Chapter 49: The Wolves (XVIII)
Each state in the United States has different laws regarding animals. Fortunately, most areas of Yellowstone National Park are restricted hunting areas.
Hunting gray wolves in protected areas is not only illegal, but also not recognized by hunting associations.
Therefore, during the hunting season, bounty hunters sneakily appear in the park.
Bounty hunters take advantage of the autumn and winter seasons, when hunting most wild animals becomes difficult and the desire for food increases.
So they sneaked into the park and scattered pieces of meat with dog attractants as "bait" everywhere to attract gray wolves and grizzly bears that were unable to hibernate due to hunger.
Hungry canines certainly cannot resist meat that has been added with attractants that can cause animal addiction, and are easily lured by hunters to areas where hunting is allowed to serve as targets.
In the past few years, Adam, the wolf king with the highest bounty in the entire forest wetland, was not attracted by bait at all and would even bury pieces of meat of unknown origin.
No matter what tricks the bounty hunters used, he remained firm in the territory to protect his family.
The bounties on the remaining wolves are too low to warrant the risk for professional hunters.
As a result, the forest wetlands remained clean for several years.
This year, things have clearly changed.
As the first female leader to complete the Big Wolf Pack Challenge this century, Queen Theresa's bounty grew dramatically, surpassing many male wolf kings at one point.
In addition to her, the white wolf with snow-colored fur, Adam's widow Christine, and the four tyrants of the neighboring wolf pack are all targets with high bounties.
In recent days, due to the hunting videos released by photographers and the heated discussions among netizens on the forum, a sub-adult wolf of only 18 months old has appeared at the top of the bounty list.
No. 9119.
The bounty hunter who deliberately laid bait near the natural hot springs was targeting No. 9119, who was commonly called Golden Eyes in the circle.
Although the bounty for Golden Eyes is not as high as that of the other leader-level gray wolves, those gray wolves, as family rulers, will not leave the pack easily.
The big wolf is vigilant by nature and has long seen through the despicable tricks of humans. He would rather starve to death than take the bait.
The black-haired wolf cub is not even 20 months old yet. He likes to run around everywhere and has even snatched food from a mountain lion.
What's more, sub-adult wolves are at the age where they may wander off at any time, and they can be tricked out with just a little temptation.
Even if he failed to trick Jintong, the few little wolves he hunted with all had good fur color and appearance, and any one of them could get the bounty.
Professional hunters take risks for profit, ignore park rules and safety distances, and secretly come to areas where wolves frequent to spread bait.
The wolf's sense of smell is more than sixty times sharper than that of humans. Not long after the pork with attractants was released, a shaggy sub-adult gray wolf immediately appeared, lowered its head and picked up the piece of pork.
The bounty hunter lying in ambush in the dark cheered secretly and planned to continue placing bait in front until the gray wolf was lured to an area where he could hunt.
Unexpectedly, the gray wolf picked up the pork with attractants and obviously wanted to eat it, but did not swallow it into his stomach. Instead, he ran back with his tail wagging.
The bounty hunter found it strange and quickly jumped into the SUV and followed.
The gray wolf returned to the pack and circled around its biggest hunting target.
The hunter admired the pure black wolf through the telescope and understood instantly:
Why is it that even though he is not yet at his peak, he can already be at the top of the bounty list among all the wolf kings, attracting countless professional hunters.
Jintong has perfect, pure black fur without any other colors.
If the skin can be peeled off completely, it will definitely become a beautiful collectible.
Beyond the fur, his signature golden eyes sparkled with the color of the sun and snow, a brilliance that no beautifully crafted gem could match.
His white teeth, sharp claws, and the beastly aura emanating from his body can stimulate every hunter's desire to conquer.
The black-haired little wolf was originally sleeping, rolling himself into a furry ball.
Hearing his companions howling, he pulled his head out and opened his eyes lazily, seeming a little impatient.
The little gray wolf holding the bait immediately put the fragrant meat into the black fur ball's mouth, and its tail shook like a propeller.
The hunter who was lying in ambush in secret cursed softly, mocking the little gray wolf for being useless.
He could have eaten all by himself, but he instead paid tribute to the "higher-level" wolves in a fawning manner. He is truly a bootlicker.
However, once the bait is in the black ball's mouth, it is more advantageous to the hunter.
