Chapter 73 Kruger Lion (Twenty)
The personal experience of being a South China tiger during those years, told Yu Yiyun:
Reconquering the habitat is a big project!
Back then, before the "Tigers Return to the Mountains" team officially released the first batch of South China tigers, they conducted multiple rounds of screening and several years of complex and rigorous rewilding training for the South China tigers participating in the rewilding. In the end, they successfully released 19 tigers from the hundreds of existing tigers.
At the same time, a special team was dispatched to carefully investigate the topography of the protected area.
Fearing that caged tigers would have low competitiveness in the wild and would have difficulty surviving, the team even raised a group of wild cattle in the Qinling Mountains ten years in advance...
Things are different now. Zhumi has become a native African lion and no longer needs to worry about the problem of "being able to adapt to the wild environment."
The biggest problem facing us is only one:
Is the local habitat suitable for lions to survive and reproduce?
A certain pig had a poor sense of direction and was not sure where the lake was in the ∩-shaped river channel.
We can only rely on the temperature felt during the rising and setting of the sun to judge that we are moving roughly northward, possibly crossing the Tropic of Capricorn and moving from the subtropics to the tropics.
According to the standard that each latitude is about 111 kilometers apart, the three little ones are likely to have spanned 3-4 latitudes vertically.
3-4 degrees of latitude may not sound like a lot, but with local climate and environmental changes, it may cause huge differences in vegetation and biological distribution, resulting in the "orange in the south, tangerine in the north" phenomenon.
For some species with poor survival ability, their competitiveness will drop significantly if there is only a difference of one degree of latitude.
As the top predator in nature, lions at least don't have to worry about their position in the food chain being shaken unless they encounter tigers on land.
There is only one biggest factor that can affect population distribution: food.
There are mostly grasslands and deserts near the lake, with no tall trees. The main animals are tropical birds and smaller herbivores.
Although familiar "friends" such as zebras and antelopes can be seen, there is basically no sign of giraffes, wildebeests, and impalas within a radius of several kilometers, and no grazing lines left by them were found.
It is conceivable that further north, they, like the lions, have disappeared from their former homeland.
Although more than half of the common recipes were missing, Yu Yiyun was not discouraged. She took her two friends with her and confidently developed new recipes.
Lions have a very strong digestive system and can even eat heavy carrion, so changing the main course is no problem at all~
African lions living in Asian zoos eat poultry and livestock and drink bowls of milk every day, but they are not found to have any health problems, which is enough to prove the powerful gastrointestinal function of big cats.
Just a few days after arriving in the new environment, the three lions, once considered an "invasive species", finally received the respect they deserved.
When the ostrich encounters the big cats, it finally knows to run away!
The problem is that this period happens to coincide with the ostrich breeding season, and the birds can run away but the eggs cannot.
Unlike most birds, ostriches have wings but cannot fly or climb trees, so they cannot lay eggs in nests.
During the breeding season, ostriches habitually find a dry and safe place to lay eggs.
They start laying eggs on the seventh day after they get together, laying one egg at a time, every one or two days, and when they have accumulated a certain number, they will start hatching.
During the entire breeding period, generally 10-20 eggs are laid.
Due to the different incubation times, ostrich eggs laid later have almost no chance of hatching.
At this time, it's the turn of the pig with the sharp claws to destroy the eggs to appear!
There are too many giraffes near the ∩-shaped river, which eat the leaves on the high ground, and there are also leopards climbing around in the trees.
As a result, few birds built nests, preventing Yu Yiyun from displaying her "mischievous" skills.
Now, when he saw large amounts of free ostrich eggs, Zhumi was extremely happy. He happily dug out the eggs and used his claws to teach Chouchou and Tiezhu how to judge whether the eggs could hatch by using sunlight and temperature.
The piglet, the 'good cat of the prairie', still maintains his evil yet somewhat humane behavior. He specifically picks eggs with a lower probability of hatching, uses stones to break the thick eggshells, and enjoys bird eggs that are 20 times larger than chicken eggs.
Occasionally, when the luck is too bad, a "hairy ostrich egg" ready to be hatched is opened. Feeling guilty, Yu Yiyun closes the egg and silently hands it to Chou Chou.
