Chapter 989: The Steppe Eagle That Takes an Unconventional Path

Sometimes humans are really strange creatures.

When Xiao Peng was traveling alone, he thought, "How nice it would be to have someone to talk to." But when Renault and the others actually joined him, he felt irritated. Perhaps the main reason was that he was used to having someone take care of him, not being a babysitter.

Look at these people in their own car, they really don't treat themselves as outsiders, not only did they make a mess, but also the water and food were all messed up. This is really not a place for strangers!

Where's your tutor?

Now that he had finally gotten rid of them, Xiao Peng felt so proud.

But his elation didn't last long. He felt bored. He'd had enough of the endless yellow sand! The scenery was the same everywhere he went. I really didn't understand how people here lived! He'd come to the desert because he'd had enough of the ocean, but now he missed the water.

He thought so and did so. He planned to go south to the Senegal River.

The Sahara Desert is not without rivers. For example, the Senegal River flows through Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali; several tributaries of the Niger River flow into Mauritania, and there are also several small rivers that originate in the Atlas Mountains. How could people survive here without fresh water?

He now plans to go to Senegal along the Senegal River, then to Mali, and then find the Niger River all the way south to Nigeria - life without water is really hard!

Although he was moving further and further south, the terrain here had changed due to its proximity to the Senegal River: it had become a grassland area, so the temperature was much more humid.

That's right, this is what a human being should live in.

By this point, Xiao Peng could even turn off the air conditioning in the car! It's so comfortable to enjoy the natural breeze! He sped up and listened to the band "The Right to Reshape Statue," and the more he drove, the more excited he became...

"Hmm?" Xiao Peng, who had good eyesight, muttered to himself as he saw a patch of bushes in the distance, "What an unlucky fellow!"

After he said that, he drove the car towards the bushes and got out.

The reason why he got off the car was because there was an eagle trapped in the bush. It was dying and no one knew how long it had been trapped. When it saw Xiao Peng, it did not struggle, and the eagle still had a sturdy Cape hare in its claws.

The Cape hare is actually quite common, found throughout the Middle East, Central Asia, and even here in the Sahara. That's why it's also known as the "desert hare." Unlike other rabbits, it doesn't burrow, is exceptionally adept at running, and doesn't live in forested areas where food is more plentiful. The Cape hares Xiao Peng had seen along the way were about half a meter long and weighed around eight or nine kilograms, but this one weighed at least fifteen kilograms! He had no idea how it grew.

But it was useless for it to grow up so big, and now it is dead.

Xiao Peng raised hawks in his hometown when he was a child, and when he saw this scene, he could already imagine what happened.

When eagles dive to hunt, they generally use two actions. One is to swoop down and grab the prey and fly away. This is the method used when hunting small prey.

If the prey is larger, they will use another hunting method, using both claws to hunt separately. First, they grab the prey with one claw, and when the prey turns its head to look at it in pain, they will use the other claw to catch the prey's neck and then fly into the air again.

However, this hunting method is also full of risks: if the prey is an inexperienced 'chick', it will slow down and turn back when it feels pain; if the prey is experienced, the eagle will be in danger: it is very time-consuming and laborious to pull the eagle's claws out of the prey's body, as it digs deeply into the prey's flesh and cannot be pulled out easily. If the prey does not turn around or slow down and keeps running forward, it is very likely that the eagle will be dragged to death!

After all, eagles are creatures in the sky. A phoenix on the ground is no better than a chicken, and the same is true for eagles.

Normally, Xiao Peng didn't want to get involved in such things. Nature is cruel. When he was a child, he saw antelopes being hunted by cheetahs while watching Animal World. He felt so sorry for the antelopes. He also hated the photographers for not helping the antelopes. Later, when he grew up, he realized that if the photographers really helped the antelopes, the cheetahs would be the ones who suffered.

The best thing to do in nature is to watch.

But now Xiao Peng really couldn't just stand by and watch: the eagle trapped in the bushes turned out to be a steppe eagle, or to be more precise, the eastern subspecies of the steppe eagle. He really couldn't ignore it!

Although it is classified as "low risk" in the Red List of the World Conservation Union, it is actually a first-class protected animal in the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China"!

The question is how did this thing get here?

Xiao Peng rescued the steppe eagle from the entanglement of the bushes. It was now covered with scars and seemed to have been dragged for a long way. It was dying and did not struggle when Xiao Peng touched it.

When Xiao Peng pulled the eagle's claws out of the Cape hare's body, he found that the eagle's leg was also broken.

This guy can treat human fractures, but how can he treat an eagle's fracture?

Xiao Peng thought for a moment and found two small branches to tie to his eagle's claws. What is this called? Treating a dead eagle as if it were alive.

After Xiao Peng secured the eagle's legs and turned it over, he was surprised to find a cigarette box-sized solar panel fixed to its back. Seeing this solar panel, Xiao Peng instantly knew the origin of the eagle. He laughed and said, "Damn, I really can't take care of you! Why did you fly here? Someone will cry!"

The eastern subspecies of the steppe eagle is listed as endangered in China and another country, Russia. For Russians, the eagle is a beloved animal, and the eagle is even featured on their national emblem.

A group of Russian scientists is studying the habits of the eastern subspecies of the steppe eagle. They have fitted thirteen steppe eagles with tracking devices, similar to cell phones, that are solar-powered. Periodically, the tracking devices send the eagles' coordinates via text message. The scientists then use the coordinates and satellite images to study the eagles' migration routes and preferred habitats.

However, a minor twist in this scientific research left the scientists frustrated: These eagles typically migrate in Siberia during the summer, breeding, and to South Asia near India for the winter. Twelve of the thirteen steppe eagles used in the experiment followed this migration route, with slightly different but generally consistent routes.

But there is a steppe eagle named 'MIN' by scientists who likes to go against the norm, and it is this steppe eagle that almost made the scientists go bankrupt.