that the snow demon will hurt the cubs that are still nursing when they go to the lair," Jamba said.

"That's impossible," I said. "The concern is unwarranted."

I am a zoologist. Of course, I would not naively think that as long as they are blood relatives, animals must love each other and there will be no bullying and killing.In fact, the vast majority of animal species have blood relatives killing each other, and siblings are no exception.Someone once witnessed that three chicks hatched from a bald eagle's nest. When they were one month old, the strongest chick took the thinnest chick out while their parents were out looking for food. The little eaglet pushed it out of the nest, and a few days later, it used the same method to push another young eaglet down the tree and fell to its death.

A North American scholar who specializes in the study of jaguars took such a shocking scene with a video camera: In the jaguar den, four half-sized jaguar cubs, eagerly waiting for the mother tiger to bring food back, waiting left and right for the shadow of the mother tiger , the sky was getting dark, and the cold wind was blowing straight into the nest, and the four tiger cubs were shivering from the cold.At this moment, one of the tiger cubs, which had a pale coat and a thin body, fell down weakly, and the other three tiger cubs rushed forward, killing the little brother (or maybe the little sister) who had no strength to resist or run away. Torn food.When the dark tigress came back, the four cubs turned into three cubs and a bloody wreck.

Although I am well aware that tragic stories of bullying the small and the strong will inevitably occur in the animal world, even within the family, I still think that it is impossible for the Big Dipper mother leopard to bring the snow demon back to the lair, which will not lead to bloodshed.There is an important prerequisite for the fratricide in the animal kingdom, that is, food is scarce, and in order to compete for limited food resources, driven by the instinct of the will to survive, they kill each other.It has been observed that for the same bald eagle, when the weather is favorable and the food is abundant, each chick can get enough food fed by the mother eagle. In the end, a little eagle can grow its wings and fight the sky.He is also a jaguar expert in North America. When tracking another litter of jaguars, there are many wild boars in the local forest, and the mother tiger can bring back enough food regularly. It turns out that the four tiger cubs live in harmony and work together to catch small prey , played very friendly with each other.

I have enough evidence to support the idea that as long as there is no famine, there will be peace within the snow leopard family.According to observations during this period, Yakou, a Beidou female leopard, is about seven or eight years old, and is at the peak of her vitality. She has a strong hunting ability and a high success rate. It has been more than a month, and I have never seen it go hungry, and I have never seen it worry about food. The Snow Demon enjoys happiness with it, and can eat its belly every day.The season is spring, the weather is getting warmer, and there are more and more prey every day. There is no fear of starvation in winter when food is scarce, and there is no need to worry about starvation in spring when food is abundant.Since there is no food pressure, how can there be an existential crisis?Since there is no survival crisis, why worry about turning against each other?Therefore, I think that the mother Beidou is afraid that after she brings Snow Demon back home, Snow Demon will harm the litter of nursing cubs. This kind of worry is completely superfluous. If there is a disease or something, you really should go to a psychiatrist for treatment, if there are mental hospitals and psychiatrists in the animal kingdom.

"Alas, there are some strange things among animals, which are difficult for us humans to figure out." Jamba said after a while of silence.

"Oh, the snow demon is so pitiful, she was bitten for no reason." I sighed.

"I think there must be a reason for the Beidou female leopard to do this." Qiangba said.

"What reason can there be?" I said angrily, "Narrow-minded, I lack the most basic trust in my daughter."

We are guessing and discussing wildly, the snow demon stopped hitting trees and chewing rocks to torture himself, stood up, walked slowly to the black bear-shaped rock, looked at the remaining hair of the Big Dipper leopard hanging on the corner of the rock, and sniffed the urine that the Big Dipper mother spilled on the ground Liquid, probe into the barren valley, as if afraid that the Big Dipper female leopard will suddenly jump out.After a while, it took courage and tremblingly crossed the boundary line of smell.Suddenly, there was a rattling sound in the dogtail grass in the barren mountain ditch, and something jumped out. The snow demon screamed and turned its head to escape from the barren mountain ditch.A colorful wild pheasant flew into the sky with its long tail.In a false alarm, the Snow Demon sticks its blood-red tongue out of its mouth to dissipate heat, probably frightened enough to break out in sweat.It seems that the cordon laid out by the Big Dipper mother leopard with residual hair and urine has played a deterrent effect on the snow demon.The snow demon watched the wild pheasant fly into the distance, then carefully stepped over the black bear-shaped rock and entered the barren valley, sniffing and smelling all the way, groping in depth.

"It must be looking for the Beidou female leopard's lair." Jamba speculated.

"If the Big Dipper female leopard finds out, it will be a big trouble." I said.

"Yes, the Big Dipper female leopard will definitely bite to death like an intruder." Qiangba said.

We are worried about the safety of the snow demon, so we decided to quietly follow behind the snow demon, and we may be able to give the snow demon some help if necessary.

The Beidou female leopard's lair is in a trumpet-shaped cave at the bottom of the barren mountain ditch, about two kilometers away from the crescent-shaped cave where the snow demon lives.At [-]:[-] in the afternoon, the snow demon reached the hillside opposite the trumpet-shaped cave and hid in a waist-deep patch of wild jute.The snow demon's hiding place is separated from the Beidou female leopard's lair by the ravine, and the straight-line distance is less than a hundred meters. The snow demon can see what happened in the Beidou female leopard's lair through the gaps in the wild jute leaves without standing up. Be clear.

Jamba and I hid behind a mani pile built with stones by Tibetan pilgrims on the top of the mountain, condescendingly, and observed the movements of the snow demon and the Big Dipper mother leopard with high-power binoculars.The mani pile where Jamba and I hide, the wild jute field where the snow demon hides, and the Beidou female leopard's lair, the three positions just form an equilateral triangle.

(End of this chapter)