lion heart

Chapter 17 Black Nose Becomes a Mother
With the dry season looming on the prairies, rivers and ponds are dwindling, the land is starting to dry up, tensions are rising, and flamingos are once again disappearing from the beaches of Lake Natron.Lion Snow was very happy that Black Nose and Little Jackal could hunt with him again.Snow White misses the days when mother jackals took them hunting together.

But the black nose and the little jackal both disappeared from before Bai Xue, and disappeared without a sound.

When Baixue found Black Nose in the bushes on the edge of the swamp, Black Nose was hunting a gazelle in his own territory.

A month ago, Black Nose wandered alone on the edge of the swamp.Black Nose is getting more and more unaccustomed to sharing a territory with Lion Bai Xue.While passing through the territory of a male cheetah, the male cheetah sniffed out that Black Nose was a fertile female.The male cheetah smeared the urine of the black nose on his face, and scratched the black nose with his paws, accompanied by a gentle roar, which meant: he is the master here, and he is very powerful. The nose stays.Black Nose lay on the ground, lowered his head, and whispered softly, expressing his willingness to stay.

Black Nose marked his territory within the sphere of influence of the male leopard, and settled down.

Early this morning, Black Nose was on a high rock and found ten gazelles about 200 meters away in the territory.So, Black Nose lowered his head and slowly moved towards the group of gazelles until he was about 90 meters away from the gazelles.Black Nose sat there observing for a full 5 minutes.A gazelle looks around far away from the group, refusing to leave.Black Nose determined that it was an adult female gazelle feeding a baby gazelle.

Black Nose rushed towards the nursing female gazelle.When the gazelle was 30 meters away, the gazelle began to escape. After chasing for about 150 meters, it made a sharp turn. Baixue rushed out from behind the termite pile and appeared directly in front of the black nose.The gazelle tripped over the snow and rolled forward.Baixue rushed forward and bit the gazelle's throat.Bai Xue happily invites Black Nose to have dinner together.But Black Nose roared and snatched away the prey.

Snow White knew that Black Nose was upset, but she still followed Black Nose back to Black Nose's home - under the high rock.

A strong, majestic, and confident adult male cheetah roared loudly at Baixue.Not only did Black Nose not stop all this, but it called out "Ah—ah" happily, inviting the male cheetah to have a meal together.

In the wild cheetah group, it is generally divided into groups of male individuals, that is, bachelor groups, female groups, and mother and child groups.Males usually live alone except during the breeding season, or two or three males stay together.But the territories of these males may overlap with the territories of many females at the same time.Females stay with males only during the breeding season.

Black Nose has grown up, regained the nature of cheetahs, and returned to the group of cheetahs.

Bai Xue finally understood that this was the territory of the cheetah Black Nose, not its territory.It and Black Nose are no longer inseparable heterogeneous sisters.Black Nose already has a partner of his own kind.

Snow White left Black Nose's territory disappointedly, and returned to her home among the reeds in the swamp of Lake Natron alone.

In the past few days, the little jackal has selected a mate from the prairie, and they returned to the swamp of Lake Natron together.The jackal couple remarked their territory.The territory of the little jackal couple includes the crooked-necked locust tree where Black Nose used to live and the reeds next to the giant rock where Bai Xue still lives.

When Bai Xue came back, the little jackal couple was very scared and hid from Bai Xue.As long as Snowy is out or sleeping, they start digging.Again and again the jackal couple climbed into the long cave passage and backed out.

They are constantly digging up sand, discolored bones and dried droppings from the jackal's former home under the giant rock.After a few days, the cave passages were thoroughly swept clean.The jackal couple dug a new cave next to the old one.The new hole was dug under the root of a fallen tree.This new cave is the delivery room of the little jackal's wife. The densely packed rhizomes serve as the roof of the cave, which can shelter the newborn cubs from rain and cold.They also enlarged an old fox's den by a dry creek to confuse enemies.

Now, as long as Snow the lion is driven out of the territory, the jackal couple and future cubs are safe.The little jackal couple watched Bai Xue's every move secretly, looking for opportunities all the time.

Although Snow White doesn't like the little jackal, but besides Black Nose, the only other partner she can be with is the little jackal.Although the little jackal avoided him day and night, Bai Xue could still feel his companion's presence from afar.

Snow White is a lion, and lions live in packs, and they need partners.

Finally one day, Baixue came back from hunting and saw a cave dug under the huge rock next to the reeds where she lived, and some jackal feces were scattered at the entrance of the cave.Under the crooked-necked locust tree where Black Nose used to live, a new hole was also dug, and there were also some jackal feces scattered around the hole.

Snow White was furious. With a roar, she rushed to the cave where the little jackals were, wishing she could immediately level the cave and turn the little jackals into prey.However, there are many remains of the mother jackal at the mouth of the little jackal's cave, which are the amulets that the little jackal picked up from the cave where the mother jackal died to protect himself.

The little jackal has grown up.The clever and cunning nature of the jackal is shown little by little in the little jackal.The little jackal wants to use tricks to drive Snow White out of their common territory when Snow White has not yet grown up and still has feelings of attachment and gratitude to the jackal mother.

Bai Xue smelled the familiar smell from Jackal's mother, and a series of warm memories softened Bai Xue.