When the little black wolf becomes addicted to eating and is tricked out of the hunting restricted area, countless hunting rifles will be aimed at him at the first opportunity.
"Eat, eat quickly."
The hunter murmured dangerously, raised the corners of his lips, and waited expectantly for the black fur ball to eat the piece of meat.
But what happened next was once again beyond the hunter's imagination.
The black-haired wolf got the meat and immediately turned over and got up.
The hunter noticed the wolf was on alert through his body language.
The little black wolf carefully examined the piece of meat, came over and howled a few times at the bald-butt gray wolf, and then howled a few times at the little wolf next to him.
Several little wolves that were playing gathered around and were trained like dogs. They looked well behaved and listened to the golden pupils barking.
“Ah!”
The black-haired ball called out loudly to his companions and asked family members to come and gather.
Soon, several big wolves responsible for guarding the prey came over and asked what was going on.
When the top student saw the meat suddenly appear, he lowered his head and sniffed it curiously, as if he wanted to have a taste.
The white-haired boy immediately opened his mouth, roared, pushed the academic master aside, and forbad him to approach the piece of meat.
As the number one on the bounty list and the biological son of Wolf King Quinn, Baimao once showed curiosity and appetite for the bait that appeared near the territory.
As far as I can remember, that was the only time my father, who was always at ease and able to plan things out, went crazy and furious.
Quinn bit the white-haired man's neck and threw him far away viciously, warning him not to touch this piece of meat.
Baimao didn't understand what was going on at the time and felt extremely aggrieved.
He couldn't understand why he was punished so severely for offering delicious meat to his father.
Quinn: [I am so filial.jpg]
Not long after, the companions who went out for an adventure brought back a wolf tail, and they fought over it as a toy.
White hairs recognize by smell:
The leader of the tail was the same kind of wolf who discovered the delicious meat almost at the same time as himself but chose to keep it all for himself.
After that, no more warnings from my father were needed.
When white-haired deer encounter bait, they will always take a detour to avoid the same fate.
The delicacy that seems to be obtained without any effort is secretly priced with life.
Now, Baimao teaches this principle to the descendants of the same clan.
Theresa arrived in the forest wetlands and never left.
As a female leader, her bounty has always been lower than that of the male leader.
Moreover, various studies have shown that female leaders are less likely to migrate than males, and few hunters waste their efforts on them.
Noticing the reactions of the white-haired and black-haired balls, Theresa picked up the meat and threw it far away, ordering the wolves not to bring back pieces of meat with that smell.
The eldest princess found out the reason and issued the same order.
Marshmallow heard the warning howls of wolves in the family one after another, and was so scared that he curled up his paws and lay down on the spot.
The two dogs' ears were tucked behind their heads, and they thought they had made a terrible mistake.
The black fur ball came over, raised its paw, and patted Marshmallow's head as if it were a reward.
Fortunately, the little fool brought the 'bait' back and didn't eat it secretly.
Otherwise, he would definitely be lured away by the evil hunter.
"Ahhh!" Yu Yijun gave him a big compliment.
"Ohhh~" Marshmallow whined and acted coquettishly, asking her brother if he could pick up the piece of meat and eat it.
That piece of meat smells so good, even better than bison~
Thinking back to the taste of the marshmallow in my mouth, I drooled.
"Ah!" Yu Yiyun's expression changed instantly and he ordered Raven to pull out a bunch of hair from his butt to teach his stupid brother a lesson.
Marshmallow, whose butt hair is even balder, is crying so loudly!!!
On a moonless and starless winter night, Yu Yiyun blended perfectly into the night and followed the smell to the area with the most bait.
After running for only a few minutes, he caught the sound of an off-road vehicle's engine with his sensitive hearing.
The park's closing time had long passed, but the professional hunter had not left and was still lying in ambush near the wolf pack.
Come to think of it, with their ulterior motives, how could they possibly abide by the visiting regulations of Yellowstone Park like normal tourists?
The off-road vehicle did not get closer, maintaining a distance of about two kilometers, secretly observing the black-haired wolf cub.
The professional hunter in charge of spreading the bait was pleasantly surprised to find that the black-haired wolf cubs were ready to run to each bait-spreading location.
It was too dark at night, and the people in the car could clearly see him lowering his head and staying in front of the bait for a long time, obviously eating the meat.
"Hehe, this little guy is really cunning."
