Chapter 116 Qinling Giant Pandas (Part 2)
The protection and rewilding work of giant pandas in China started earlier and was more comprehensive than that of the South China tiger.
After Yu Yiyun took over the "Return of the Tigers to the Mountains" project, she drew on the successful experience of her predecessors and improved it based on the actual situation of the South China tiger.
For example, let the tiger cubs be raised entirely by their mothers, receive field training from birth, simulate wild environments and stay away from humans, etc…
The giant panda conservation team will also number and name adult pandas living in the wild.
In the reserve, staff must pay extra attention to every female giant panda that enters the breeding period.
Because the way giant pandas are conceived is relatively special, there is no fixed gestation period.
In addition, pandas are naturally chubby, so they won't show their pregnancy even in the late stages of pregnancy.
Pandas in captivity can undergo B-ultrasounds, but no one can confirm whether a wild panda is pregnant unless she is about to give birth.
Yu Yiyun opened her 800-degree myopic eyes wide and barely recognized the female panda walking towards her. It turned out to be Qi Qi, the celebrity mom that her colleague next door always talked about.
Wild pandas are secretive and keep their cubs well hidden.
Qi Qi was first discovered by mountain patrol staff when he was about two months old.
As soon as the photo was leaked, it attracted a wave of "face fans" because of her standard looks, round face and big eye circles.
Wild panda cubs are extremely fragile and have a high mortality rate.
All the people who care about Qi Qi are eagerly hoping and praying that Qi Qi can live to adulthood.
Qi Qi lived up to everyone's expectations and grew up healthy and strong until he was about two years old.
She bravely left her mother and occupied her own territory in the forest.
The protection team was very happy and immediately decided to call her "Qi Qi", a name with auspicious meaning, through a nationwide campaign.
Qiqi can eat and sleep well every day and is growing very fast.
When she was four and a half years old, she reached sexual maturity and entered the first breeding period of her life.
The estrus period of female giant pandas is very short, and they are only willing to date male bears for two days each year.
The staff was particularly concerned about Qi Qi's marriage and childbearing status. They put on animal costumes, smeared animal excrement on their bodies, and sneaked into Qi Qi's territory with a strong sense of stealth.
They found the male bear's footprints and "Qingtuan" in the territory, but they couldn't confirm whether Qiqi's date with the male bear was successful.
The protection team treated the situation as a formidable threat and added infrared cameras in Qiqi's territory to keep a close eye on the movements of the pretty little bear.
From autumn to winter and then to spring.
Qiqi lives a very regular life, eating and sleeping every day, and has no intention of giving birth.
Experienced animal experts estimated the time and believed that there was a high probability that Qiqi had not successfully conceived.
Unexpectedly, one day in late spring, Qi Qi suddenly brought bamboo leaves and bamboo poles into the tree hole, showing signs of building a nest.
The protection team is extremely nervous!
You know, pandas like to live in tree holes and natural stone caves. But they don't have a fixed residence, and usually eat and sleep wherever they are.
Just before a female panda gives birth, she will look for a suitable place to build a nest to provide a comfortable growth environment for her baby.
Qiqi was found to be showing signs of nesting, and humans observed the nest 24 hours a day.
One day in early April, Qi Qi suddenly stopped eating, reduced his activity level, and stayed in one position for a long time.
The staff who have seen countless bears know that Qi Qi is finally going to give birth!
All members of the protection team gathered in front of the screen, staring at Qi Qi nervously through the blurry picture.
One day passed, two days passed, three days passed...
Until the evening of the third day, Qi Qi still hadn't given birth to a cub.
It usually takes about 2-20 hours for a panda to give birth, and it basically does not take more than two days.
The veterinarian who often delivers pandas knew that Qi Qi had a difficult birth.
The veterinarian clenched his fists anxiously and looked at Qi Qi worriedly.
She looked very painful. She changed several positions and used everything around her to try her best to give birth to the baby.
If this continues, not only will the baby die in the womb, but Qiqi's own life will also be in danger.
The protection team could no longer sit still.
Most of the time, they do not interfere with the behavior of wild pandas.
But every wild panda is very precious to the country and the entire earth!
When a panda's life is in danger, the conservation team will do everything they can to help.
Several staff members put on animal suits, applied concealing scents, rushed to the mountain fully armed, and then -
As soon as we arrived at Qiqi's nest, the crisp cries of the panda cubs broke the silence.
