Chapter 168 Arctic Fox (VIII)
The clever fox used the most primitive bartering method in human society and exchanged the rabbit for a big fat fish!
Fat Tiger didn't feel like he was at a loss at all. Instead, he gave the store manager Fox a five-star rating.
After all, it is much more difficult for an Arctic fox to catch a rabbit than for a killer whale to catch a fish.
"Eh~" Fox, let's continue to cooperate next time~
"Oh~ Okay, Okay~"
Yu Yiyun stood beside the big fish, trying to stop the foxes that were salivating over the fish and whistled loudly to call his family members.
“Oh!”
Not long after the whistle sounded, several black, mixed-haired foxes came running over.
They opened their mouths wide and snatched the fish from Yu Yiyun's claws without any hesitation. They happily held it in their mouths and returned to the nest to feed their wives.
After being robbed by local dogs, only the skeleton of the big fish that Yu Yiyun had exchanged from Fat Tiger was left.
Adhering to the principle of not wasting food, the pig licked the meat attached to the fish bones clean, buried the remains in the soil, and began to look for new food.
It is difficult to support a family, and it is even more difficult to support nine families. Supporting nine families with children is simply hellish.
Life is not easy for a fox, sighed the pig.
Now, the cubs are not even a month old, and all they need to do is provide the female fox with enough food to keep them healthy and safe.
After the first two months, nearly 100 fox cubs were running around the ground, surrounding the big fox and howling for food...
Yu Yiyun closed her eyes, unwilling to imagine that scene.
Fortunately, he is not the only free babysitter in the house.
The dark-skinned youngest sister came closer with her tail hanging down, her face full of fatigue.
“Hmm.”
“Woo.”
The two black foxes looked at each other, sympathy written all over their faces.
As polar day approaches, the fox cubs grow very fast and the pressure on their parents increases.
As the foxes' nannies, they undertake most of the tasks of foraging, running around every day, and getting darker faster than all the foxes.
Yu Yiyun sometimes squatted on the shore, looking at her dark face, and even wanted to mix blood with a Siamese cat.
Siamese cats are gentle and clingy, and are often called "Filipino maids" because of their dark faces.
Siamese cats in their kitten stage are creamy white from their face to the tip of their tail, like fairies.
Once winter comes and the temperature gradually drops, the Siamese cat's face and limbs will quietly turn black, as if it was secretly digging coal without telling its owner.
Yu Yiyun gazed at her reflection on the water, her dreams were limitless.
Siamese cats turn black when exposed to cold, and Arctic foxes turn black when exposed to heat; what complementary traits.
If we were mixed blood, wouldn't we be able to maintain our angelic beauty all year round?
Professor Yu has been an animal for too long, and his thinking has become simple and crude, forgetting that genes are not only inherited in positive ways.
Even if Siamese and Arctic foxes can really overcome the reproductive isolation of 108,000 miles and successfully interbreed, the cubs born may turn black when exposed to cold or heat, and they will be digging coal all year round.
Yu Yiyun put away his false imagination, moved closer to his youngest sister, lowered his head, and rubbed his ears against hers.
"Hoo hoo!" Come on, sister, we will be able to relax in two months!
"Woo-hing?" Brother, what did you say?
"Yingying!" If we raise them up, we will have a bunch of Dehua to help us share the burden next year!
"Woo-oo." Yes, after raising them up, I will have to take care of their cubs next year.
“…”
Yu Yiyun thought of the Arctic fox's sexual maturity and its terrifying reproductive ability, and fell silent.
He pulled himself together and decided not to think about next year.
There are too many variables in nature, and it’s full of all kinds of surprises. Let’s just raise these cubs first!
[Escape from Fox Life.jpg]
The mixed-breed little dog took his little sister and skipped through several shallow water areas until they found a lake formed by islands.
In the past half month, Yu Yiyun has been helping Xueyan and several Xueyan families realize their "reunion dream".
Considering sustainable development, Yu Yiyun decided to change the species of the disaster.
It's not because the pig has a guilty conscience, but because the same hunting method has been used too many times, so the prey will definitely be doubly vigilant.
There is no night in the Arctic Circle in summer. The sun is shining brightly everywhere, which makes it much more difficult for dogs to sneak around.
The snow geese have witnessed too many of their companions being eaten by foxes, and their anger has reached max.