It’s not that Yu Yiyun’s little bit of conscience felt a pang.
Mainly because...the picky kitten doesn't like to eat hairy eggs.
For the next several months, while the other lions were struggling for food, the three stray lions lived in their new habitat, fooling around under the guise of "inspecting the environment."
The new habitat has plenty of water, prey is easy to catch, and there are no other lion groups or predators competing for resources. It is like a paradise for cats.
The three little ones have no pressure to survive. All they do every day is eat and sleep. They are so happy that I wish I could write a "Peach Blossom Spring" for them.
However, Yu Yiyun is well aware that there is no absolutely perfect habitat in the world.
Most of the animals here are migratory.
Whether it is an ostrich, Egyptian goose, zebra, elephant, or even a small serval, they all have the ability to travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers.
All animals depend on the seemingly vast lake for survival.
In fact, lakes, unlike rivers, have no origin and rely primarily on rainwater for their survival.
If there is no precipitation for a long time, the lake area will decrease and will not be able to nourish much life.
This area is further north than the ∩-shaped river channel, has a higher temperature, and naturally dries up faster.
The road here was all desert or semi-desert, with no other water sources to provide supplies.
Affected by the monsoon, the seasons here change two months earlier than in the ∩-shaped river channel. The rainy season has just ended, and the lake is shrinking at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The ostriches and Egyptian geese are busy training their chicks to run and fly, the zebras and their young are working harder to gain weight, and the servals are licking their paws and getting ready to hit the road.
Yu Yiyun was not surprised by this situation.
If the lake had sufficient water, elephants would have no need to risk sacrificing family members by returning to the V-shaped river channel full of predators.
Although this new discovery made Yu Yiyun realize that new habitats may not be suitable for survival at times.
However, Piglet and the three little ones were not discouraged. Instead, they became even more enthusiastic about the adventure.
As the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and finding a habitat certainly can’t be done overnight.
In the past millions of years of evolutionary history, it is precisely because animals set out again and again that the current biological pattern was formed.
The three wandering creatures found a lake on their first trip that allowed them to safely spend the end of the dry season. That was already amazing!
They stayed by the lake to finish their last meal and found that the herd of elephants were preparing to return to the ∩-shaped river channel, so they followed them stealthily.
[Following in secret.jpg]
This trip was neither long nor short, lasting more than three months in total.
When returning to his hometown again, Yu Yiyun keenly discovered that there seemed to be some subtle changes in the pattern near the river bank.
Throughout the rainy season, the prey was fat and strong, and all the lions were busy rushing for prey, and there seemed to be no major conflicts.
The biggest destabilizing factor, Ochi, has not launched destructive attacks in the past few months.
Although he won the war with the lion group on the south coast, he also paid a heavy price and needed to recuperate during the rainy season.
The Lower West Bank lion pride has two more litters of cubs.
One litter was born by Queen Lion, and the other was born by Sister Pig.
After the elder sister successfully carried the little lion, she did not choose to form a new lion group with the male lions, but returned to her original lion group.
Maybe they feel that the wild lions outside are not as reliable as their old father.
Tommy seemed to realize that the baby in his daughter's belly was his grandson, the continuation of his bloodline, so he did not attack the little lion.
Anyway, raising a kid for someone else is something that you will get used to the second time.
In addition to Tommy, the other three lions in the Lion Alliance also have their own newborn cubs, adding up to a total of 17!
Yu Yiyun just returned home and there were so many little lions to suck!
While indulging in sucking the cubs, Piglet was secretly glad that he chose to wander.
Otherwise, when the 17 little lions grow up slowly, the increasingly saturated river channel will definitely not be able to meet their survival needs.
It is difficult for fragile lion cubs to grow up successfully.
Although the newly discovered lake also faces problems such as water depletion and decreasing prey.
But as long as the concept of "migration" is taught to the little lions, they will continue to explore and pass it on.
In the future, they will open up more and wider territories!
After all, the African continent is home to lions!
The three wandering children returned to their hometown just as quietly as they had set out.
Yu Yiyun picked a clear night with a starry sky and sneaked into the lion group with two friends.
When he reached the door of his house, he sniffed the scent keenly and confirmed that Tommy was still the Lord Lion of the Lower West Coast.
