My 1995 Small Farm.

"Huh? Sheep, sheep, eating little egrets?"

Chen Ling looked like she couldn't believe her ears.

It was quite unexpected that my brother-in-law would say something like that.

"Brother, stop joking. No matter how wild my sheep is, it wouldn't go and eat those newly hatched birds, would it? Maybe it just ran up and licked the salt."

"I'm not making this up. Look, they've all stuck their heads into the egrets' nests. How could they be licking salt..."

Wang Qingwen said with a serious expression that he had seen many strange things at Chen Ling's house, and seeing this scene, he couldn't help but think of things in a way that was beyond the realm of common sense.

I didn't actually see clearly what they were eating.

As he spoke, Wang Qingwen looked up and shone his flashlight on the cliff face, urging Chen Ling to look.

“Some sheep in our mountains eat eggs and chicks. We’ve seen it before. Dad has also told us that pregnant ewes used to hide in the mountains to give birth to lambs. After giving birth, their temperament would change drastically, and they would eat anything. It was quite frightening.”

He said that this had indeed happened.

Chen Ling also knew some of it.

This situation can also occur in some animals that do not produce lambs.

It could be extreme hunger, stress, or some kind of illness.

In short, there are still occasional isolated cases.

Besides sheep, cattle, horses, and donkeys can also experience this condition.

For example, in some extremely cold places.

In places like Iceland near the Arctic, people feed their horses meat, such as fish caught during the harsh winter, to help them survive.

The horses will also have a good meal.

Such incidents are neither numerous nor widespread.

But there are still some.

It just sounds a bit strange.

"Yes, these sheep have stuck their heads into the egret's nest, but I didn't see them eat the baby egrets."

Chen Ling looked up and saw that the mountains to the west of the farm had almost no slope; they were all steep cliffs at ninety degrees, standing upright as if cut by a knife and axe.

A person couldn't even stand up there.

But these sheep, large and small, were able to climb up and scatter on the protruding rocks on the cliff face, bleating as they poked their heads out to eat something in the egret's nest.

They would occasionally scramble for the food, eating with great gusto.

However, Chen Ling could clearly see that these sheep were not eating the egrets.

Instead, it was something inside the egret's nest, messy and tangled, like a clump of weeds or some seedlings mixed in.

It was snatched and eaten by the flock of sheep.

"Meow~"

As darkness fell, Chen Ling and his brother-in-law looked around at the sheep bleating on the cliff. Later, Su Li and the two people from the provincial TV station also came out.

Chen Ling told them to stay there and guard the place.

He led Erhei and a few other male dogs around the back of the mountain to herd the sheep.

While we were at it, we also checked out the situation on the cliff face.

Dogs raised in Chen Ling's home are naturally much smarter than dogs from other families.

The female dog in the house is about to give birth, and these male puppies have been busy lately, catching mice, rabbits, birds, hedgehogs, and other animals to bring back for the puppies to eat.

This also has a touch of wolfishness.

When a female wolf is pregnant, other members of the pack will bring her food.

Naturally, with other things on one's mind, one will become distracted when looking after the sheep.

In addition, Zhao Yubao and his family have been hanging around here a lot lately. The two old men like to let their lambs follow Chen Ling's flock of sheep, saying that it is good for the lambs' growth.

So Erhei and the others felt they had less to do, and they all started looking for prey and fawning over the female dogs.

……

"Wang Wang Wang!"

Once they rounded the back mountain, Erhei led his pack of dogs and began barking loudly at the flock of sheep on the cliff.

The sheep, used to being managed by the farm's dogs, immediately raised their heads in unison, their bright green eyes gleaming in the dim night, bleating.

Wang Qingwen followed closely behind, and when he shone his flashlight, those pairs of bright green eyes shone even brighter.

"Wow, these sheep can really climb! What kind of places did they choose?"

"There's no way around it, goats are much wilder than sheep, and if they're free-range for too long, they'll run around everywhere."

Goats are naturally playful.

From a young age, they were more lively and active than sheep, and loved climbing and exploring.

If they were raised in a free-range manner from a young age, then there's no need to even mention it.

This is not.

Without the dog watching over them, they would have climbed up the cliff face in no time.

It gets dark very early and very quickly in the mountains. The cliffs are so steep that it's impossible for people and dogs to get through.

Fortunately, these sheep knew to go home when they saw the dog coming to chase them away.

They clung to the cliff face, leaping and tumbling down in a way that sent chills down one's spine.

This applies to both adult sheep and lambs.

They are all rock climbing experts.

The two men shone their flashlights, watching the sheep bleating, and jumped down step by step.

Chen Ling then told his brother-in-law to go back and herd the sheep back into the pen, while he led Erhei to the other side of the mountain lake to check the situation on the cliff.

Once inside the forest, the egrets became very alert.

