Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 564: Catch the fish, we have it in our hands
Yunyun brought her two children to the water's edge. The mother and her two children chose a riverbank with a dead tree, squatted down and stared at the water.

Chen Ying quickly pointed the camera lens at Yunyun. He judged that Yunyun was preparing to teach the children how to fish.

Yunyun stared at the water with sharp and focused eyes, while the children seemed a little excited and curious.

They followed their mother closely, occasionally approaching the water surface, as if wanting to get a glimpse of the mysteries beneath the water.

Yunyun calmly waited for the opportunity and did not stop the children from exploring the surface world. (*v)
The smaller kitten became impatient with the boring wait, turned around and ran to dig in the bushes nearby.

The other kitten followed its mother's example, watching carefully every subtle change on the water surface, its ears shaking from time to time, as if trying to distinguish the sounds coming from underwater.

Time passed little by little, and the water surface was still as calm as a mirror. Yunyun continued to wait patiently, knowing that fishing requires patience and timing. The kitten following it looked up at its mother, then lay quietly on the wood and no longer looked around.

Finally, a fish swam over slowly and approached the dead tree stump without anyone noticing.

In a flash, Yunyun stretched out her claws and hooked the fish in a lightning-fast manner. The action was clean and neat, and the fish was thrown onto the shore before it could react. The next second, Yunyun bit it, and no matter how hard it struggled, it could not escape from the cat's mouth.

Yunyun bit the fish, glanced in the direction of Chen Ying and the others, then turned and walked to the other side.

The two kittens were reluctant to leave and wanted to learn from their mother to catch fish by themselves. But after a while, Yunyun's cry was heard in the darkness, and the two kittens jumped and chased after it.

"Wow, what a great job tonight!" Two students' suppressed cheers came from the tent next to them. It seems that they did not miss this wonderful video of Yunyun taking the children fishing.

However, after repeated analysis, Chen Ying felt that Yunyun might not be completely an leopard cat. It might be the offspring of an leopard cat and a fishing cat. After all, both belong to the genus Leopard Cat.

However, from a biological point of view, although leopard cats and fishing cats are both members of the genus Ocelot, they are not the same species, and the offspring produced by mating normally cannot reproduce.

But Yunyun gave birth to two kittens, which means she can reproduce, so working backwards leads to a paradox.

Forget it, let the zoologists solve these problems. What he needs to do now is to collect Yunyun’s genetic samples and clarify her identity.

It was already half past three. Uncle Yan Wenyan said that there were fewer animals coming during this time period, but there would be more around four or five o'clock.

Chen Ying and his team simply took their tents and equipment and prepared to return to the camp to rest. A student carried the blood sample and followed Uncle Yan Wenyan to their village. When it was daybreak, they would ride a motorcycle to take him to the base to hand in the sample.

At daybreak, a faint aroma of rice wafted through the camp.

Uncle Yan Wenyan brought some dried meat and grilled fish from his home, paired with special tomato sauce and some pickled radish shreds, making it an extremely hearty breakfast.

We have to eat well in the morning, and go out to look for target animals at noon. It is inconvenient to make a fire to cook, so we have to fill our stomachs with cold food.

Fortunately, due to the hot weather in Yunnan Province, everyone is used to eating everything pounded.

Prepare the side dishes in the morning, mix them with rice noodles and you can eat them at noon.

Uncle Yan Wenyan's aunt's cooking skills are so great that even the local guide who led the way said that they had never tasted such delicious glutinous rice and pounded pork.

"Just for this bite of food, I'm willing to stay here for ten days or half a month, provided that I can eat Aunt Yuxiang's cooking every now and then."

Even Dao Meihua thought that this was the most delicious pounded vegetable she had ever tasted. It turned out that there are many masters among the people.

"I am in charge of this section, and my brother is in charge of the section below. He has been ill recently, so I help him patrol."

Just as I finished speaking, I saw the brother and sister from yesterday rowing over. Yunyun was still on the boat, but the two kittens were nowhere to be seen.

"Uncle, uncle, wait for us."

The brother and sister grunted as they approached the shore, lifting up a small backpack.

"Uncle, this is the food my mother and aunt gave you. We grew it ourselves."

Lift up the banana leaves covering it, and underneath are the jackfruits and bananas grown at home.

"And this is the steamed buns my aunt made. You can have it for lunch."

Chen Ying and Dao Meihua looked at each other, not understanding what this meant.

Uncle Yan Wenyan accepted it without hesitation, then patted Yan Han on the head and asked, "Why didn't you two go to school today?"

"Mom asked for leave for us." Yan Han scratched the back of his head and smiled with white teeth, "My brother is getting engaged today, so Mom asked my sister and I to stay at home to help."