——If an enemy beast takes advantage of me being outside and steals my home, I will definitely...
Turn around and leave!
Yes, it is so courageous!!!
[Lift your head and stick out your belly.jpg]
Fortunately, the most worrying thing did not happen. Piglet swung his tail and swaggered into the Lower West Coast territory.
A pride of lions had just finished a hunt. When they smelled the scent of the male lion, they all looked over, their eyes glowing faintly in the night.
"Meow~" Daddy, it's me!
Piglet greeted from a distance.
"Mia-wah!" And me!
"Gurgle gurgle..." Mom and Dad, Tiezhu is back!
The three sub-adult male lions, whose body shapes are no different from those of adult lions, still greeted their family happily in the coquettish voices of little lions.
If it were any other lion group, a sub-adult male lion that left the group would come back either to challenge the lord lion or simply to get beaten.
The moment a lion leaves home, it severs the bond with its kin.
From now on, we will either never see each other again, or we will meet again with swords drawn.
In the video shot by human photographers, since Tommy returned to the lion group, the Lower West Coast lion group has become a special existence, doing many things that are not in line with the character of lions.
At this moment, hearing the cries of the sub-adult lions who had left home, the lord lion had no intention of expelling them. Instead, he surrounded the three little ones impatiently, just like "the first winter vacation for the precious cubs who went to college in another city", and circled around to check if any of them were injured.
I found that the three little ones were not only lively and energetic, but also had obviously gained several dozen pounds.
The lions, having eaten their fill, got close to each other and then set out to hunt again.
"Roar~" The baby must be starving after wandering for so long.
"Ah!" Yes, the baby has become thin because of hunger!
The big cats love their cubs so much that they have 800 layers of filters on their body. They ignore the fact that even if you take the square root of the three little ones, they still have a very considerable weight, and they feed the babies who are "starving outside" like crazy.
The piglet didn't bother to be polite with them and ate voraciously as if he hadn't eaten for five minutes.
"Meow~" What's wrong with the kitten eating a little more!
"Roar!" Yes, we are not fat, this is called cuteness expanding!
The photographer followed the three little ones back to the ∩-shaped river channel. He felt the unlimited doting from the big lion and was a little amused and helpless for a moment.
"Oh my god, I was actually worried that they would be attacked by the lions if they returned to the lion group."
"The Tommy Lions were so nice, they welcomed Uboncovi with a hearty meal."
"...Yubang Kewei? Isn't his name Yun Duo?"
"Wait, isn't her name Xuexue?!"
"Didn't you see the forum? Originally, Xuexue and Yunduo were the most popular names, but after the vlog of their travel was released, many African natives paid attention to these little cuties and called the little white lions by this name. It is said that in the local language, Yubangkewi means 'holy'."
"Holy and white? This name really suits Xuexue."
"Yubang Kewei, congratulations on having a name~"
Pig was busy eating and didn't know if he heard it or not. The cat's ears twitched slightly twice.
Yu Yiyun discovered through personal experience that the rainy season on the lake side is about two months later than that on the ∩-shaped river channel, so the water source naturally dries up later.
As long as the lions observe the movements of African elephants and master migration techniques, they can avoid the most difficult tail end of the dry season in the savanna area and minimize the fate of starving to death.
Once lions gradually adapt to the survival skills of migration, they can look for more vast and more suitable environments.
Piglet has very beautiful ideas, and even has a grand ideal in his mind that 'sooner or later, lion footprints will reappear on the African continent'.
However, lions are born with a strong sense of territory.
If they can find food in their territory, they will not leave easily.
Previously, Yu Yiyun heard from a photographer that about twenty years ago, the Ryan family migrated to the vicinity of the ∩-shaped river, mainly because their original habitat was too close to the inland and there had been no rainfall for two consecutive years.
Therefore, Ryan, as the lion king with absolute dominance, made the decision, and the family members were willing to follow him.
Now, the ∩-shaped river channel can barely survive, and Yu Yiyun does not have that much say and cannot command the lion group.
Except for the two little friends, Chou Chou and Tiezhu, the other lions are definitely unwilling to leave their homes and embark on a migration journey.
What to do?