Qi Qi, who finally gave birth to a cub on her own, discovered three "deer" walking upright, and was so scared that she held the baby in her arms.
"Woof!" The enemy beasts retreat!
She screamed very fiercely.
The three 'deer' looked at each other, quickly fled from Qiqi's territory, and dared to take off their animal masks.
"Oh, this is so embarrassing."
"As long as I'm not embarrassed... Help me, how can I not be embarrassed?!!!"
"Good intentions lead to bad results. Who could have thought that Qi Qi would actually be born?"
"Our Qiqi is really amazing. She managed to make it through on her own. Did you see her baby just now? It's so chubby and cute~"
"Yes, yes, yes! No wonder Qiqi is so fat three days after giving birth."
In terms of litter size, giant pandas are a bit like bald eagles, usually giving birth to two offspring.
Resources in the wild are limited, and a mother panda can usually only raise one cub alone.
Many panda mothers show "abandoning" behavior after giving birth to their babies, and only feed the stronger cubs.
The weaker cubs are cruelly eliminated by nature as soon as they are born.
It was Qi Qi’s first time to be a mother and the situation was rather special. It took her three days to give birth to her only son, and she gave all her love to the baby.
The only child stayed in his mother's womb for 200 days in total and developed quite well.
The breeder who has seen countless pandas has judged with the naked eye that an average panda cub weighs about 100 grams, and Qiqi's only child must be slightly taller than...
"250 grams?"
Professor Yu Yiyun, who saw Qi Qi's photo for the first time, tentatively guessed a number.
——It’s rude. Who are you calling 250?!
Dirty Bear finally saw the mother panda clearly and instantly realized that he had become the '250'.
Haha, the boomerang never deceived me.
Following her baby's cries, the mother panda came to the bamboo shoots and looked around with her eyes wide open, which also had 800-degree myopia.
"Oh?" Where's the baby?
"Eey! Eey!"
Yu Yiyun rolled and crawled, quickly ran to her mother's side, trying hard to attract Qi Qi's attention.
Qi Qi heard the voice nearby, looked down, and blinked her little eyes with dark circles under them.
——A dirt ball ran towards me.
——The earthen ball made baby sounds.
Qi Qi lowered her head again, almost sticking to the face of "Tuanzi", and only then could she make out a familiar outline from the only clear eye.
“…Ah!”
Qi Qi made a sharp explosion.
Before she left home, she hid the baby in a tree hole and covered it with leaves.
At that time, the baby was still a clean, white, chubby little bear.
How did he end up like this in just one day?
"Eeyee~"
The dirty bag covered in mud made cute sounds, but he didn't know that he had been turned into a silly emoticon package.
[My mother hasn't hit me for two days.jpg]
In the early days when mother pandas raise their cubs, their habitat is relatively fixed.
In order to better record the precious images of wild pandas raising cubs, the conservation team placed the latest cameras around the tree holes that can automatically capture targets, upload images to the Internet in real time, and store solar power.
It is said that the South China tiger team next door also bought one at a high price and used it to photograph the first wild tiger cub of this century.
Qiqi has many fans because of his good looks and is almost the most popular wild bear in the entire Qinling Mountains.
Although the current level of attention is far different from that of Xizhimen Third Prince (Menglan) and Chengdu Tourism Bureau Director (Hehua), the news of Qiqi giving birth to a cub still received widespread attention from panda lovers.
When the cub was one month old and 100 days old, the staff released two photos to announce the good news to the whole society. Countless netizens rolled on the ground with cuteness, and the private message backstage was almost overwhelmed.
Netizens who lack cuteness asked to see the moving dumpling.
After receiving tens of thousands of letters from netizens, the team often starts live broadcasts without disturbing the pandas, and asks netizens to help monitor the safety of the pandas, to avoid negligence of the staff on duty, resulting in untimely rescue.
Before today, the atmosphere in Qi Qi's live broadcast room was peaceful and full of pink bubbles.
The comments were full of praise, saying "The original is cute, and the copy is even cuter."
It was not until Qi Qi realized that the enemy beast was attacking and hid her cub to deal with it alone that the nature of the live broadcast was completely changed.
Netizens could not see Qi Qi leaving the screen, they could only see the cub staying alone in the tree hole, hungry for several hours.
