Chapter 481: Chapter 438: Others come to learn, he comes to teach

Chen Ying seldom visits Si Zai, but its keeper frequently sends him photos and short videos, and there are also some daily short clips on WeChat.

Compared to the chubby Si Zai, its siblings have already grown taller, resembling sports versions of the same gas canister model.

The third cub is noticeably smaller than the oldest and the second cub, and it’s also more clingy, quite reminiscent of Jinya’s style.

Especially when it acts spoiled, few can resist.

Every time Chen Ying visits, he must first hug and lift it high, otherwise, his trouser legs would be left with a few holes.

But not just anyone can get close to the third girl, besides Chen Ying, only Yin Li can touch it, and Sun Qihai, who carefully takes care of it daily, is granted the favor of touching its tail, but not for more than three seconds, or the third girl instantly turns into an aunt.

The big cub and the second cub are already learning hunting skills with the big snow leopard and Yellow Fur, while the third girl mostly runs with the little snow leopard, not allowed to learn her mom’s tricks, which even the big leopards and lynx aunt forbid.

Looking at her mother’s clear and pure big eyes, the third girl seems to understand something. After that, she often hunts on her own to fill her belly and even remembers to bring some snacks back to feed her mom.

Er Niu’s first litter, living the happy life of being fed by her child.

After returning from the Lantern Festival, Jinya and Little Jin occasionally disappear for days because they are wild animals after all. Chen Ying didn’t mind, but with another month to leave, Chen Ying decided to discuss the issue of the little lynx with Jinya.

If it is willing, it can raise the little lynx here until it can live independently, but this might take longer than usual because although its eyes have recovered, they’re still a bit clumsy compared to other lynxes.

Initially, Chen Ying wanted to suggest sending the little lynx to Qing Ye, but after contacting the keeper and veterinarian there and learning that the little lynx could still hunt, they all recommended letting it live in the wild.

Listening to the suggestions of other experts is quite beneficial, as the original purpose of rescue is to eventually allow them to return to free life in the wild, rather than keeping them captive under the guise of their welfare.

The keeper of Si Zai has also been frequently contacting Sun Qihai recently. The two of them want to try to see if Si Zai can return to the wild as well.

Born weak, after several months of artificial rearing, its physical fitness has reached the average threshold. If it can hunt on its own, it should be able to return to the wild.

The conditions in the no-man’s-land are poor, and the keeper can’t bear the child to suffer, so it was sent to Qing Ye’s own wilderness training ground, where there are other rescued snow leopards, so Si Zai can learn survival skills from adult snow leopards.

Wishes are beautiful, reality is cruel.

Raised and fed manually, Si Zai is already accustomed to regular feeding, having no desire to hunt. When a small rabbit was put in for its practice, it thought it was a toy, playing with it for most of the day, and eventually, the rabbit died of fright.

The dead rabbit wasn’t eaten by Si Zai, who carried it to find the keeper, hoping he would resurrect the rabbit to continue playing with it.

The first step of the plan, failure ×

A single failure did not dishearten Sun Qihai and the keeper, and they set their sights on Er Niu.

Previously, Er Niu didn’t take Si Zai along because she knew in the wild environment, the physically weak Si Zai simply couldn’t survive.

But now that Si Zai has grown up, perhaps Er Niu might change her mind if it receives its mother’s skill guidance?

The two found Chen Ying and described the plan.

Chen Ying thought it was a bit challenging, but worth a try. First, it requires Er Niu and the big snow leopard to come and recognize their kin; otherwise, which good-natured snow leopard would be willing to help take care of cubs for free?

Chen Ying just gave Er Niu a heads-up in advance but didn’t participate much in this matter since Sun Qihai specializes in this research, and not everything should rely on him to resolve.

After discussing the little lynx’s education with Jinya, it plans to stay until summer. If it can’t support itself during that abundant season, it might as well be taken back to Jiamu Gully, where there are plenty of aunts and uncles, not worried about raising a poor little thing.

The idea of Jinya differs somewhat from Little Jin.

After hearing about Chen Ying’s plan to go to the Grand Canyon, where there are many of its kind, Little Jin wanted to go and have a look.

Recently, the two went to Sanjiang, where ownership had changed, unlike in Jiamu Gully, where the territory remained relatively stable over two to three years.

The barren wilderness of the no-man’s-land is indeed not suitable for the golden cat species, but in the highland canyon areas, the distribution of golden cats is not uncommon.

Chen Ying hadn’t previously known much about the situation in the Grand Canyon, only that it ranks first in the world for its depth and width, and is renowned as a “natural museum” and “biological gene pool” due to its rich scientific significance and valuable resources,

The Grand Canyon is located in the southeastern Tibetan Region, spanning three counties.

Starting from Pai Village (altitude 3000 meters), it flows northeast between Nanjia Bawafeng and Jiala Baili Peak, enters Sai Shang Jiangnan, loops around the south of Nanjia Bawafeng making a horseshoe-shaped large turn southeast, and then exits south to Baxika (altitude 115 meters).