The pig thought for a long time, but still couldn't think of a way to make the lion, who acted solely on instinct, obey his instructions.
Anyway, the next dry season is still early, so we can think of solutions slowly.
Yu Yiyun temporarily put aside those worries and started a new fooling around, moving upstream along the river and secretly observing the little lions in the south bank lion group that he had fed.
I have been away for more than three months, and the little lion should be more than half a year old.
Although lion cubs of this age are not capable of living alone, their survival rate is not particularly low under the care of their mother.
After the leader of the lion group on the south bank was bitten to death, the remaining female lions entered a window period.
According to the practice of ordinary lion groups, the lioness who raises cubs will take the cubs away from the lion group and let her sisters choose a new leader lion.
Yu Yiyun muttered, "I wonder if the little lion is still there," while cautiously approaching the south bank territory.
Before he could make a sound, the little lion smelled a familiar scent and came running over.
The piglets were so well developed that even with regular baths, they couldn't hide the scent of the powerful lion.
Several lions, which had grown several times larger, excitedly surrounded the brother next door, complaining to him that he had not come for so long and asked if he had forgotten about the third room that was kept outside.
"Hmm?" Where's the squirrel?
"Oh?" Where's the rabbit?
“Wuuuu…” Brother, don’t you love us anymore?
Neptune Pig was surrounded by them, listening to the little lion's scolding, feeling that he had no way to defend himself.
Before he could coax the little lion, female lions from the south bank came over one after another and, as usual, surrounded the pig that they hadn't seen for a long time and smelled it.
"roar?"
The pig was so scared that it tucked its tail between its legs, squatted on the spot pitifully, and begged for mercy weakly.
At this moment, he really wanted to download a cat language translator and ask the lioness why she was so obsessed with him.
Of course Yu Yiyun didn't know that the lioness wasn't obsessed with him, it was mainly because of the deep sisterly love.
The little lions in the family are not yet old enough to be independent, and the lioness cannot bear to see their sisters leave the group and raise their cubs alone.
Looking across the grassland, there are very few male lions who can accept the opportunity to be a father.
Later, lions that came to apply for the job were all driven away by the lioness because they showed aggression towards the little lions.
After seeing too many violent lions, white lions became their best choice.
Yu Yiyun could roughly guess that the lioness favored him not because she valued his ability to protect the family.
But as a male lion, if he cannot protect the lion group, he should not sit in that position easily.
Otherwise, if he was defeated by another lion, would he just watch his family members being mauled to death?
As of now, Yu Yiyun is still unsure whether his abilities are sufficient to fight against the powerful enemy beast.
Yu Yiyun took great pains to finally get rid of the lioness on the south bank.
For the next few days, he consciously avoided the territory of the South Coast Lion.
The ∩-shaped river channel is so small that after bypassing one lion group, there is another lion group.
One day, Yu Yiyun was wandering around, and his poor sense of direction once again took over and brought him to the territory of the Upper East Coast.
Yu Yiyun smelled the scent of the lord's lion mark and wisely prepared to leave, but she felt something was wrong.
He lowered his head and sniffed, and found that there were only three male lions left who had marked the scent.
The dominant lion and his eldest son disappeared.
Judging from the smell, they hadn't marked this territory in several days.
Yu Yiyun couldn't help but feel strange.
Although he had not had direct contact with the lion, he knew his strong and domineering character.
Under normal circumstances, the male lion would never allow his son to cross the territory he marked.
Now, his scent is fading...
Yu Yiyun realized something and picked a tree that was neither too tall nor too short with a thick trunk to climb up.
Male lions are usually not good at climbing trees, but Yu Yiyun is an exception. He possesses agility that is disproportionate to his body size.
However, the pig now weighs more than 400 kilograms and is approaching 500 kilograms.
Before climbing up each time, you must first calm the tree down, so that you don't climb too high and the tree can't bear it.
The pig climbed to a slightly higher place, looked around, and followed the vulture's flight path. Sure enough, he saw his second brother sharing the carrion.
The corpse had been mostly eaten, and one could only tell from the hair scattered around that he was once a mighty lion.
Yu Yiyun was too far away to tell whether the remains belonged to the Lion, the Lord of Upper East Coast, or his eldest son.
