Chapter 1000 The Lion Killer is a Bison
Xiao Peng originally thought that the lions were here to hunt. After all, there were African buffaloes giving birth to calves here, and they must have come here smelling the blood. However, when the female lions saw that they were African buffaloes, they immediately became uninterested. Two of the female lions stared at the actions of the buffalo herd, and the rest of the lions ran to the river to drink water.
Xiao Peng said to Ilka, "Do you still want to provoke the African buffalo? See? Even lions have to be cautious and try not to provoke them."
Ilka's eyes widened: "African buffaloes are so ferocious?"
Xiao Peng nodded. "That's right. Although buffaloes are vegetarians, they won't let go of a lion cub. Many lion cubs die from attacks by buffaloes. Lions can't do much against adult buffaloes, but they will hunt underage calves. Look at them drinking water here, seemingly unconcerned, but they're actually targeting the newborn calves. But my analysis suggests they're unlikely to hunt."
"Why?" Ilka asked puzzled.
Xiao Peng opened the storage box and took out a telescope, handing it to Ilka. "Look, the bison herd is protecting the calving cows in the middle of the herd. Lions don't hunt bison; calves are their prey. But they hunt those calves when the herd is moving. When the herd isn't moving, they have no chance to hunt. Lions don't have the courage to charge into a herd to hunt."
"Why?" Ilka asked in surprise.
Xiao Peng spread his hands and said, "More lions die at the hands of buffalo every year than you might imagine. In fact, African buffalo are the biggest cause of unnatural deaths among lions, besides humans. Being gored by an adult buffalo basically means a lion's death. Have you seen those buffalo in the herd? They've been watching the movements of those two lionesses. They're the herd's 'guards,' always on alert."
"Are these African buffaloes so terrifying?" Ilka's eyes widened. "Why don't Africans domesticate them? They're a great labor force, aren't they? Look how strong they are. They're very similar to the buffaloes back home. We can domesticate our cattle, so why can't we do that here?"
Xiao Peng hesitated for a moment and said, "Your question is really to the point. Although everyone says that Africans don't bother to tame buffaloes because of their bad temper, I don't think that's quite right."
After hearing this, Ilka asked in confusion: "Why is that?"
Xiao Peng pointed around and said, "Do you see anything wrong here?"
"What's the problem?" Ilka asked in confusion after looking around.
Xiao Peng counted on his fingers and said, "Plantain, sugar apple, soursop, papaya, wild melon vine, baobab, cassava, yam, date palm... I've found so many edible plants in just a short time. Look at the animals here. Let's not talk about anything else, but slaughtering a wild buffalo like this will be enough for us to eat for several months, right? In such an environment, African blacks have achieved two extremes: First, they have the strongest physiques of all races, after all, the prey here is so powerful! Second, people here mainly rely on the weather for their livelihood. With so much food, why bother farming so hard? Just like why there were no powerful empires in Africa throughout history? Any powerful empire in the world must have the conditions for the development of abundant agricultural resources. Here in Africa, there are fruits on the trees and fish in the rivers, so why bother farming? And..."
Ilka listened with gusto: "And what?"
Xiao Peng continued, "Look here, the plants are growing very lushly, aren't they?"
Ilka nodded.
Xiao Peng then made a startling statement: "But this place isn't actually suitable for agricultural development. Prosperous plant growth doesn't necessarily mean it's suitable for growing food. Sub-Saharan Africa is essentially tropical rainforest. In tropical rainforest systems, organic matter decomposition and nutrient recycling are very active, and surface runoff and leaching are also very strong. Furthermore, the soil in rainforest areas is mostly acidic, making these conditions unsuitable for the growth of most food crops. Furthermore, Africa's proximity to the equator means a small temperature difference between day and night, making it difficult for plants to accumulate food crops, resulting in low yields. Traditional agriculture is difficult to establish on a large scale in Africa. Even in Zimbabwe, the famous 'breadbasket of Africa' during colonial times, only a few crops were suitable there. I'm not exaggerating, but the only people in the world who can cultivate good crops in Africa are us Chinese... Hey, why do you look at me like that?"
Ilka's eyes were fixed on Xiao Peng, and her eyes had turned into little stars.
"Master, I don't understand what you are saying. I don't understand the meaning of many words, but it sounds very powerful!" Ilka said.
Xiao Peng's words just now, such as "surface runoff", "leaching", and "nutrient recycling", are relatively uncommon words in French. Ilka doesn't know the meaning of these words, but she feels that they are "incomprehensible but powerful".
Xiao Peng felt a little embarrassed after hearing this. He waved his hand and said, "Don't engage in blind personality cult. Oh, now that you say that, I feel embarrassed. All men are like this. They can't control their mouths in front of women. What kind of knowledge am I showing off? Look! The lion is hunting!"
Xiao Peng suddenly became excited and picked up the SLR camera beside him and started taking pictures.
A female warthog and her two piglets were drinking water by the river when they came into the sight of an African lion. Those who have seen the Disney animated film "The Lion King" must remember "Pumbaa" in it. Many people thought it was a wild boar. In fact, this view is wrong. It was a warthog!
The two lionesses, who were eyeing the herd of buffalo, attacked – targeting one of the warthogs.
They do understand the principle of 'too much to eat, too much to digest'.
Although lions are top hunters in Africa, they don't have many successful prey. The easiest prey to hunt is actually warthogs, especially small warthogs. For lions, that is really the best prey!
As a result, their hunting ended in failure...
The mother warthog ran towards the herd of buffaloes with her baby warthogs! The two lionesses stopped immediately when they saw this scene: if they rushed in, it would be tantamount to suicide!
"Look! Failed again!" Xiao Peng put the camera aside with a dull look on his face.
"Master, what should we do now?" asked Ilka.
Xiao Peng spread his hands and said, "What to do? Nothing. After they leave, we'll leave too. We stay here quietly and they generally won't bother us. We're lucky we didn't run into Africa's most terrifying mammal."
"Elephants, what's the scariest thing in Africa?"
"You didn't do any preparation before coming to Africa? Elephants! Of course it's elephants! But..." Xiao Peng said with a wicked smile: "I really want to fight an African elephant!"
"ah?"
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