His family is large, his grandparents are still alive, and the whole family lives together without separating, and they do things together.

Yanhan's sister, who was standing next to him, couldn't stand her brother not getting down to business for a long time, so she pulled him away.

"My mother heard that there is a scientific expedition team here, so she asked us to invite you over for a drink tomorrow."

The girl speaks standard Mandarin with a clear voice, and her speaking sounds as pleasant as singing.

Uncle Yan Wenyan quickly explained for her, saying that people in their village particularly like educated people, and it would be fine if they didn't meet them, but knowing that the scientific expedition team was there, they would definitely hope that they could go and attend the engagement ceremony, and they also hoped that their children could get some of that blessing.

It may not seem like a big deal in the city, but in a remote place like theirs, graduating from university is quite impressive. If you have a master's or doctoral degree, or even a university professor at a higher level, you are simply a distinguished guest that the whole village is vying to receive.

After listening to Uncle Yan Wenyan's explanation, the little girl added another sentence.

"My grandfather heard you were looking for a cat that could swim. He said he saw one when he was young. He can take you there to try your luck."

After hearing what the little girl said, Chen Ying and the others immediately decided that they had to attend the engagement party, and they would get angry with anyone who didn't let them go.

After confirming with the brother and sister that they would attend, they separated here. The brother and sister took the boat back, while they carried their backpacks and walked along the edge of the mangroves to the village.

Yunyun stayed to accompany them and could also help lead the way.

After walking this section, Uncle Yan Wenyan also had to go back. The road below belonged to the area managed by another river section chief.

However, after bypassing this section, turn back from the fork along the abandoned rubber forest and follow the path in the forest to reach the village where the young lady and brother live.

This road is actually not far from the water, and you can often see various small animals walking through it.

Yunyun followed Chen Ying silently. Except when the road forked, she would take the initiative to lead the way. Otherwise, she would do whatever Chen Ying and the others wanted to do.

The intensity of ultraviolet rays in Yunnan Province is very high, and it can even cause sunburn at noon.

After lunch, a group of people found a shady place to stop and rest, and did not continue working until about three o'clock.

Seeing them stop to eat, Yunyun nudged Chen Ying and indicated that she wanted to leave for a while.

Chen Ying asked in a low voice whether he should follow her. Yunyun's one ear twitched, she patted the back of his hand, turned around and ran away quickly.

Dao Meihua came over and asked him where Yunyun was. Chen Ying didn't know either, and guessed that she might have gone back to feed the children.

“Is Yunyun a fishing cat?” “Probably not. Its head shape and body are more like an ocelot, but its claws are a bit like the webbed feet of a fishing cat. Unless genetic testing is done, it is really impossible to determine what species it is.”

But if Yunyun is the offspring of a leopard cat and a fishing cat, regardless of whether it can reproduce or not, it at least proves that the fishing cat is not completely extinct.

But it's hard to say, after all, this place is too close to the border. What if it's an accidental combination across the border?

"At least we have a target now. If it's not in the country, at least there's a good chance we'll find a fishing cat along this river."

They had already made preparations for cross-border cooperation before they came. With Chen Ying's identity, and the fact that this project was registered at a well-known foreign university, it was an international cooperative research project, so it was unlikely that she would be deliberately embarrassed.

In addition, the tributaries of this river connect most of the wetlands in the neighboring country's Nanha River Nature Reserve. It is also a part of the Joint Transboundary Biodiversity Reserve and an important ecological corridor. Both countries are very supportive of this purely scientific research activity.

They chatted in a low voice about the next steps to take if they didn't find the fishing cat. Before they finished talking, they heard the guide telling everyone to get out of the way.

"There is a herd of elephants heading this way. They should be going to the river valley to play in the water. We just need to get out of their way. Don't be afraid. As long as we don't provoke them, we will generally be fine."

Everyone listened to the advice and quickly made way.

Sure enough, not long after, I saw a group of elephants walking out of the woods, about seven or eight of them. Among them was a baby elephant that must have been born not long ago. Compared with the other elephants, it was as small as a toy.

The chubby baby elephant followed behind its mother, stumbling with every step. From time to time, it would kneel down and act coquettishly, then get up and continue walking after being comforted by other elephants.

When passing by the place where they were hiding, the leading elephant stopped and stared at them for at least three minutes, then shook its trunk and slowly walked forward.

In just over ten minutes, everyone felt their backs were soaked with sweat and were frightened.

Chen Ying and Dao Meihua were relatively calm. Chen Ying had participated in the elephant rescue last time she came, and Dao Meihua was half a local. Although she was mainly involved in the protection and rescue of big cats, she would also actively participate in the rescue of other animals, including wild Asian elephants.