Now, whenever the little fox starts climbing, snow geese will fly over and peck him, or poop in the air.
After several consecutive failures, Yu Yiyun made a decisive decision: There are so many seabirds in the Arctic Circle, we can’t hang ourselves on one tree!
Near the lake, there are many nests of wedge-tailed gulls, which love ponds.
In the summer, the back, shoulders and wings of the wedge-tailed gull are covered with light pearly gray feathers with rose-colored decorations, a color combination that is very suitable for the Arctic.
Their breeding and hatching periods are slightly later than those of snow geese, and they generally hatch in batches from May to July.
It is only early May, and the wedge-tailed gulls have just returned to the Arctic and are busy courting and building nests.
Although there were no bird eggs to steal for the time being, based on Yu Yiyun's understanding of birds, birds in courtship were more conspicuous than each other.
Male birds are at their least alert as they try to exude their charm in order to attract the opposite sex.
Some birds are so busy performing their courtship dance that they would continue to complete the performance even after they enter the hunter's mouth.
The Arctic Cupid uses his dark fur to ambush in the exposed area at the edge of the lake, intending to randomly pick a pair of lucky wedge-tailed gulls and fulfill their eternal love!
Fox observed secretly for a while, and finally picked out the most immersed pair from among the many wedge-tailed gulls.
He quietly poked out the dog's head and was about to attack secretly.
Just at this moment, a figure as fast as the wind and as swift as lightning passed through the sky and picked up the female bird who was ready to accept the male bird's courtship.
The male bird was 99% through with his courtship ritual when he looked up and discovered: the mate was gone!
It was so anxious that it almost forgot that it could fly, and it hopped around like a free-range chicken.
Turning to Yu Yiyun, Hu Hu seized the opportunity to pounce on her and sobbed to comfort her.
"Hmm." Bird, don't be sad.
"嘤嘤!" Long-distance relationships can also be romantic!
After chirping, he grabbed the male bird in his mouth and looked up at the Snowy Owl, the top predator in the Arctic Circle airspace, which had taken the female bird away.
The Snowy Owl is different from most birds in that it is a resident bird of the Arctic Circle.
Resident birds do not migrate long distances with the seasons, but live in the same area all year round.
Even during the coldest times of the Arctic, Snowy Owls remain in North America, northern Europe, and parts of northern China.
In summer, when prey is active in the Arctic Circle, snowy owls spread their wings and fly deep into the polar regions.
It belongs to the owl family, one of the top birds of prey, commonly known as the 'white owl'.
In summer, snowy owls are similar to Arctic foxes. Their feathers become darker in color and their surface becomes grayer due to rain, but they are far from being as pure black as Yu Yiyun's.
Yu Yiyun looked up at the agile gray-white owl and had a bold idea:
The eggs of a snowy owl must be much larger than those of a snow goose, right?
The Arctic climate is cruel, and even snowy owls have to lay a large number of eggs to increase the survival rate of their cubs.
Owls living in warm areas have a nest of 2-4 eggs, and often only one child is born.
Snowy owls lay approximately 3-10 eggs per nest. A few snowy owl couples may lay more than 10 eggs, and not all eggs may hatch.
In that case...
A certain little egg-stealing thief began to make moves.
Although he thought about it, Yu Yiyun did not take any immediate action.
During the years when she was a bald eagle, Yu Yiyun knew clearly how terrifying owl-like birds of prey could be.
Even the peregrine falcon, which can fly at speeds of up to 300 kilometers per hour, is often bullied by the eagle owl.
Owls are not only ferocious, but also vengeful.
Even if it cannot catch a peregrine falcon during the day, it will take advantage of the dead of night when the birds are quiet and use its big eyes with a built-in aperture that is as bright as daylight to kill the entire peregrine falcon family.
Recalling the habits of owls and other birds of prey, Yu Yiyun temporarily gave up the idea of stealing eggs.
It's not that he's a coward.
Zhu Wang traveled across the sea, land and air, and encountered so many enemy beasts.
A mere snowy owl couldn't hurt him at all.
But snowy owls feed primarily on small mammals, including mice, rabbits, and young Arctic foxes, which are about the same size as rabbits.
The Snowy Owl has a strong sense of revenge. If you steal its eggs and anger it, dozens of its own cubs will be neatly written on its diet.