When you shine a flashlight, you can see that almost every nest has newly hatched egrets. Some nests have only one, some have two, and some have all hatched, four or five together. They are all bald, with hardly any feathers on their bodies, and they look quite ugly.

Before he could get a good look, the great egret spread its wings and cried out, its eyes flashing with ferocity, ready to attack Chen Ling at any moment.

Chen Ling was too lazy to look at them anymore. He used a bamboo stick to knock the grass and made his way around to the side of the cliff. As soon as he got to this area, Erhei started sniffing loudly.

Sometimes it tilts its head back and twitches its head towards the sky, and sometimes it buries its head in the grass like a pig, sniffing hard close to the ground.

suddenly.

It barked loudly.

It trotted around some huge rocks and kept calling out towards the nearest egret nest.

Chen Ling came over with a flashlight and took a look.

Right beneath the rocks next to the egret cave, there was a deep stone cave, on one side of the path.

The hole is about the size of a basketball.

Some claw marks remained on the outer edge of the cave.

The area around here isn't completely barren; there are some small trees, vines, and wild grasses interspersed with several common crop seedlings, and dried manure among the seedlings.

The surrounding area is filled with jumbled, strangely shaped rocks, covered by vines and wild grass.

In other words, the cave entrance is on the side of the lake in the mountains, in a depression, which is a sheltered place from the wind.

If you walk four or five meters further east from the cave entrance, you'll find a large area of ​​egret nests scattered along the outer edge of the cliff.

After examining the cave entrance and the claw marks outside, Chen Ling went to see what secrets those egret nests held that attracted the sheep to reach inside and eat.

I went over with a flashlight and took a closer look.

Then he was surprised to find that the egrets' nests were still in the same abandoned state as before. After the previous egrets were killed by the eagles, no new egrets moved in, but his family had seen egrets active here before.

Around the egret's nest, some lush green wheat and sorghum seedlings grew. In some nests, due to the accumulation of mud, some wheat seedlings, peanut seedlings, and some melon seedlings also sprouted, and many vines grew.

"Wow, it's one thing for watermelons to climb up here, but how come so many crops have grown up here too? Even egrets don't eat these things."

These waterbirds rarely eat things like crop seeds.

Therefore, it won't be in the nest or in the feces.

"Hmm? No, that cave and the claw marks, and the wheat and sorghum here..."

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Chen Ling's mind: "I understand, this is probably the thing that digs holes in cornfields."

At noon, Zhao Yubao went back and retrieved a note containing several possibilities that Han Ninggui had mentioned.

The badger is the prime suspect.

At first, Chen Ling was too trusting.

Badgers do hibernate, but unlike field mice, they don't usually store food for winter.

Later, I looked at what Han Ninggui and Zhao Yubao had said. They were talking about what if it was a badger.

The holes in the cornfield are temporary burrows, used to find food.

Compared to caves where people live and overwinter year-round, that kind of cave is deep and complex.

These temporary tunnels, like temporary outposts, are straight and very short.

So when water is poured in, it can overflow.

That grain was only enough for them to eat for two or three days.

It wasn't a grain reserve.

"Damn it, those paw prints are almost indistinguishable from those of a badger. It must be a badger. No wonder I waited for several days and didn't go back. I thought I was afraid of dogs."

It turned out to be just a makeshift hole.

Chen Ling grumbled and cursed, feeling that she had wasted a lot of her feelings.

After glancing around at the egret nests, I thought, "These birds are really in a sorry state. They're being eaten by eagles, civets, foxes, leopards, and now badgers have come too."

and……

There must be quite a few badgers here.

It certainly wasn't just one or two, otherwise so much grain wouldn't have been left behind here to take root and sprout.

Chen Ling thought to himself, "Erhei is still barking at the cave entrance over there."

This little rascal, besides being a busybody, is also a bit stubborn, just like Heiwa and Hutouhuang in nature.

However, its name is also useful.

Chen Ling carefully stepped down from the cliff, stepping on several stones, and walked to a shallow recess between several huge rocks, gazing at the cave below the rocks.

Under Erhei's persistent barking, pairs of round eyes gleamed in the dark cave, like little raccoons jostling each other, squeaking in panic and anger. Chen Ling could see them with a flashlight.

There are probably five or six of them, big and small.

"Good heavens, there are a few little brats here. They're definitely guilty now. You're the culprits."

Chen Ling had a sharp eye and, seeing the obvious difference in appearance between these little creatures and hog badgers, knew they were definitely badgers.

Badgers are actually much weaker than hog badgers.

They are not as irritable, easily angered, or short-tempered as badger hogs.

Moreover, its digestive ability is not as good as that of a badger.

The little badger is even less comparable.

Their digestive capacity is weaker.

Therefore, the seeds carried in the feces germinate and grow everywhere.

"Tsk tsk, I really didn't expect that the sheep herders would find a den of badgers."

