Leopard's Feud

Chapter 6 Becoming friends with the little vervet monkey

Baboon baby Jack was able to cling tightly to his leopard mother Camille from birth.

Camille held the little leopard Carla in his mouth, and let the little baboon Jack grab its belly, far away from the territory of the baboon family near the ancient baobab tree, and came to a cold and damp hidden rock cave deep in the jungle.

But the small, dark rocky cave is home to Jack the baboon and Kara the leopard.They grew up here and spent many wonderful times.The leopard mother, Camille, watches over Jack and Kara all the time, except when hunting.Sometimes, Jack will ride around on the back of the leopard mother to see all kinds of new things in the jungle.

But Jack the Baboon's mother leopard wasn't always a loving mother.

When the little baboon Jack is breastfeeding with his leopard sister Carla, the leopard mother will stroke its long black fur with her gentle toes and lick its unusually large thighs compared to the leopard. Only big ears.Although the mother leopard's rough tongue would lick the skin of Jack the baboon's ears, Jack still felt very warm.But more often, Jack will be kicked away mercilessly by the leopard mother before he can take a few sips of milk.At this time, Mother Leopard looked at Jack with disgust, as if she were looking at a poisonous snake with a red letter.

Jack caught the leopard mother Camille when he was just born, which formed the most instinctive imprint of family affection deep in his memory, and he was always eager to grasp the soft and warm abdomen of the leopard mother with his palms all the time.However, after arriving at the rocky cave, Jack was never able to get into the arms of the leopard mother again.Whenever Jack used his small palm to grab the hair of the leopard mother, the leopard mother would mercilessly knock it down with one paw.

Since the little baboon Jack was one month old, the leopard mother forced him to stagger and learn to climb trees with the leopard sister Kara every day, and learn to pounce on the tip of the leopard mother's tail.Sometimes, Jack is so eager for the warmth of the leopard mother's skin, he will suddenly pounce on the leopard mother's side, grabbing the leopard mother's tail and not letting go.At this time, the little baboon Jack would be thrown far away by the powerful tail of the leopard mother, and he could only hide alone in the corner deep in the rocky cave and sob.

To the little baboon Jack, the mother leopard's temper is like ice and fire—sometimes gentle and sometimes irritable, which makes the little baboon Jack not only attached to his leopard mother, but also afraid of his leopard mother.

Fortunately, there is the leopard sister Carla and the little baboon Jack.

In contrast, the leopard sister Carla is more like Jack's mother.Whenever Jack practiced climbing a tree and fell off a branch, it was Sister Leopard who licked his wounds and pulled him up; It encourages and supports it, and sometimes even sister Leopard supports it with its front legs to help it complete the difficult training; whenever it makes a mistake in the practice of hitting the target and throws sister Leopard to the ground by mistake , Sister Leopard always resists the pain and gets up quietly, for fear that the Leopard mother will blame Jack; whenever the Leopard mother kicks it out of her embrace and refuses to feed it any milk, on those hungry nights , Sister Leopard will always help it find some insects or bird eggs to satisfy its hunger.

Jack and his leopard sister, Carla, have been trained to climb trees since they were young.Sometimes, they will stay away from the leopard mother and play freely in the foliage of the towering trees.Jack can lurk in the top of the tree with his sister leopard, and ambush the hare poking his head under the tree; Jack can climb high branches with his sister leopard, and accurately attack the birds that stop on the branches.

Every day, Jack and his older sister, Carla the Leopard, learn something new together.

During these times, scenes of warm scenes were frozen in Jack's mind, constituting the warmest memories of his childhood.

Although the little baboon Jack and his leopard sister spent so happy time together, Carla could not accompany him for too long, because the leopard sister Carla, like the leopard mother, once the sun rises to the middle of the sky At that time, I will sleep soundly, and I will not wake up until night falls.Instead, after nightfall and the moon rising above the horizon, baby Jack the baboon falls asleep in his rocky cave, where he sleeps until after the sun rises.

Therefore, the only time that the little baboon Jack and his leopard sister can be together is between dawn and dusk, that is, dusk and dawn.During the long day when the sun shines all over the rocky cave, the little baboon Jack can only stare at the cave wall in a daze.

When Jack was six months old, the leopard mother allowed him to go out alone during the day and play with some vervet monkeys.

Long-tailed monkeys and baboons also belong to primates, and their habits and appearance are somewhat similar.Perhaps because of this reason, Jack is particularly willing to be with these little monkeys.Because Jack is much taller and stronger than the little vervet monkeys, Jack can help the little vervet monkeys find more food.Therefore, the little vervet monkeys are also very happy to play with this little baboon.

Together they pluck the fruit from the tree and share it with relish on the branches.Together they dig up roots in the ground, chomping and munching happily.They catch insects together and savor the taste of different insects.They looked for springs together, took up the sweet spring water with their palms, and sent them to their mouths with big gulps.

Not only that, the little baboon Jack and the little vervet monkeys combed each other's hair together, and helped each other catch lice in the bushes.Whenever Jack and the little vervet monkeys sit together in the warm sunshine, Jack will feel very warm.

Grooming each other and catching lice is a particularly popular pastime for primates.During the short intervals between feeding and resting, they all sit down and catch lice, a habit that helps to strengthen the cohesion of the group.Long-tailed monkeys and baboons belong to the same order of primates, and both have this habit.Although Jack's leopard mother, leopard sister, never taught him to groom and catch lice, the instinct in Jack's genes made him keen to do so.

Jack played with the little vervet monkeys and experienced a kind of unprecedented relaxation and happiness. These little vervet monkeys became friends with the little baboon Jack.The days passed and it seemed that this blissful time would never end.

But, Jack doesn’t know—every morning, when Jack and the little vervet monkey are jumping up and down, chasing and playing with each other, its mother leopard and sister leopard are quietly watching them in the bushes...

(End of this chapter)