Chapter 142 Qinling Giant Panda (Twenty-eight)
The autumn wind blows away the yellow fallen leaves on the branches.
The giant pandas that climbed to high mountains to escape the summer heat are following the laws of nature and gradually returning to lower altitude areas to find new territories.
The little bear also marked his own territory in this appropriate season.
One day when summer was coming to an end, Little Bear suddenly stood up and left Sesame Rice Balls and Ziwei on his own initiative.
Before this, Zhima Tangyuan was a little worried. He was afraid that the little bear would always follow him and Ziwei and adapt to group life, and would not be able to be independent in the future.
You know, he was raised little by little from a small sesame dumpling weighing less than 100 grams, so the relationship between him and him is extremely deep.
As the saying goes, a loving father often leads to failure.
If the little bear refused to leave, Sesame Tangyuan would not be able to chase him away, and he might not even be able to yell at him.
[Cai Xiong cries.jpg]
Perhaps the panda's solitary instinct prevailed, or perhaps the little bear perfectly inherited the habits of the Qinling mountain tyrant and even learned the trick of 'releasing relatives'.
Like all sub-adult pandas, he bravely left his parents, but did not go completely far away.
Along the edge of Sesame Tangyuan and Ziwei's habitat, the little bear marked his own territory in the middle of their territories, declaring himself an independent big bear!
Even though he has his own territory, the little bear still crosses the mark every now and then and sneaks into Sesame Dumpling's territory.
Sometimes a few fruits are left, sometimes fresh meat is left.
Occasionally, when Mommy is at home, Little Bear will sneak over and sleep close to Mommy like he did when he was a child.
This was the first time the conservation team observed sesame dumplings providing food to Yaoyao and they believed it was just an isolated case.
After all, pandas are solitary animals, and there is no record of them supporting elderly animals.
It wasn't until they saw similar behavior in Little Bear that their thoughts began to waver.
It is true that wild animals follow their own inherent habits, but not every animal is cut from the same mold.
A large amount of data proves that animal behavior can be changed by the acquired environment.
For example, the ancestors of pandas were originally carnivores. Because there were too few prey and too many predators at a certain time, they adapted to the environment and changed to eating bamboo.
Today, the top predators are absent from the Qinling Mountains, and the number of prey has greatly increased.
Some pandas discover that meat is delicious and often catch bamboo rats and other prey to eat.
According to this rule, Sesame Rice Balls provided food to the old bear, and the little bear imitated him and provided food to his parent animal.
At least within their family, the practice of caring for elderly animals has been passed down.
Ten years later, Chang Geng had become an old bear, unable to climb mountains or chew bamboo. There would surely be young bears bringing him young bamboo shoots and meat.
The protection team witnessed Chang Geng climbing from the south slope to the north slope, connecting the entire family with his own footsteps, and was praised by netizens as the "freest soul".
They sincerely hope that this free soul can stay in the mountains and forests forever without any constraints.
Winter comes earlier on the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains than on the southern slope.
All the leaves on the trees fell and turned into mud. A heavy snowfall gave the entire mountain forest a new skin, and the average temperature in the mountainous area dropped below zero.
When the weather cleared up after the snow, forest rangers braved the severe cold and climbed up the mountain to investigate the wintering conditions of wild animals.
Not long after a few upright deer entered the forest, they saw the familiar black and white balls.
Judging from the fat body shape, who else could it be other than 250?
The upright deer often dealt with 250 and had already gained some experience. He took out the steamed buns he had prepared in advance and threw them in front of the little bear.
Normally, 250 would leave on their own initiative as long as they got the steamed bread.
Today was particularly abnormal. 250 squatted quietly in the snow, without picking up the steamed bun in front of him, nor making any sound to drive away the standing deer.
The upright deer walked over tentatively and found that the snow around Chang Geng had melted in a circle, which seemed to indicate that he had been staying here for some time.
"Chang Geng, are you...waiting for us?"
"babble."
Chang Geng called out softly.
Although it was ridiculous, after two years of dealing with each other, Zhililu's intuition told him that Chang Geng was really waiting for them.
"What happened?"
Chang Geng said nothing more, turned around and walked towards the mountain, leaving two lines of footprints.
The upright deer looked at each other in bewilderment, then quickly followed in the snow and asked:
"250, do you want more steamed bread?"
"Yeah!" Yes!
The upright deer picked up the steamed bun and followed Chang Geng's footprints to the middle of the hillside. He was so tired that he was panting and his breath condensed into white mist.
Chang Geng would stop every time he walked a certain distance to check if the little man was following him.
When everyone saw the direction Chang Geng was heading, they had a vague premonition in their hearts.
That piece of forest is Yaoyao's territory.
Winter is the season with the highest mortality rate for wildlife.
Especially for an old bear like Yaoyao, his physical fitness is too poor.
Even if you survive the first snow, you won’t be able to survive the second or third snow.
Last night at midnight, Yu Yiyun noticed that the snow was getting heavier and heavier, and was worried that Yaoyao's old arms and legs would not be able to survive.
He braved the wind and snow and climbed to Yaoyao's territory overnight, but found that the old bear was not staying in the cave.
Yaoyao already had a premonition that he would not survive this winter.
While he still had strength, he climbed out of the cave, and with his weak eyesight, he carefully gazed at the forest and the little bear that came to his side.
“Oh.”
"Eeyee."