The Grand Canyon, with its unique and complete vertical zonation — covering vegetation types like tropical monsoon rainforest, subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, temperate coniferous forest, alpine shrubs, and high mountain meadows, becomes a place coveted by researchers worldwide.

Here, forest protection work is unlike in Jiamu Gully or no-man’s-land, with more residents along the coast serving as rangers.

Their main tasks are planting trees and maintaining grasslands.

In the past, due to overgrazing, the grasslands on both sides of the gorge were overloaded and severely desertified, with sandstorms sometimes so severe that they blocked the roads.

The policy of grazing reduction and reforestation over the past decade has allowed both banks to be green once again.

To protect the fragile grassland ecosystem, herders have given up grazing here and have also added fences to reduce human access.

Gradually, the protected grasslands and woodlands have become a paradise for wildlife in the Grand Canyon area.

The best time to enter the Grand Canyon is during the months of August to October, just after the rainy season and before the heavy snow seals off the mountains, with the weather conditions and harmful wildlife relatively minimal. Especially with the unique horse caravans here, they provide hikers a sense of security.

However, Yin Li and the others were there to study in Sai Shang Jiangnan, so there was no need to venture deep into the Grand Canyon. Chen Ying certainly wouldn’t consider trekking across the entire canyon, at most exploring the surrounding mountains.

The living conditions were decent, generally two people to a room, with a canteen at the guesthouse, and there were restaurants, noodle shops, and small shops in the nearby small town.

This time they drove over, bringing along Little Jin and the two puppies, Red Lion and Black Gold.

The animals rode in Chen Ying’s car, where there was a special cage for them to rest.

Chen Ying and Yin Li took turns driving, taking nearly thirty hours to cover over a thousand kilometers.

They arrived early, rested for a day in town, and then checked in at the guesthouse.

Little Jin and the two young Mastiffs had been reported in advance, and the research institute also arranged accommodation for the animals.

The arrival of Little Jin attracted a lot of attention from those who came to study, but everyone was very mindful and didn’t bother it too much.

After arriving here, Little Jin’s condition was much better than at the River Source. The altitude here is significantly lower, and the climate is warm and humid, visibly making Little Jin’s fur smoother.

After spending a night in the cage, Little Jin was eager to explore the surroundings.

The guesthouse is affiliated with the research station, surrounded by forests, and virtually untouched by tourists, so there was no need to worry too much about Little Jin’s safety.

In contrast, the siblings Red Lion and Black Gold struggled to adapt to the new environment and stayed inseparably by Chen Ying’s side every day.

On their first day here, Chen Ying helped the research institute perform a hind limb surgery on a rescued Little Monkey.

This Little Monkey had a congenital hip joint issue, making it prone to hip dislocation.

If this happened, the Little Monkey’s hind legs would become immobile, making it impossible for it to live in trees or even cling to its mother’s body.

When the villagers found it on the ground, the Little Monkey, having been away from its mother for an unknown length of time, was already on the brink of death.

“This condition is quite troublesome; for the monkey, it essentially means it cannot return to the forest, and even in captivity, any accidental bump or long jump could lead to another dislocation. You can see from the CT that the hip dysplasia is the root cause of this condition.”

Chen Ying gave a lecture to the veterinarians, teaching them how to manually relocate the joint, post-operative consolidation, and key points on hip joint reconstruction and new techniques.

Generally, veterinarians are not required to master hip joint reconstruction, as it falls under the specialization of orthopedic surgeons. However, even if they’re not proficient, they must understand what it entails.

Particularly for primates like monkeys and apes, the bone diseases they might encounter have commonalities with humans, and it requires veterinarians to diagnose the problem clearly before finding the right specialist for confirmation.

While Yin Li and others were undergoing training, Chen Ying was providing professional training to veterinarians at the research institute and nearby rescue centers.

After about four days, Chen Ying completed a stage of his course, giving the “students” time to fully grasp the material and acquire more skills.

During the remaining time, Chen Ying planned to explore the nearby mountains. Little Jin, having gone out for a few days, had not returned yet, which made him a bit uneasy.

Even though he had put a collar on Little Jin when it went out, the signals were normal so far, with the activity range staying within a five-kilometer radius around the research institute.

But since last night, Little Jin has remained stationary, not moving from one spot.

The researcher in charge of monitoring the signal dared not wait any longer and reported the situation to Chen Ying early in the morning.

“I’ll go find it, you guys carry on with your work.”

“Mr. Chen, I’ll go with you. We need to go out to retrieve cameras, and the area is on our route. Half a year ago, cameras set up here captured a red-brown Golden Cat moving around. Could Little Jin have encountered that Golden Cat?”

This is not the mating season for Golden Cats, and if the two cats met, they might have a fight. Currently, it’s unclear if the collar was displaced due to a fight, so we need to take a look to be sure.