lion heart

Chapter 7 Natural Warehouses
In the rainy season, the algae in Lake Natron are luxuriant, and the lake water is like a burning flame, showing bright red and deep red.On a clear evening, the fiery red lake is connected with the Huoshaoyun in the sky.

At this time, there are not only lesser flamingos born here in Lake Natron, but also greater flamingos flying thousands of miles away, coming with rain, one after another.The greater flamingo is another kind of flamingo. It is much taller and larger than the lesser flamingo. It has similar feeding habits to the lesser flamingo, and its coat color is also white and reddish.

At a height of 1000 meters from the lake, a deep canyon splits the mountain on both sides.Just in the middle of this cliff, spring water emerges from thousands of springs, and many springs and streams converge into a swamp, making this place the most precious fresh water in Lake Natron.Nearly all the animals that live around Lake Natron gather around this swamp.

In the heat wave of the afternoon, Bai Xue walked slowly towards the beach of Lake Natron with heavy steps.At 90 meters away from the flock of flamingos, Baixue began to sneak... Only 30 meters away, Baixue stuck her body to the ground and merged with the white salt layer on the lake beach.

Bai Xue stayed and observed for 5 minutes before continuing to crawl forward.

The greater flamingos were busy eating, and no one paid attention to Baixue. Perhaps, they thought that Baixue was just a raised pile of salt.

Baixue lay quietly among the birds, too excited to move, these thousands of flamingos were like her granary, within easy reach.The never-before-seen sense of abundance made Snow White forget about her hunger.It admired the ups and downs and back and forth of the greater flamingo, as if it had returned to the past, among its relatives.

Lions are pack animals.For Bai Xue, the happiest time was spent in the Majia lion group.Although short, those carefree days made Bai Xue unforgettable.

At that time, Bai Xue not only had her own mother Jin Weijian, but also had several mothers at the same time.When floppy ears and golden ears are feeding their cubs, they often feed milk to Snow White.The warmth and security that Baixue hugs among many brothers and sisters is what Baixue, who is wandering, longs to experience most.Although because of Baixue's white fur, the seven little lions united to isolate him as a "monster" at first, but later, the seven little lions ignored all this and regarded Baixue as a sister who was no different from them.Sometimes they sit together next to the male lion's brown mane, yawn or grind their teeth along with the brown mane; sometimes they jump on the sleeping lioness together and give the lioness a loud punch, which scares the lioness greatly; Sometimes they teased the juvenile lioness together, some lying on the face of the juvenile lioness, some biting the tail of the juvenile lioness, some scratching the hair of the juvenile lioness...until they were exhausted and lay on their backs on the weeds.

Black Nose is six months old and was raised by the lesser flamingos here.Since Black Nose was abandoned by his mother, he followed a couple of jackals to find this natural meat warehouse.

Half a million lesser flamingos are born each year on the salt islands of Lake Natron.As young birds walk through puddles, the salt water clings to their feet, forming thin blobs of salt on their ankles.As they grew up, the salt on the feet of many lesser flamingos accumulated more and more, solidified like cement and could not be removed, locking them like shackles on the foraging path leading to the lake.Black Nose trudged along this road, risking being corroded by alkaline lake water, wading across the mudflats around the lake to hunt individual lesser flamingos that had difficulty walking, or directly picked up dead lesser flamingos .

But the black nose did not really capture a greater flamingo from afar like the jackal couple.The greater flamingo is much bigger than the lesser flamingo. After the jackals catch a greater flamingo, they always eat half and hide the half.

Black Nose dreamed of catching a greater flamingo, eating half and hiding half like mother jackal.For this dream, Hei Nose hid for an afternoon in the reeds beside the small river on the lake beach, just waiting for the sunset.

Although Hei Nai's mother never taught Hei Nai how to hunt, Hei Nai vaguely remembers how her mother hunted and never stopped practicing.Black Nose, the little king cheetah abandoned by his mother since he was a child, is forced to live alone, hunt for food and escape alone.These experiences taught him to observe.

Black Nose discovered that after a day's feeding, the greater flamingos would stay by the lake to rest for a while and groom each other's feathers.When the greater flamingos comb each other's feathers, it is the time when the birds are most relaxed.Black Nose decided to attack at this time, hunting a greater flamingo, eating half and hiding the other half.

The sunset glow dyed half of the sky red, and the sky merged with Lake Natron.The greater flamingos stretched out their wings, revealing light pink or fiery red feathers, combing each other's feathers leisurely, and seemed to be comparing themselves with the lake water and the sun.

Two flamingos ran quickly towards the reeds where Blacknose was hiding, flapping their wings, stretching their long necks forward, rushing towards the sky, with their long feet trailing behind.

Black Nose jumped up, his body whizzed through the air, and slammed heavily into the side of a greater flamingo that was close to it, but it didn't hit the vital point.It raised its head to bite the flamingo's neck, but only bit a few feathers.

Almost at the same time, a white figure rushed over like lightning, jumped swiftly, and bit the flamingo's long feet.Black Nose immediately jumped up and bit the flamingo's long neck accurately.

Bai Xue was taken aback for a moment - it was the weird-looking cheetah that had saved it.Black Nose took advantage of Bai Xue's daze, quickly took the flamingo as his own, and dragged it away excitedly.

Black nose eats half and hides half.

Since then, King Cheetah Black Nose has always squatted on a charred tree stump, observing Baixue, and following Baixue's hunting footsteps.At the critical moment, he attacked before Bai Xue, but always got Bai Xue's help.Every day, Blacknose catches a flamingo.

Eating half and hiding half is no longer a dream for black nose, but a very common thing.Black Nose no longer has to risk being corroded by the alkaline lake water to wade through the mudflats around the salt lake to hunt or pick up dying lesser flamingos.In this way, the four slender legs of the black nose began to scab and gradually grow healthy fur.

(End of this chapter)