"Isn't it? He acted so righteously during the day that I thought he had no interest in the bait. It turns out he wanted to keep it for himself at night."
"As long as he's willing to take the bait, it'll be easy. Let's take a quick look. Where is the nearest hunting area?"
"Wait a minute, I'll look for the hunting map... Oops! The little wolf is going in the wrong direction, and we're getting farther and farther away from the hunting area."
"It's okay. The forums all say that this little wolf has a poor sense of direction. As long as he keeps following the road, he will eventually reach the legal hunting area. The worst that can happen is that he will just spend a little more time."
The two hunters followed the black-haired wolf cub leisurely, waiting for him to leave the hunting restricted area.
Soon, the two unlucky hunters discovered that the little wolf not only had poor direction, but also moved slowly.
We stopped and walked along the way, and it was dawn when we had only walked a dozen kilometers.
At the current rate, before the wolf cub enters the hunting area, they will run out of fuel and be unable to heat themselves, and will freeze to death in the ice and snow in Yellowstone at temperatures dozens of degrees below zero.
Finally, the hunter who was following could not hold back any longer and rushed out of the car with more bait, intending to use a large amount of bait to attract the little wolf and speed up its pace.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he got out of the car, the black-haired wolf seemed to smell the meat and immediately ran over at the fastest speed.
When the hunter got out of the car, he only took the bait with him and no weapons.
Faced with the naturally aggressive wild wolf, he was so scared that he screamed.
The screams echoed in the quiet park and traveled far away, triggering the alarm devices in the park.
Soon, a radio on a nearby tree beeped and the ranger's voice came from it.
"Good morning, sir."
"Excuse me, what happened to you? Do you need help?"
Suddenly hearing human voices, the hunter shivered in fear, and then he realized that he had unknowingly come to the vicinity of the scenic spot.
Because the entire park was covered in snow, he didn't even notice that the ranger's cabin was not far away.
Most of the time, the rangers are on the side of 'humans'.
If wild animals attack humans, forest rangers will drive them away or even kill them without hesitation, and are regarded as protectors by countless tourists.
However, the 'Guardian' protection area does not include poaching.
At least in the area below them, hunting wolves is against park regulations and local laws.
The hunter forced himself to remain calm and planned to tell the ranger that he was fine.
However, at this moment...
“Woo——!”
Jintong, who was revered as the Wolf God by netizens on the forum, roared loudly, as if conveying some message.
Ranger: "You encountered a wild wolf, right? Wait a moment, we will be there soon."
The communication ended, and the hunter looked at the golden pupil in astonishment.
At that moment, he was 100% sure that all the wolf's actions were intentional.
Deliberately lead them here, deliberately trigger the communication, deliberately make a sound to alert the ranger...
"Shit! I fell into a trap! What should I do now?"
"Calm down, calm down! There must be a way! First, we need to destroy the evidence of our poaching."
The two looked at each other, then at the little black wolf, and soon came up with an idea...
About twenty minutes later, the forest ranger, who was only a few hundred meters away, finally arrived at the scene while shoveling snow.
He was a strong man two meters tall. Before he spoke, white steam came out of his mouth, making him look like Santa Claus with a white beard.
"Are you all right?" the ranger said, looking at the wolf cubs digging snow in the distance. "The wolf that attacked you is No. 9119? He is the gentlest wolf in our park."
Forest rangers stay in the park all year round and serve as 'guards'.
Although he did not interfere with the normal activities of wild animals, he watched them silently and was familiar with the habits of the common little guys.
The rangers knew that No. 9119 was called "Golden Eyes" by tourists and often appeared near forest wetlands and natural hot springs, and occasionally visited the mountain lion's territory.
Visitors to the hot springs and mountain lions often encounter this furry little wolf.
Not to mention attacking humans, he never even bared his teeth.
Some tourists even wrote letters to the park, praising No. 9119 as a cute wolf.
Why would he suddenly attack humans for no reason?
"Of course! My dashcam captured the video, and he rushed straight at me!"
As he spoke, the man took out the processed video, splicing together the scenes of Jin Tong running towards him and himself falling down later, and also showed his wounds to the ranger.
The ranger looked at the black wolf that was still digging a snow pit, then looked at the wound on the man that did not look like a wolf bite at all, and hesitated for a few seconds.