Snow White roared to the sky and left her home in the swamp area of ​​Lake Natron, leaving the territory once shared by her, Black Nose and Little Jackal to Little Jackal.But it doesn't know where it should go, where is its home.

Lions are naturally arrogant and noble, and they don't pay attention to all kinds of animals around them.In the eyes of lions, other animals are prey rather than hunting partners.Baixue has not yet grown up, and the wandering life away from the lions since childhood has given him more affection for aliens that the lion's nature does not have, and lacks the domineering lion dominating the grassland.

Snow White was very hungry.Leaving the reeds in the swamp area of ​​Lake Natron, Baixue, with dazzling white fur, swayed on the golden grassland.Without the assistance of Black Nose, Bai Xue could not get the prey.

Unknowingly, Bai Xue, who had wandered on the grassland for three days and three nights, returned to the bushes at the edge of the swamp—the territory of Black Nose.

Black Nose just became a mother.Blacknose gave birth to three pups under the granite boulders of the bush.Black-nosed's three cubs, like those born to other cheetah mothers, have small black spots evenly dotted across their buff undercoat, and their heads and backs are covered with long bluish-gray fur.The cubs lie in a patch of wild grass with their eyes still open.

In order to ensure the safety of the cubs, the strong smell of blood brought about by delivery is eliminated.Regardless of his weak postpartum body, Hei Nose quickly licked the dirt off the cub, and quickly moved the cub to a bush 200 meters away.Black Nose holds one hind leg of the baby in its mouth and carries it one at a time.After putting all the cubs in place, Hei Nai ran back to the original place and searched carefully, lest a cub be left behind.Black Nose wants to be a dedicated mother and do her best to nurture her offspring.

When Bai Xue found Hei Nai, Hei Nai was eagerly chasing a gazelle, and Hei Nai's hope of giving birth after giving birth was all pinned on this half-sized gazelle.Blacknose slapped the gazelle's side three times with its paws in a cloud of flying dust, but failed to knock the gazelle down.The gazelle staggered forward and was about to escape from Black Nose's pursuit range.

Suddenly, Bai Xue jumped from a hidden bush, jumped onto the gazelle's back, threw it to the ground, and bit off the gazelle's neck.

Unexpectedly, Black Nose was not grateful to Bai Xue, but instead showed his sharp teeth at Bai Xue.It seems that Black Nose is going to get serious this time.

Cheetahs are solitary by nature, and female cheetahs giving birth are even more so.Once a female cheetah is pregnant, she wanders alone in the wild and hunts alone.They build their nests in places where the grass is relatively dense, or in the deep jungle, or in swamps, in short, places where ferocious beasts that could threaten the lives of cubs cannot reach.

Black Nose has become a mother.It knows that lions naturally prey not only on young cheetahs, but also on adult cheetahs.And its heterogeneous sister Bai Xue is an out-and-out lion.Black Nose wants to drive Snow White away, it wants to defend its territory and protect its cubs.

Black Nose's ruthlessness angered Bai Xue.Bai Xue suddenly realized that he was a lion, a lion who could dominate the grassland.It also showed its sharp canine teeth towards the black nose, and let out a lion's roar.Bai Xue wants to tell Black Nose clearly: it is a lion, a real lion!It is more than capable of tearing a cheetah apart.

Bai Xue's affection for Hei Nai completely disappeared.It dragged its complete prey, a half-sized gazelle, and swaggered out of Blacknose's territory with Blacknose's terrified "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh", ending their friendship forever.

How disappointed Bai Xue was with Black Nose's behavior, she thought they were friends and sisters.But in fact, they are incompatible competitors, and nature reaffirms its own laws of survival.

In the year and a half of being dependent on Black Nose, Bai Xue did not share prey with Black Nose for the first time.In front of the cheetah, Bai Xue maintained the dignity of the lion.

Baixue lost her home and relatives again, and she was at a loss on the golden prairie.

A young wildebeest lost to the herd followed it for a day, keeping a distance of 30 meters.Naturally wary of anything approaching quickly, the little wildebeest hopped slightly aside to avoid Snowy's lunge when Snowy tried to grab him.When Baixue fell asleep and continued walking, the little wildebeest followed behind her again.

As they wandered over to a small mound, the baby wildebeest saw another orphan baby wildebeest standing across the gentle canyon.The little wildebeest happily "croaked" and ran towards each other.Escaping from its solitude, it turns a blind eye to everything, not even a pack of African wild dogs emerging from the weeds.After a short chase, the wild dogs threw the little wildebeest to the ground.At this time, another little wildebeest was also running towards the meeting point in a hurry, but was also caught by the wild dogs mercilessly.

The wild dogs tore at the two little wildebeests, and the new light of life gradually faded from the eyes of the two little wildebeests.The eyes of the two little wildebeests looking hopefully at their kind running towards them are deeply etched in Bai Xue's memory.

Standing on the small mound, Bai Xue roared like a grown lioness towards the sky, towards the ground, and towards the pack of wild dogs.

Although Baixue has snow-white fur and no golden coat, she has a lion's heart and is a real lion.

Snow White wants to go back to her kind, to the Majia lions.

(End of this chapter)