Chapter 22 022: Up the tree
The leopard on Yangziling is a leopard, which belongs to the subspecies of North China leopard. Male leopards are slightly smaller, about one meter long and weigh 50 to 60 kilograms, while female leopards can weigh more than 70 kilograms.
Leopards are medium-sized cat predators, which are slightly weaker than tigers and lions, but they are more flexible than tigers and lions, and their predation ability is also stronger.
All kinds of underground beasts, such as wild boar, deer, roe deer, musk deer, etc., are their prey targets, while monkeys, flying squirrels and even some birds in the trees cannot escape the hunting.
They also like to eat dogs, and often go to people's houses down the mountain to steal dogs.
Dogs bite wild boars and bears very fiercely, but they are basically crushed when they meet leopards. They are far behind leopards in terms of agility, attack power, bite force and speed.
If it is a group attack, the leopard can still climb the tree, but there is nothing to do with it.
Wang Tianxiao has stayed in the mountains for more than 20 years, and has only seen leopards twice.
One time when he was patrolling the mountains, he saw a leopard standing on the opposite hill from a distance, and there was a cliff between each person and the leopard.
There was another time when a leopard took away the child of a worker in the forestry farm. The entire forestry farm teamed up to chase the leopard, and finally blocked the leopard in a cave and smoked it to death.
Of course, it may not be really smoked to death, anyway, it just didn't show up.
For beasts like leopards, one litter in the forest is enough. If there are more, it will destroy the ecological balance, so the probability of encountering them is very small.
"Maybe not..."
"Uh...uh...uh oh..."
Wang Tianxiao was about to comfort his younger brother, when suddenly there were piercing and gloomy cries not far away.
It’s like a child talking about being hungry all the time, and it’s like some kind of hawk or falcon’s voice, but if you listen too much, it’s like a poor puppy who was injured by someone.
"Shouldn't this be a dog?" Wang Tianxiao shrank his neck and asked nervously.
Wang Tianxiao's eyes changed slightly, and he shook his head slightly.
"Sure enough, it's a wolf." Wang Tiancheng was dumbfounded. If what he heard just now was a leopard, but this time it was a wolf, would the two brothers still be able to walk out of this mountain and see the sun tomorrow?
He pinned all his hopes on his brother.
But he saw Wang Tianxiao's serious expression and shook his head, "It's not a wolf, it's scarier than a wolf."
"What is that?"
"It's a jackal."
"Isn't jackal a kind of thing?" Wang Tiancheng was a little confused.
Wang Tianxiao made his younger brother's voice quieter.
It's normal not to recognize the jackal's voice. If it wasn't in the mountains, many people would never see a jackal in their lifetime, and even like Wang Tiancheng, they think that a jackal is a thing.
But in fact, jackals and wolves belong to two different species.
Both jackals and wolves belong to the canine family, but jackals look more like dogs, so some people call jackals jackals.
Jackals are much smaller and lighter than wolves. The average jackal only weighs more than a dozen kilograms, and the heaviest one is only about 20 kilograms. Their legs are also much shorter than those of wolves, and most of their bodies are covered with fine red fur, a bit like fire foxes.
However, if you think that its small body is not strong, then you will underestimate it. The fighting power of jackals is much stronger than that of wolves. If other factors are not considered, a wolf can't beat a jackal at all.
It can be said that jackals are the ceiling of combat power among canids. If there is no comparison, it can only be hyenas on the grassland.
They are all ferocious, but jackals have a higher IQ, for example, they can also act. Let a weak jackal be in a dangerous state, deliberately lure the prey to approach, and then the other jackals in ambush will rush up when the time is right, and perform a "fairy jump."
The reason why jackals are ferocious is that they have to go through a lot of cruel competition since they were young to survive. Weak jackals will be killed by adult jackals.
Jackals that can grow up are naturally extremely fierce. Wang Tianxiao has seen a group of jackals killing each other with his own eyes, and he still has lingering fears.
They are herd animals, living together and preying together. There are almost no animals that they dare not attack, but once internal conflicts arise, they will bite them to death, and they are really ruthless.
Once, on the way back from Ziwuling, Wang Tianxiao saw three jackals attacking a red deer on the mountainside.
Red deer are considered to be very strong among deer, and their fighting power is very strong, especially for adult red deer, two or three hounds can hardly deal with it.
It can be seen that the jackal still can only flee in a hurry.
Three jackals assigned tasks, and one harassed repeatedly in front to keep the red deer from running too fast. One jumped onto the red deer and kept scratching the red deer's buttocks, leaving the red deer unguarded, and the last one quickly passed out. The internal organs of the red deer are quickly entangled on the branches, losing their fighting power, and then they will be swarmed by them and feast on them.
The night wind was bitter, and Wang Tianxiao really felt a little bit of coolness.
He didn't understand why jackals, such ferocious beasts, ran to the outskirts of the mountain. Could it be because the forest was too cold to find food to hunt?
What bad luck.
He was also a little nervous. After all, he hadn't fought these things for many years, but the young brother was already trembling with fright. If he showed timidity again, the two of them would really have no fighting power.
Most fierce beasts are more afraid of people. They will observe people's eyes and movements. Once they show the slightest timidity, they will become bolder. If people are very brave, they may retreat because they are unpredictable.
"Don't be afraid, you'll be fine with my brother here." Wang Tianxiao encouraged his younger brother, and took the gun from the back to the front to see the gunpowder and iron sand inside.
Because he was prepared to kill the rabbit, so he didn't pretend much, and it was definitely not enough to deal with jackals. He refilled the gunpowder, stood up and shook his neck, and moved his wrists and ankles.
After he was transferred from the forest farm to the nursery in his previous life, he bid farewell to Dashan. It seems that he has not been exposed to this dangerous feeling for more than ten years. Now he is both afraid and somewhat excited.
Wang Tiancheng also started warming up with his brother.
Limbs are prone to stiffness in the cold weather, and after sitting under a tree for a long time, it is even more serious.
Somewhere ahead, the two calls continued one after another.
There was a burst of "meow".
A burst of "uh...uh...uh-uh".
Looks like they're still fighting.
It was too late to tell the winner.
To Wang Tianxiao's surprise, there was only one jackal's voice, not one after another. When they prey, they usually gather in groups and rarely stay alone. Even if they find prey separately, they will call friends with their calls.
It is rare that no partner appears after calling for a long time.
Could it be a lone jackal?
Wang Tianxiao thought about it.
Jackals will be kicked out of the team if they are old and their combat effectiveness is weakened. If they don’t leave quickly, they may be killed by their young partners.
It’s just that the old jackals in the mountains usually run into the deep mountains, and this kind of slipping to the outskirts of the mountains is still relatively rare.
"What should we do now, brother?" Wang Tiancheng was terrified by the call.
Wang Tianxiao thought for a while, looked at the big tree next to him, and thought to himself: "Climb the tree."
(end of this chapter)