He crawled out of the tree hole to look for his mother, but got no response, so he crawled back in frightened.
The poor little kid hid in the tree hole for the whole day, and netizens were worried all day long. @Protection Team, please rescue the child quickly.
The rewilding team did not set out immediately, in fact they had their own considerations.
A wild cub will not die if it goes hungry for a day, but if it comes into contact with human scent, it will easily be abandoned by its mother and will definitely die.
Unless it is absolutely necessary, humans should try not to interfere with the normal activities of animals.
After a few minutes, the fair little bear, who was well taken care of by his mother, came out of the nest again.
Frequent viewers of the live broadcast know that he is a shy bear. He is very clingy and will hide in his mother's arms at the slightest disturbance.
This is the first time in the bear’s life that he has been separated from his mother for such a long time. The poor little thing is scared and hungry, so he definitely doesn’t dare to walk too far... uh.
The netizen hadn't even finished posting his comment when he was slapped in the face.
Next, they saw the naughty child running to the stream, scaring Mother Yun so much that she screamed.
[Save my baby! It just rained and the water is so deep, what if he falls in? ]
【Calm down, pandas can swim. 】
[What if you get your fur wet and catch a cold? 】
[It doesn't matter, there are wild doctors in the wild to treat him]
At first, the audience was shocked.
Not long after, they saw that the baby bear, who had been buried in its mother's arms and drinking milk every day since birth, was actually trying to hunt bamboo shoots!
As a result, the hunting of bamboo shoots was unsuccessful, but the hardship of hunting was not spared at all.
The poor little thing rolled around a few times, got himself dazed, and cried out in grievance.
Seeing Xiong Xiong looking so aggrieved, netizens laughed in a particularly wicked way.
[Breaking news! The staff posted on Weibo that Beidou positioning shows that Qiqi has escaped danger and is on the way home]
[Great! Qiqi definitely didn’t expect that there would be a big surprise at home]
[Bao, you are indeed a 250]
[Don’t call Bao 250! Is he born 250 and will he be 250 forever? If everyone calls Bao Xiong 250, what will happen if he really becomes 250 in the future? 】
[Sister upstairs, you didn’t let him go either~]
“…”
Qi Qi recognized her own cub and was silent for a few seconds. Her maternal instinct finally overcame her mysophobia and she stretched out her paws to hold the little bear in her arms and feed it.
Yu Yiyun took a look at her mother's white belly hair and knew that she must be a clean bear.
Pandas are mainly black and white, so theoretically it is impossible to take color photos of them.
As we all know, white is not resistant to stains.
Some bears tumble and roll around every day, and the photos taken of them are colorful.
Mommy is already an adult panda, but her body is still as white as a cub, and even her tail is not dirty. She is definitely a clean cat who pays attention to personal hygiene.
The dirty bear, covered in mud, was embarrassed to dirty his mother.
Moreover, he had been a beast for five lifetimes and had never experienced the lactation period.
I'm such a big kid, it's embarrassing.
Yu Yiyun walked with his feet turned inwards, hesitating for two minutes, and decided to add more challenges to his life.
"Eeh!" Sunsun!
"Yiyi!" I want to eat bamboo shoots!
Afraid that Mommy wouldn't understand, Yu Yiyun walked to the bamboo shoots that she had just failed to "hunt", walked around half a circle and squatted behind the bamboo shoots.
"Yeah!" I want this bamboo shoot.
Scientific research shows that the IQ of giant pandas is equivalent to that of human children aged 3-7, and they are able to understand what is being expressed through their behavior.
Qiqi is both smart and beautiful, and immediately understood the baby's request.
She couldn't understand why the baby, who had been hungry all day, refused to drink milk and instead asked to eat bamboo shoots.
Instinct told Qiqi that it was time for a cub this big to start trying solid food.
Next time you encounter a similar situation and you are unable to feed your baby in time, the little bear can find food by himself.
Qi Qi did not refuse the baby's request. She stretched out her front paws and easily "picked up" the bamboo shoots.
Sesame glutinous rice ball stared at his mother with eager eyes, feeling that what was broken was not the bamboo shoots, but his own pitiful self-esteem.
Qiqi picked the bamboo shoots, peeled off the shells with her teeth lovingly, and gave the tenderest cores to the baby.