Yu Yiyun thought of the nine groups of little losers at home who could not hide, let alone hunt, and could only cry out for food, and silently gave up the idea.
Beasts, as long as they have a weak spot, they can be easily controlled.
Yu Yijun reluctantly withdrew her gaze and continued to select new wedge-tailed gull couples and send them to the bridal chamber in pairs.
Yu Yiyun, Yaomei and all the male foxes worked hard all day and finally made sure all the female foxes got food.
Time flies, and the nine fox cubs are about to be one month old. However, during the early days of their birth, a few of them died because they were too weak to adapt to the harsh living environment.
In Yu Yiyun's protective circle, no fox cub starved to death due to lack of food!
Yu Yiyun, who was so tired that she could barely breathe, saw the cubs growing up healthily and the big fox guarding the cubs diligently, so she decided to find a quiet place to escape her responsibilities for a few minutes.
He dragged his tired body away from the fox nest, found a big rock on the coast, lay on it, enjoying the sea breeze and sun.
The warm sunshine shining on the little fox gave him a beautiful dream.
After waking up, Yu Yiyun felt refreshed.
The sun was still high in the sky and I didn't know how long I had slept. I only saw the tide rising and falling at the coast.
Yu Yiyun jumped off the big rock, stretched her limbs and stretched herself, planning to go home and continue working as a nanny.
Not far away, he found two huge footprints left on the beach after the tide receded.
There are only a handful of animals that can leave such large footprints within the Arctic Circle.
The beach where Yu Yiyun was located was quite far away from the polar glaciers, and polar bears were rarely seen.
After careful study, he found two sets of footprints only a few dozen meters away from him, one large and one small, but they did not disturb his sleep.
Yu Yiyun made a judgment in his mind and followed the footprints. Sure enough, he saw the polar bear mother and her cubs coming onto the shore, trying to feed themselves with birds and moss.
The bear family and the canidae family are relatively close, and their diet is quite diverse.
After hibernation, polar bears rely mainly on spring seals for food.
As the weather warms up, female seals will climb onto the glaciers to give birth.
Take the ringed seal, which is the most common food for polar bears, for example. Female ringed seals will climb onto the ice floes to give birth in March and April.
Newly born cubs are covered with fetal hair and are temporarily unable to adapt to the underwater environment.
The big seal will stay with the pup until the nursing period is over, then return to the deep sea to feed.
The cubs need to stay on the shore alone, wait for their lanugo to fall off, and then put on cold-proof diving suits before going into the water.
The weeks that the seals stay on the glacier are the happiest time for polar bears.
But as global warming continues, glaciers are melting faster and faster.
Just as May began, the seals disappeared.
Some seals have even changed their habits and no longer come to this glacier to give birth, making hunting more difficult for polar bears.
Single polar bears are in a relatively easy situation, as they can catch marine fish or snatch carcasses that wash ashore.
Polar bears must secrete enough milk to raise cubs, and marine fish and plants can hardly meet their needs.
When encountering a carcass being snatched by polar bears, the mother bear dares not approach it casually, for fear that her cubs will become food for other bears.
Polar bears may look adorable, but they are actually ferocious beasts.
Hungry male polar bears will even attack their former lovers without mercy.
Previously, a mother bear lost one of her cubs despite trying her best because a male bear was trying to snatch her food.
A female bear weighs only half as much as a male bear, so a head-on clash wouldn't be a claw-to-claw confrontation at all.
The mother bear was injured and had nowhere to go.
In order to protect its only remaining child, it thought of this coast and returned here with its cub.
There are many seabirds on the coast, as well as a large number of lemmings and plateau rabbits, and there seems to be no shortage of prey.
But they can either fly, have a nimble body, or run extremely fast.
After struggling for a while, the mother bear caught neither fish nor rabbit. Instead, the intense activity under the scorching sun put a great strain on her body.
Polar bears are huge and live in extremely cold areas all year round. Exercise and long-term sunlight will put a burden on their bodies.
The skinny little bear stuck to its mother and timidly made begging sounds.
The polar bear sat down, held the cub in his arms and fed it milk, and nibbled on the nearby moss and lichen to barely fill his stomach.
Polar bears can rely on plants to fill their stomachs, and some bears even become herbivores for a short period of time in the summer.
But lichens and mosses alone cannot provide enough heat for polar bears.