But one thing is certain: one of them died.
Yu Yiyun climbed down from the tree calmly.
Although I don't like those two lions, I still feel sad when I see their fellow lions meet their end.
He sat quietly under the tree, intending to calm down for a while.
But the vultures circling overhead made it difficult for Yu Yiyun to concentrate.
Vultures are absolute opportunists and their hunting ability is almost nonexistent.
So they always appear next to dying animals, waiting to enjoy their food.
Now, the vultures were circling above his head. Could it be...
I want Gala???
Yu Yijun lowered his head, looked at his own 400-plus pounds of flesh and sharp claws, and ruled out this possibility first.
Since it is not him who is going to croak, what is the vulture waiting for?
Yu Yiyun was a little curious, so he followed the direction of the vulture's flight and came to the territory of Lower East Coast.
Soon, he saw the river water left from above was dyed a light red.
The higher you go, the more obvious the red becomes.
It was not until Yu Yiyun walked upstream that he saw a scarred lion, half of its body submerged in the river, trying hard to stand up.
The lion queen, who was also injured, squatted beside him, holding a deer leg in her mouth.
The lion no longer had the strength to eat.
The Lion Queen stood there quietly, as if intending to see him off for the last time.
This male lion was brought into the territory by himself. Although he experienced many unpleasant things in the process, the lion queen still recognized his sacrifices for the lion group.
The lion queen's golden eyes showed pity for fate as she watched helplessly as her partner struggled in the water.
Yu Yiyun ran over at a faster pace and found that there was a big hole in the lion's stomach and a deep bite on its throat. It was already too late even for the gods to save it.
Unfortunately, the wounds on his body could not cause him to die immediately. He could only feel the passing of life in the most painful way.
The tragic lion struggled and fell into the river, trying to end his final torture.
Unfortunately, he couldn't swim to the middle of the river, and the water level was not high enough to drown him.
The scavengers did not dare to approach because they were afraid of the lion queen standing nearby.
He breathed hard and looked at the white lion that appeared in his sight, his eyes actually filled with pleading.
Yu Yijun lowered her head and looked at him, then called out softly, as if responding to his wish.
Then he jumped into the water and ended the lion's life without hesitation.
The blood dyed the white lion's mane red, and it seemed to be stained with the killing that the lion must experience.
But Yu Yijun didn't care and looked up at the Lion Queen.
The lion queen watched her partner die without any reaction and slowly turned around and returned to the lion group.
The beast had no time to grieve.
She also has to continue to protect her lion pride.
Yu Yiyun spent a long time cleaning his mane before he learned from the photographer what happened to the lion on the upper east coast.
Ochi and his allies... to be precise, the stray male lions who followed Ochi, attacked the lion group on the Upper East Coast together with Ochi.
The lion queen knew that the lion's purpose was not to challenge the lion group, but to kill, so she led all the lionesses and the male lions to fight back.
Although the foreign lions were driven away, the lion group paid a heavy price.
However, everyone knows that this is far from the end.
As long as Ochi lives, the same tragedy will happen again.
"Ochi...his madness has spread to other lions."
"There are too many stray lions here, and their territory is too small. The stray lions probably think that it is better to kill all the lions in the group than to wander around."
"I can understand them. When they are unhappy, they feel that other people's happiness is a sin and want to destroy it. But... this is wrong."
"Dear, don't judge the beasts by human behavior. There is no right or wrong."
really.
Yu Yiyun knew that beasts had no morals and no such thing as "right or wrong".
If Ochi's behavior becomes mainstream, perhaps from now on, lions will be solitary like tigers and bite their own kind to death.
After thousands of years of reproduction, humans will think that it is right for lions to kill their own kind.
But that 'if' doesn't happen.
Because Yu Yiyun prefers her current lifestyle.
The next day.
The clouds were very low and it looked as if a rainstorm was about to come.
Yu Yiyun followed the scent and found Aoqi, who was recuperating from his injuries in a place far away from the lion group, and slowly approached him.
He didn't hide because there was no need.
With the powerful sense of smell and perception of a lion, he must have discovered me long ago.
Sure enough, Yu Yijun looked over from afar and once again met those emotionless orange animal eyes that were completely dominated by wildness.
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