"Yiyi~"Thank you, Mommy!
Yu Yijun took Sunsun, made a cute sound, and acted coquettishly to her dear mother.
Qiqi not only peeled the bamboo shoots, but also bit off the hard part at the root, leaving only the core that was easy to eat for Zaizai.
Giant pandas change their teeth like humans. Between birth and three months, a panda cub will have 24 deciduous teeth in its mouth, which are mainly used for drinking milk and eating tenderer foods.
When a panda is about eight months old, its milk teeth begin to fall out, and then it takes about half a year to be replaced by 42 permanent teeth. Only then can it chew on hard bamboo.
Gungun was chewing the bamboo shoot core with a crunchy sound. Before he finished one, his mother brought him another crispy and tender bamboo shoot core.
"Eeyee~"
Yu Yiyun was very moved and raised her legs happily.
With a beautiful mommy and endless bamboo shoots to eat, what else could a bear’s life have to worry about?
some.
After the rain, Qi Qi, who could no longer bear it, took advantage of the sunny afternoon and threw her own child Tuanba Tuanba into the stream.
Although the giant panda’s name contains the word “cat,” it is actually more closely related to dogs and is a water-loving animal.
If conditions permit, wild pandas will enclose their territory near water sources.
Captive giant pandas will also be provided with exclusive swimming pools for the national treasures.
Responsible panda mothers often bathe their cubs.
Some mothers not only bathe their babies, but also rub their backs, like Qiqi.
"Eey, ey, ey!" Mommy, it's down! It's down!
"Eeyeeeeee!" You are not washing your head, you are washing your butt!
The earthy body was held in mommy's arms and washed thoroughly over and over again.
Qi Qi didn't stop until she was sure that all the mud had been washed off, revealing the sesame glutinous rice ball's original skin. She then carried the cub to the shore, chewing bamboo and basking in the sun.
People go to zoos to visit pandas and find that they spend most of their time eating bamboo.
After eight million years of reproduction, the panda's diet has become monotonous, with 95% of its food source being bamboo.
In fact, pandas belong to the order Carnivora and still retain the short digestive tract of carnivores, so the nutrients they can absorb from bamboo are limited.
Adult giant pandas must eat bamboo equivalent to one-third of their body weight every day, and some pandas can even eat 70 or 80 kilograms.
Only 17% of the bamboo eaten by giant pandas can be absorbed, and the rest is excreted in the feces.
Therefore, the shuttle-shaped 'Qingtuan' made by the giant panda exudes the fragrance of bamboo.
Yu Yiyun ate the bamboo shoots and felt that the more she ate, the hungrier she got.
It seems that the calories eaten are not as much as the calories consumed in the chewing process.
As he ate, he couldn't help but recall the feeling of being full and bloated in his previous lives.
“Ahhh.”
Qi Qi saw the boy holding the bamboo shoots and not eating for a long time, so he thought he was full.
The sun was shining brightly at noon and the hair on my body had dried.
After eating the bamboo, Qiqi took the cub back to the nest to sleep.
Yu Yiyun lay beside her mother, not feeling sleepy for the moment, still thinking about her life.
What kind of animal eats 14 hours a day and sleeps 10 hours a day? Apart from that, it doesn't need to do anything else, but it still makes humans crazy about it and lose their minds.
Oh, the giant panda.
That's okay.
Giant pandas do not need to hunt and do not participate in the food chain of other hunters.
As long as they survive to adulthood, they have almost no natural enemies in the wild.
Yu Yiyun had been a hunter for five lifetimes, and he was not used to seeing him suddenly become so leisurely and lazy.
While his mother was sleeping, Sesame Tangyuan tiptoed out of the tree hole, and his innate skills awakened again.
I am bored.
Go fuck yourself~
Netizens who were closely following the live broadcast saw Qi Qi sleeping soundly with his arms and legs spread out, snoring, and the cub running out of the tree hole with his short tail twisted, and they were so anxious that they frantically swiped the screen.
Qi Qi!
Your family lost 250!
Yu Yiyun, who was only half a year old, had no fighting ability and poor eyesight, did not dare to leave her mother too far.
When he first unlocked a new map, he cautiously followed the route that smelled of his mother, taking pigeon-toed steps without recognizing any relatives, trying to see the world clearly.