This time we are coming from a different direction, so we probably won’t encounter the wild elephants and big cats that we encountered a few years ago.

They quickly took a few photos from a distance and continued walking forward.

It was not known whether they were lucky or unlucky this time, but they actually saw a leopard lying across the tree trunk in front of them.

Chen Ying watched for a while and determined that the big cat was in the stage of taking a nap after eating and drinking. Normally, as long as you don't provoke it, it will bother to pay attention to you.

The road had to be taken in a detour, and the guide and assistant led everyone through the woods, with Chen Ying and the two students she led staying at the end.

"Teacher, this leopard looks much smaller than the North China leopard!"

"Of course. A North China leopard's fur weighs ten kilograms. An Indochinese leopard's fur is short and thin, so it must be much lighter."

"That's right. People in tropical areas are smaller than those in cold areas. The same is certainly true for animals."

This guy is a typical tall guy from Northeast China, one centimeter away from two meters in height, and he is the only scorpion in the team.

Fortunately, there are two foreign students who can raise the average height of the team.

After checking in, the three of them followed the team to evacuate.

Just two minutes after they left, the Indochinese leopard, which had been sleeping with its eyes closed, suddenly opened its eyes and jumped down the tree. It came to where Chen Ying was standing and sniffed deeply for several minutes before returning to the shady tree to continue sleeping.

After walking through the bushes and returning to the forest road, everyone was extremely hot.

In order to avoid mosquito bites and the scratches of some saw-toothed plants, they all wore relatively dense clothes, hats, face scarves, and high-top shoes, covering their entire bodies tightly. But the result was that they were almost suffering from heat stroke.

"Okay, let's take a break in the forest ahead before we go on. Everyone check each other's bodies for any reptiles or plant seeds. When you sit down, pay attention to the ground, and don't let the little creatures get you butt-banged."

It was a little after four in the afternoon and the sun was not shining directly, but it was the time of the day when the temperature was the highest. In order to avoid heat stroke, they had to pay attention to heat dissipation.

Fortunately, everyone has rich experience in the field, and no one seems to have shown symptoms of heat stroke so far.

Walking in the rain forest on a hot day is not something that most people can endure. During the break, several students leaned against each other and took a short nap.

Dao Meihua was in good spirits. After recording the rare plants she found along the way, she leaned on Chen Ying and fell asleep.

Chen Ying played back the footage with her camera, going over in her mind the types of animals she had discovered today.

At about half past five, Yunyun came back.

It was incredible that it could find them in such a large rainforest, and they even brought them some food.

The hand-sewn small backpacks were stuffed with some baba, some with fillings, which could be eaten directly after being heated up. There were not many, and half a piece per person was just enough.

There are also four bamboo tubes filled with rice wine, and a bag of hand-torn dried rice noodles mixed with garlic and chili peppers. You can squeeze lemon juice on them and eat them.

It’s not much, but it’s full of thought.

It is definitely impossible to get full by relying on this thing, but it is amazing to be able to eat something delicious in addition to dry food.

Everyone shared the food, ate it, packed up the garbage and tied it under their backpacks, and continued on their journey full of energy.

Today they plan to go to the wetland closest to the village to check the situation. Although fishing cats are most common in mangroves, they may also appear in other parts of the wetland.

More importantly, they felt it was not a good idea to disturb the host's house so late at night, so they spent the night in a tent in the wild and went back to the village the next morning. This way they could fulfill the agreement with the young lady and brother, and also minimize the trouble to the villagers, achieving the best of both worlds!

When they arrived at their target campsite, Yunyun saw that they had stopped and curiously grabbed Chen Ying's trouser leg. Without saying a word, it looked up and stared at him with its beautiful big eyes, its little face full of questions.

"Yunyun, we have an observation mission tonight, so we won't be entering the village for the time being. Could you please help pass this trouble to Yanhan and his sister?"

The handwritten note clearly stated their plans and asked the young ladies and brothers not to worry, as they would definitely arrive tomorrow morning.

Yunyun tilted her little head, didn't force it, turned around and ran towards the village.

It's almost eight o'clock now and the sky is getting dark. We have to set up the camp quickly.

The place is in a good location and if possible, they should stay here for two or three days.

As soon as the camp was set up, Yan Han and his sister, as well as Uncle Yan Wenyan and his wife, all arrived, carrying a lot of food and drinks.

Uncle Yan Wenyan even offered to stay and spend the night with them in the wild.

The uncle's wife didn't speak Chinese very well, so after communicating with gestures for a while, she made three marks for them on the map.

These marks are where her grandfather often went fishing when he was young, and he often saw water cats that would compete with him for fish. The water cats, or fishing cats, as the locals call them, are the fishing cats they are looking for.

(End of this chapter)