Its lactation period is much longer than that of the Arctic fox. The cubs are completely dependent on breast milk in the first year after birth. Some mama's bears are not weaned until they are about 2 years old.
The fat content in bear milk is about 35%, only in this way can the little bears replenish nutrition and resist the cold.
Since the mother bear does not consume enough nutrients to secrete milk, she can only consume her own fat.
The mother bear, who has been consuming her own fat since her pregnancy, no longer has much left to consume.
What's more, she was injured. Because she had been soaked in water for a long time, the bloody hole in her abdomen had not healed yet.
The mother bear took a few bites of grass and licked her cub lovingly.
Although it can eat grass, the moss obviously tastes bad.
The mother bear forced herself to eat a few more bites, at least to survive the most difficult summer for polar bears.
When the ice freezes again in winter, we can catch seals.
but……
Can we really wait until winter?
The bear cub seemed to sense its mother's emotions and stopped sucking even though its stomach was not full.
I don’t know if she had eaten enough or if I couldn’t produce more milk.
The mother and son snuggled together quietly for a while. Suddenly, the mother bear looked up and saw a familiar... uh, not so familiar fox.
The mother bear first met the fox cub last fall.
He was thin and small at that time, and at least he had some white hair on his body.
I don’t know why, but except for its belly, the whole fox is black, making the rabbit in its mouth look even whiter.
Yu Yiyun dragged the rabbit and walked to the bear with a grunt.
"Hmm." Eat it.
The polar bear held his cub and stared at the rabbit without taking any immediate action.
It has a certain intelligence and knows that its good friend, the fox cub, feeds it.
The rabbit was very fat, almost as big as a fox.
But for polar bears, it can only fill the gaps between their teeth.
When a female polar bear is extremely hungry, she can eat 15% of her own body weight in one meal, which is at least 100 kilograms of meat.
Relying solely on Arctic hares, even if Yu Yiyun caught them from morning till night, it would be difficult to feed a bear.
What's more, Yu Yiyun has her own responsibilities.
"roar."
The mother bear let out a low cry.
"Ying!" Eat quickly!
Yu Yiyun raised her voice and urged, "After you finish eating, I will take you to find prey."
I don’t know if the mother bear understood.
It didn't say anything else and really finished eating the rabbit.
Yu Yiyun waited patiently for the bear to finish eating the last piece of bone, then walked in front and motioned for it to follow her.
As global warming slows, the Arctic Circle is getting hotter.
Polar bears' bodies have evolved to cope with extremely cold environments, and excessively high temperatures can be taxing.
Entering the land is a very risky thing.
There is no floating ice and no sea water that can cool down in time.
Polar bears are large and slow-moving, so they are at high risk of suffering from heat stroke and eventually becoming prey to other predators.
Even so, the mother bear still brought her cubs and followed Yu Yiyun on land.
After crossing several shallow waters that were almost flat to the bears, they arrived at the lake where Yu Yijun had caught wedge-tailed gulls before.
When Yu Yiyun was lying in ambush here to catch fish, he had nothing better to do than observe the terrain and discovered that there was a river nearby.
It is not uncommon for the ocean to flow into the land and become a river.
However, Yu Yiyun carefully analyzed the direction of the river, the temperature and taste of the water, and came to a simple and rough conclusion: the water in this river is most likely not flowing in from the Arctic Ocean.
The vegetation on both sides of the river is more lush.
Judging from the growth trajectory of the plants, this should be the lower reaches of the river, which means that it is not flowing into the north.
Although we don't know where it originates from or where it flows into.
But since this river can flow here, it means that the fish that follow the river upstream can also swim here.
"Bing!" Bear, come here quickly!
Yu Yiyun came to the river and continued along the river bank.
The polar bear was obviously fed up with the high temperature. When it saw the river, it jumped directly into it and swam in the river with its cubs on its back.
"Roar?" Fox, do you want to sit on me?
"......嘤." Yu Yiyun refused with difficulty.
It’s not that he didn’t want to ride the bear, but the bear’s movements were too big, and the splashes of water were enough to soak the little fox’s whole body.
Is there any difference between riding on its back and swimming in the water by yourself?
Xiongxiong didn't know why Yu Yijun brought him here, and swam around aimlessly for a while.
Suddenly, the bear's eyes became sharp and it dived into the river.