As a forest ranger, he must ensure the safety of normal tourists.
If No. 9119 really attacks tourists, we must take measures ourselves.
"Wait a moment, I have to ask for instructions from above."
"Are you going to abandon us?"
The hunter clung to the ranger.
"The wolf is still there, he may attack us at any time!"
"Kill him quickly, or more people will get hurt!"
Yu Yiyun stopped not far away and heard their conversation clearly. She wanted to raise her middle finger in response to the hunter's shameless behavior of confusing right and wrong and turning the tables.
Unfortunately, the dog’s fingers cannot be bent and he cannot raise his middle finger.
The ranger heard them crying and seemed to be very afraid of the little wolf, and couldn't help but waver.
The beast's character is unpredictable, perhaps...
“Gah!”
Just before the ranger was ready to act, the raven circled and landed among them. It opened its mouth and a discarded hunting map fell in front of the ranger.
"This is..." The ranger picked up the hunting map, but before he could see it clearly, the black wolf guarding the snow pit suddenly let out a "wow".
Congratulations!
Yu Yiyun couldn't help but give herself a thumbs up.
After unremitting efforts, I finally learned to ruminate!
The whole piece of meat he swallowed caused him to have a strong psychological rejection, and he had also eaten a lot of dry grass and branches to fill his stomach beforehand, so his stomach finally couldn't accept it.
The ranger looked over in surprise and found that No. 9119 had spit out a lot of cut, square pieces of meat with quarantine marks.
It is obvious at a glance that those pieces of meat were not obtained by the gray wolf through normal hunting.
No. 9119 vomited all the meat in his stomach, ran over, fell into the SUV through the window, and found the same piece of meat in the refrigerator.
“Ahhhhh!”
Complain! Complain loudly!
"Sir!" The ranger had already guessed the general situation based on the hunting map and the piece of meat, and said seriously, "All hunting activities are prohibited in our park, and poisoning wild animals is also prohibited!"
"I, we didn't poison!"
"Yes!" the bounty hunter explained awkwardly, "The meat... is for us to eat!"
"Meat with dog attractants added?" The ranger raised the map in his hand. "How do you explain this?"
"We are interested in hunting, just looking around."
"Yes, we were really attacked by gray wolves!"
"Okay, I believe you. Please cooperate with me in the wound identification. If it is proven that No. 9119 bit you, I will definitely take corresponding measures."
The ranger glanced at the little black wolf squatting quietly in front of him, as if he knew that he was supporting him, and his tone suddenly became serious, "If the results of the appraisal show that your injuries have nothing to do with No. 9119, I will send you to the police station and ban you from entering the park forever!"
"This..." In the cold winter, beads of cold sweat dripped down the hunter's face.
"Maybe I was frightened just now and fell accidentally."
The ranger's expression became more severe. "It was an accidental fall. Are you sure?"
"Yeah!" Both of them nodded in unison.
The ranger raised his hand and pointed in the direction of the exit. "Now, drive your car out. You are not welcome in Yellowstone Park! I will report what happened today to the Hunters Association and revoke your hunting license forever!"
The two-meter-tall forest ranger threw the two hunters into the car like chickens and urged them to leave quickly.
After confirming that the bounty hunter had left, he looked down at the black-furred wolf cub who was still squatting there.
"You're smart, little guy." The ranger shrugged and said helplessly, "But don't do something like this again next time. It would be terrible if you hurt ordinary tourists. I don't want to point my gun at you."
"Ah." Yu Yijun responded, wagging his tail and left.
Of course he knew that the ranger stood on the side of humans and could not always be his protector.
The best way to get along with humans is indeed:
Stay away from them.
.
Not only did the baiting plan fail, the executors were also punished with "permanent blacklisting from Yellowstone Park" and "revocation of hunting license."
For bounty hunters, the price is heavy.
Other hunters learned their lesson, and until the end of the hunting season, no one dared to bait near the forest wetlands.
As winter grew colder, the Zhidian wolf pack, whose strength had greatly increased, completed three attempts to hunt American bison, with Jintong leading the team each time.
The first two times, netizens on the forum argued endlessly about this and questioned the authenticity of "underage wolves serving as pioneers of the wolf pack."
You know, hunting position and feeding order are a reflection of a wolf's status.
The Golden Eyed Hunter rushes to the front when hunting, and can eat by bypassing the leader to enjoy the food, which is equivalent to the actual leader.