At this moment, Chen Ling's astonishment turned into joy.

"Brother Fugui, is that you there? I heard a dog barking."

"It's me. Are you changing shifts?"

"Yes, we take turns feeding them. The baby cranes will hatch in the next few days. We've been feeding them fish all day long. They know we mean no harm and are no longer so wary of us."

"Good thing, good thing."

"Haha, yeah, we're quite proud of it... What are you doing here so late at night, looking for a scorpion?"

"No, it's not a scorpion, it's a den of badgers that I've cornered here."

"Huh? A badger?"

As soon as the group heard that this was a novel thing, they quickly gathered around.

Chen Ling told them what it was, and the group started shouting and yelling.

"Wow, is this the badger that Lu Xun wrote about stealing melons? It looks so strange."

"Yes, when I was learning from Runtu, I thought this thing had all the same color of fur, like an otter. I never expected it to look like this."

"How do you prepare this? Do you catch it and eat it?"

“Don’t eat them. Just catch them and let the kids play with them for a few days. Let them play with them for a while and then release them. The main thing is to prevent them from digging holes around my village.”

As the saying goes, a thousand-mile dike can be destroyed by an ant hole.

Chen Ling was very wary of things like hog badgers and Eurasian badgers digging burrows in his territory.

The farm is a good place, attracting many wild animals.

If these skilled tunnel diggers are allowed to wreak havoc here, the foundation will easily be damaged.

and.

They dig deep, sometimes ten or twenty meters deep, without you even noticing.

Heavy rain or an earthquake could be a serious matter.

Those who don't understand might not take it seriously.

He and Wang Lixian witnessed the power of this thing last year.

Wang Lixian's greenhouse was destroyed by this thing.

The caves and spaces dug below were larger than a house, housing dozens of badgers; their destructive power was simply terrifying.

Badgers are not as fierce as hog badgers, but their digging ability is no less impressive.

Chen Ling dared not let them dig holes everywhere.

"How do you catch it? Do you use smoke?"

"No need. This hole is just a temporary one they made to catch egrets. It's very short; you can just hook it out with an iron hook."

Chen Ling smiled and waved to Er Hei, "Go back and get the iron hook and steel cable."

When Erhei heard there was a mission, he was more excited than ever. He wagged his tail, barked, and ran down the mountain.

In no time, they retrieved a thick, long iron hook and a steel cable.

Of course, Er Mao and a few other male puppies followed behind, each carrying a few sections of steel cable.

The people from the provincial TV station were dumbfounded.

"Wow, are all your dogs this smart? I thought only Heiwa and Xiaojin were smart."

Everyone knows that Heiwa and his companion are dog kings.

In addition, intelligent and perceptive dogs have different eyes.

Heiwa Xiaojin possesses an extraordinary aura.

"Hey, it's like a dog leading a dog, the top student helps the poor student, and the poor student has to learn a couple of tricks, don't you think?"

Chen Ling smiled and didn't seem to care.

Everyone was taken aback by what he said, and then they laughed along, finding Chen Ling's statement quite novel.

Then he helped Chen Ling by shining a flashlight.

Their high-powered flashlights were the public ones, much brighter than Chen Ling's flashlight.

The light shone into the badger's den, making it as bright as day.

"Look, they're digging inside, trying to dig a hole to escape."

Someone exclaimed in surprise. It was the badgers inside the cave who had sensed the danger. They dared not run out, so all of them, big and small, turned around and used their sharp claws to dig desperately inside.

"Haha, don't worry about it running away. They chose this place because it's all rock. It won't be able to dig through it in less than ten days or half a month."

Chen Ling chuckled, grabbed the long iron hook, and hooked it in, instantly catching a badger's hind leg. This required a clever touch.

Just like catching an eel, taking advantage of the badger's instinctive retraction of its legs, they quickly pulled it outwards, and a badger with its white-furred tail sticking out was hooked to the entrance of the hole.

Chen Ling stomped on its hind legs, then stomped on its front arms and head, rendering it immobile.

Then take the steel wire rope and wrap it around its legs to avoid being scratched by its sharp claws if you reach out rashly.

When the badger was tied up and rolling around and struggling in the grass...

Someone shouted in a panic, "A badger has come out! It's fierce and wants to bite people!"

As Chen Ling watched, the dogs pounced on the badger, pinning it down and leaving it only able to howl, unable to move at all.

"Haha, it's not as fierce as a badger after all. This is a big badger... Don't be afraid, everyone. We have dogs with us. It can't cause any trouble."

Chen Ling smiled and reached out to rub the badger's belly. Sure enough, the milk ducts had gone down, so he couldn't get any milk from the mother badger now.

Then we can only take the few little guys shivering in the hole and let Rui Rui play with them.

Yes, Zhenzhen will be back soon. She'll be very happy to have these little gadgets.