The little bear didn't react and was taken into the water. After a while, he floated up, blowing bubbles.
"Ah! Ahhh!"
The little bear was spinning around in confusion, calling for his mother.
After the third shout, the mother bear emerged, holding in her mouth a gift from nature to predators on land, sea and air – salmon!
“Hmm~!”
Yu Yiyun was very happy.
My guess was correct, there are indeed salmon in this area of water!
"roar!"
The polar bear held a salmon in its mouth and tried to feed it to Yu Yiyun.
Yu Yiyun took a few steps back and urged Xiongxiong to eat quickly.
While the bear was absorbed in catching salmon, the little fox frowned and showed a look of disgust.
The salmon that live in the Arctic Circle are mainly the sweet salmon and the king salmon.
How should I put it…
This was the fish that Yu Yiyun never even looked at during the two years she was a killer whale.
The favorite food of fish-eating killer whales is king salmon, followed by sockeye salmon.
Dog Ha, who is small and troublesome to eat, was excluded from the diet of picky Fat Tiger.
But, even unpalatable salmon is still salmon!
As the top hunter in the sea, land and air, and a delicacy favored by the little people at the top of the food chain, salmon has unique advantages.
It is widely distributed, has a large population and is rich in fat.
The mother bear swam upstream, catching salmon after salmon, and was almost overwhelmed by happiness.
I'm afraid the salmon never dreamed that even if they escaped to the Arctic Circle, they would still not be able to escape the clutches of hunters.
And, it’s that damn bear again!
Bear, you have to eat me wherever I go, right?!
Brown bears and polar bears were one family millions of years ago, but they took different paths during evolution and thus became different today.
So, it makes sense for polar bears to eat the diet of their closest relatives.
Yu Yiyun comforted the salmon from afar and sincerely wished that their offspring would prosper and that they would produce millions of more fish eggs every year.
After finding a food source for the polar bears and fooling around all day, Yu Yiyun reluctantly returned to Fox Island and had to face nearly 100 cubs.
There were still dozens of meters away from Chaoxue, and Yu Yiyun's speed was getting slower and slower, and he was reluctant to get closer.
He had never been married, had no bloodline, and had no emotional connection with anyone. But he somehow felt the feeling of a married man who had to stay in the garage for half an hour after work.
"Hmm..." Ah...
"Hmm." I don't want to go home.
When Yu Yiyun thought about going home and facing so many cubs, he wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it to escape from his life as a dog.
Just as Yu Yiyun turned three circles and dug a hole with his claws, he tried to stick his head in it.
The puppies in the den heard the noise and came out one after another.
Arctic fox cubs develop quickly and begin learning to walk and run at three weeks old.
Because their mother’s milk is rich enough, the little foxes don’t have to fight for food. They play and have fun every day and have a very good relationship.
One came out, and the others heard the sound and followed suit.
In a blink of an eye, several foxes came running out and ran happily towards the brother.
The two foxes running in the front suddenly got angry for some unknown reason. They started to bite each other and then rolled into a ball while hugging each other.
The foxes behind were tripped by them and fell down one after another.
A fox cub rolled to Yu Yiyun's feet, jumped up happily, and threw itself into its brother's arms like a happy puppy, biting his ears and whimpering.
The fighting fox cubs found that they had been overtaken, so they went over to him unwillingly, wagging their tails and snuggling into his arms.
"嘤!" Brother!
"Oh!" My brother hugged me!
"Oh oh oh!" Brother, hug me first!
The puppies acted coquettishly in their baby voices, opened their puppy eyes wide like grapes, and wagged their tails to beg for mercy from their handsome brother.
Yu Yiyun's fatigue was instantly swept away. She kissed and licked this and that, and secretly made up her mind:
Isn’t it just taking care of the cubs?
I love bringing cubs!
[Lift your head and stick out your belly.jpg]
Yu Yijun raised her head proudly and saw from afar her youngest sister running towards her with a string of black coal briquettes.
The pile of black coal balls that had just learned to run, with bright eyes, started calling out from a distance.
"Oh~" Uncle~
"Oh, oh, oh!" My parents went out hunting, and they asked us to come over to bother you!
Yu Yiyun: …
If he had known this, he should not have married off all his brothers and sisters and left them at home as Dehua for me!
Fox life, restart!
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