The two bears greeted each other, and Yu Yijun crawled to Yaoyao's side. They snuggled together and admired the beautiful but fragile snow.
The dawn illuminated the vast white forest. Yu Yijun shook off the snowflakes on his body. Yaoyao beside him had lost his breath.
In the last moments of his life, his body was covered with white snow, as if he had forever merged with the mountains and forests.
When the upright deer arrived at Yaoyao's territory and saw the old bear lying in the snow, his heart sank suddenly.
They knew that Yaoyao was too old and had reached the limit of life for a wild panda.
The fact that he could live to the winter of his 20th year exceeded many people's expectations.
But seeing the panda they cared about grow old and sleep in the snow with their own eyes, people still couldn't calm down.
Yu Yiyun squatted there quietly, watching people confirm the cause of death and then bury Yaoyao deeply.
He was born in the mountains and was buried in the mountains.
Waiting to bloom with the spring flowers.
"Chang Geng, this may be difficult for you to understand."
The conservation team knows that many animals have no concept of "death", so they cannot understand why their companions are in a long sleep.
The upright deer, who often comes into contact with Chang Gung, tried to explain to the little bear with a choked voice.
"Yaoyao died of natural causes, without experiencing too much pain. With you accompanying him in his last days, you must have..."
"babble."
The sesame rice dumpling raised its bear face and stretched out its paws.
"Ah? I can't give Yaoyao back to you."
"Eeyee!"
Sesame Tangyuan called out twice, and as usual, took out the steamed bread from his pocket.
Perhaps because he had been an animal for so long, Yu Yiyun seemed not as sentimental as humans when facing life and death.
When the animals born in the mountains and forests come to the end of their lives, they will once again merge into the mountains and forests, like elves living forever in the Qinling Mountains.
Yaoyao turned into an elf in the snowy night, and from then on he would forever protect and nourish the forest he loved so much, making it more vibrant.
The following cold winter brought several more snowfalls, allowing the mountain animals to enjoy the most distinct four seasons.
Winter bamboo shoots were buried under thick snow, making it difficult for giant pandas to find food, and they had to leave their territory and go to areas with shallower snow.
Sesame Tangyuan followed the main force and moved down the mountain, encountering many familiar animals along the way.
Heavy snow not only affects giant pandas, but also golden monkeys.
The pear monkey, who has accumulated enough experience and grown into a reliable monkey king, leads the monkey group to seize territory and occupy the best fruit forest on the entire mountain.
As the crape myrtle is about to enter sexual maturity, it will transform into something even more beautiful and powerful. When the mating season really comes, she will surely attract countless male bears.
The crape myrtle is a bear from the southern slope that migrated to the northern slope on its own initiative and is genetically very distant from the local bears.
She chose to live and reproduce in this forest, and she must have made outstanding contributions to the local population.
Another male bear, Dudu, from the north slope has fully adapted to the environment of the south slope.
When the courtship period comes, he will definitely be able to show off his talents.
Yu Yiyun climbed to the foot of the mountain and met Little Bear, who was independent for the first year.
The little bear is less than two years old now. Because he has traveled all over the country with his mother since he was a child, his development speed and physical fitness are far superior to bears of the same age, and he has the bravest courage.
Zhima Tangyuan saw from afar that an adult male bear was extremely hungry and approached the little bear to snatch food.
250 was about to rush over to help, but the little bear stood up angrily and raised his paw to hit him on the head.
"Hey, hey!" What are you grabbing for?
"Hey, huh?" My mom taught me to be self-sufficient. Didn't your mom teach you that?
“…Ahhhh.”
The adult bear's eyes became clear after being beaten, and he rolled away with his head in his arms, not daring to bully the underage bear.
Sesame Dumpling heaved a sigh of relief and quietly stepped back without going over to say hello to Little Bear.
The baby has grown up, it's time to let go and let him create his own legend.
As winter deepened, the conservation team detected that this winter was unusually cold. They were worried that the giant pandas in the mountains would not be able to adapt to the coldest winter in decades and considered whether to carry out artificial intervention.
After several days of testing, the protection team found that:
Giant pandas are much more adaptable than we think, and each bear has found a way to combat the cold.
Looking at the photos fed back by the drone and infrared camera, the conference room fell into unprecedented silence.
After a long time, the senior leader who presided over the meeting spoke first:
"In the past two years, I was inspired by Chang Gung and started to think about a question."
Someone answered, "What's the problem?"
"We started protecting giant pandas in the last century. At that time, there were only 109 wild pandas in the entire Qinling Mountains. We couldn't afford to lose any of them, so we wanted to let them all live in greenhouses."
"In the blink of an eye, decades have passed. The bamboo forests that were cut down have been replanted, and the number of pandas in the mountains is increasing."
"What is the result? Our overprotection and improper propaganda by certain organizations have led the whole society to believe that pandas cannot survive in the wild and that we must insist on artificial intervention and captivity, making pandas work for humans like going to work. In the long run, is this really good for pandas?"
"..." The entire conference room became even more silent.
"Look, even Chang Gung knows that you should let go of your child when he grows up." The leader sighed and said in a deep voice, "The so-called 'national treasure' is just a status given to pandas by humans. To truly treat giant pandas as treasures, we must first learn to respect them."
"Eeyee~"
The Qinling mountain tyrant climbed to a high place, munched on bamboo shoots, and overlooked the vast mountains and forests that belonged to him.
Spring is coming again!
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