However, it is unheard of for an underage wolf to serve as leader of a mature wolf pack.
Many netizens raised objections, believing that Jintong just ran faster.
During the third hunt, a documentary filming crew happened to pass by in a camera car and broadcast the entire process directly.
Netizens all over the world clearly see that whether it is deciding on prey, formulating plans, or the hunting process, Jintong is in an absolute leadership position.
The eldest princess who had been leading the wolf tribe, Baimao who joined the wolf pack halfway, and the outstanding graduate of the Quinn wolf pack this year, all retreated to auxiliary positions to cooperate with Jintong's tactics.
The live broadcast lasted a full four hours, leaving behind valuable footage of wolves hunting bison.
All the doubts disappeared, and the remaining netizens began to discuss:
Should the former Adam/Princess Wolf Pack be renamed the Golden Eyed Wolf Pack?
As soon as the question was raised, it was immediately denied.
Not to mention, there is not enough evidence to show that Jintong has become the leader of the wolf pack.
Apart from eating, the first people the members greet when they wake up every day are still Christine and the eldest princess.
Secondly, 'Golden Eyes' is just a nickname for the black-haired little wolf on the forum, not its real name.
Generally speaking, only the Mackenzie wolves that are on the wolf king list are worthy of having an official name.
Although Jin Tong is powerful, he is also handsome.
However, to become a wolf king, at least several conditions should be met:
He is the leader recognized by the wolf pack.
The weight must be over 60 kg.
The teeth and body cannot be seriously damaged...
Even in terms of appearance conditions, all black hair balls can meet the standards.
He still lacks one decisive factor to become the Wolf King:
Battle record.
The title of the rebuttal post is very straightforward:
[Is a wolf that has never won a wolf pack war worthy of being called the wolf king? ]
However, no matter how loud the objections are, it cannot change the fact that Jin Tong is far ahead of others on the bounty list.
After the live broadcast, two more mysterious wealthy people recognized Jin Tong's strength by "adding more money".
The higher the bounty list, the more dangerous it is to the wolf.
At the same time, it is also an affirmation of the wolf's strength.
For example, Quinn, who has topped the list for four consecutive years, has no fearless hunter who dares to take action against him even though a reward of tens of millions of dollars is offered.
People who closely follow the bounty list always believe that no wolf will be worth more than Quinn in this century.
Who would have thought that before this year's hunting season was over, another wolf worth more than 10 million US dollars was born.
He doesn't even have an official name.
But it is enough to make countless hunters salivate and stay away from it.
“Ah…”
The black fur ball, who was very valuable, sighed helplessly.
What happened to staying away from humans?
The second spring of the wolf's life has arrived, and more tourists come to watch him.
Especially some crazy fans, who surrounded him and chattered, wondering, "Can't such a handsome wolf be transformed into a werewolf?"
“Ah!”
I've already told you to stick to the species!
Yu Yiyun swung his tail in frustration, walked away from that group of shameless and crazy supporters, and staggered to the cave where the cubs were born.
“Woof woof woof~!”
The white-collared dog smelled his brother's scent, came out on its own, and enthusiastically invited him into the nest to rub the little puppy.
Yu Yiyun looked at her sister who was circling around her, and began to shake her head and sigh again.
Speaking of which, this is his most troublesome thing since the beginning of spring.
In spring, it is time for the wolf pack to inject fresh blood.
Baimao and Changjiaozi are progressing well and are ready to give birth early.
Considering that the wolf pack was larger than last year and raising another litter of cubs was no problem, Yu Yiyun set his sights on other members, urging Shangdao or Ah Xuan to bring back a strong male wolf.
As a result, the two older female wolves showed little interest in reproduction.
On the contrary, at the end of winter, the white-collared cat's belly slowly bulges.
"!!!"
Yu Yiyun was furious!
Although my sister is an adult, she is not even two years old yet!
What’s even more outrageous is that the alliance wolves often mix together, eat, live and play together.
As smart as he was, he didn't notice any clues.
shame!
What a shame!
The black fur ball gnashed his teeth angrily.
“Ah!”
Suspect wolf, don't let me catch you!!!
He howled angrily twice, then crawled into the wolf den shared by the eldest princess and White Collar.
Soft and chubby little puppies~Uncle is here to rub you!
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