The Giant Panda Reserve and the South China Tiger Rewilding Area are both located in the Qinling Mountains, only 100 kilometers apart, with almost the same latitude and roughly similar species distribution.
Due to factors such as topography and local climate, plant distribution varies greatly.
The wild areas of the South China tiger are mostly covered with trees, and the growth cycle is relatively long.
Trees require a lot of nutrients to grow, and the vegetation covering the mountains is mostly weeds and shrubs.
There are large tracts of bamboo forests growing in the Giant Panda Reserve, with a short growth cycle. Some bamboos grow very fast, and can grow several meters the day after it rains.
Bamboo is more dependent on water and sunlight and draws less nutrients from the soil.
Therefore, the soil can support more high-demand plants. Even in autumn, the mountains are still covered with wild flowers, which is a beautiful scenery that is difficult to see in human society.
Yu Yiyun was busy wandering among the flower fields, smelling this and that flower.
As I was smelling it, I suddenly heard the buzzing of bees in my ears.
bee?
Yu Yiyun raised his head and his DNA moved.
Where there are bees, there is a beehive.
Where there is a beehive, there is honey.
Yu Yiyun once destroyed many beehives in Qinling Mountains to store meat for the summer, and she knew exactly where the bees would build their nests.
When a certain bad tiger tried to steal honey, the biggest obstacle he encountered was not the bees, but the black bears who also liked to rob honeycombs.
Sweet honey is a bear trap.
raging.
What a coincidence! That's me!
Yu Yiyun, who had done so many bad things, immediately switched from vacation mode to hunting mode, opening his misty eyes to search for beehives everywhere.
He shook his head and searched for a while, then suddenly looked up and saw something hanging under the tree, the color of which was very similar to the tree itself.
"Eeyore!" Honey!
"Yiyi!" Here I come!
Yu Yiyun quickened his pace and ran towards the "honey" he had been longing for.
He used all four claws to quickly approach the tree, confidently stretched out his claws to grab the trunk and prepared to climb up.
Before it started crawling, Sesame Tangyuan looked up and found a long, oblong object with black rings hanging above it. It looked extremely flexible.
Yu Yiyun took a breath of cold air.
The memory of the king cobra he once encountered on the top of the Qinling Mountains came to his mind. It attacked him again, and Zhima Tangyuan was so scared that he quickly retracted his claws, leaned back and fell on his butt.
“Hiss!”
The small animals in the trees poked their heads out and made warning sounds common in the animal kingdom.
When Yu Yiyun heard this sound, she became more certain that she had encountered a snake...wait?
Is the sound of a snake so cute?
He raised his head again and examined the 'snake' again, only to find that its body was covered with fur.
Looking up along the body of the "snake", Yu Yiyun saw that the "beehive" on the tree moved and was also looking at him with highly myopic eyes.
After staring at each other for a full half minute, Yu Yiyun finally recognized the creature lying on the tree disguised as a beehive - a red panda.
At first glance, red pandas and giant pandas are very different, both in body shape and fur color.
If you observe carefully, you will find that many of the habits of red pandas are similar to those of giant pandas. They also eat bamboo, have six fingers, and are also furry.
And, just as cute.
The red pandas living in the Qinling Mountains are even rarer than the giant pandas.
They will set up their territory next to the giant panda.
The giant panda gnaws on the tough bamboo stems, leaving behind leaves and twigs.
And living around giant pandas, you don't have to worry about being hunted by them. Relying on the giant panda's huge size and ferocious habits, it can also scare away most predators, making it the ideal neighbor animal.
The red panda napping in the tree poked its head out and saw the neighbor's naughty kid rolling around under the tree. It tilted its head in confusion, unable to understand this behavior.
Red pandas like to be neighbors with giant pandas, but they don't like to interact with their neighbors.
After all, the giant panda is huge, fierce, and has a high attack power. If it is angered, the red panda will definitely not fight back.
Experience tells the red panda that this cub is probably not yet weaned, and it would be very dangerous if it encounters an enemy animal.
It had been neighbors with the bear next door for many years and knew that she had only given birth to one child.
Unlike me, I can have several children~
The red panda, who had just finished taking care of her cub, heard the fat black and white cub calling "yi yi".
For some reason, the maternal instinct that had just subsided was suddenly aroused.
The red panda is struggling with the dilemma: should I keep him? Or not?
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