Forest protection starts with picking up a lynx girl

Chapter 566 Cat Mom: Look at my cub and say
The logistics department delivered the animal cubs milk powder and incubators very quickly, and the kittens were able to sleep peacefully in the boxes that night.

Yunyun heard the news from somewhere and ran over to take a look in the evening.

It didn't go over to lick the kitten at close range, but just kept sniffing around it, as if trying to determine which family the kitten belonged to.

Chen Ying put down her phone, pinched her nose, and felt a little worried.

He had just contacted people around him, but no one could guarantee that they could feed this little guy. It was difficult to feed a normal kitten that was abandoned right after birth, let alone a kitten with congenital disabilities. No one knew if it had any other problems.

After talking to several veterinary teams, Chen Ying decided that it would be better for him to raise the kittens himself, since he was familiar with cats and had good skills. The most difficult part was that there was no suitable medical equipment to examine the kittens.

From the naked eye, the kitten can't see any other problems except that its front limbs are disabled. But it was abandoned at birth and was soaked in water for an unknown period of time.

When the leopard brought it over, the little guy's body was cold and slightly stiff. If Chen Ying hadn't been experienced, it would probably have been thrown away as a dead cub.

"Don't worry. I asked my sister-in-law to send a device over and temporarily place it in the village. There is also a professional nursery worker. You just need to go over and check it out every day."

Dao Meihua's ability to manage money came in handy again.

It's not that Chen Ying has no money, but sometimes money alone cannot solve the problem. The Dao family has been deeply involved in animal protection and related industries in the province for decades. Things that others cannot do, his family can get results with just a few words.

In a situation like the current one, coordinating equipment, installing equipment and staffing, which others find difficult, were easily solved by the Dao family.

The kittens need to be fed a cup of milk powder every two hours. The little guys don’t have the ability to suck independently, and they have to rely on people to carefully squeeze the milk powder into their mouths before they can swallow it passively.

Not to mention that other people found it difficult, even Chen Ying didn't know if it could survive this.

The next day, the nanny sent by the Dao family rushed to the village with a cub box and stayed at Yanhan's house.

Yanhan's brother and sister-in-law are also helping to take care of the little ones, boiling water, watching over, cleaning at night, and helping the kittens defecate. They silently and seriously learn from the nanny brother.

Lian Yunyun moved her sleeping place to the corridor outside the nursery, and squatted at the door every morning and evening, silently watching the two-legged beasts take care of the little thing.

Yunyun didn't understand. This little thing would never be able to live in the wild. It couldn't even catch fish. Was it going to have to rely on humans for its entire life?
Although it didn't understand, it finally jumped onto the table and approached the incubator one afternoon.

After five days, the kitten looked a little bigger than when it was first rescued, but it was still skinny. Because it had no front legs, it couldn't even turn over and crawl, and its cries were extremely weak.

Chen Ying examined it and found no other problems for the time being. However, perhaps because of the lack of breast milk, the little guy's stomach and intestines were not in good condition and his development was slow.

I had just told the nanny that the milk powder ratio needed to be changed, when I turned around I saw Yunyun's face pressed against the incubator, staring at the kittens without blinking.

In fact, if Yunyun’s cub wasn’t so much older, there should be no problem in asking Yunyun to be a wet nurse.

Yunyun's cubs have been weaned and started learning to fish. Even if it wanted to help feed them, it was unable to do so.

However, although you cannot feed the kittens, it is okay to lick their fur to help stimulate defecation.

Seeing that Yunyun wanted to help, Chen Ying tentatively took the kitten out of the incubator and placed it in a nest made of thick towels on the table.

Yunyun went over, sniffed it, and began to lick its fur. She also turned the cub over and licked its belly and butt.

Maybe it had never felt such treatment before, so the kitten was a little stressed. It arched its head and opened its little mouth as wide as possible, but no sound could be heard.

Yunyun was very gentle. She held the kitten in her arms and comforted it until it calmed down.

Chen Ying and the nanny watched from the side, and only left the room quietly after the kittens fell asleep.

"It seems that the presence of a mother cat is very important to the kittens. It's a pity that I can't find a suitable lactating mother cat. Otherwise, I could exchange it with canned cat food and ask it to help raise the kittens."

Hearing the nursery teacher's words, Chen Ying touched his chin.

It's not that there aren't any. It just depends on whether the team members over there are capable enough to find the birthing place of fishing cats.

Chen Ying glanced at the kitten and decided to go over and take a look in person.

After the team members heard that Chen Ying and his team had picked up an abandoned disabled fishing cat, they became more determined to find the cat. Unfortunately, fishing cats that were about to give birth were very wary, and they have not seen a single cat hair so far.

They originally discovered a delivery room that was suspected to be prepared by fishing cats for themselves, but after they installed the camera, they did not see any cats entering or leaving for several days.

The sociable leopard has been missing for several days, but the camera can occasionally capture images of it moving around the wetland. It seems to be looking for something, and every time it enters the area, it lowers its head to sniff.

Chen Ying guessed that it might be trying to find the fishing cat that abandoned the kittens, but it has not been found for several days. The cameras placed near the abandonment site did not capture any images of fishing cats or other cats. It is estimated that the mother cat has already moved with her other children.

Although the wetland area has shrunk a lot, the area within this protected area is still not small, and it is basically impossible to fully check it by manpower.

Moreover, fishing cats usually hide at the roots of reeds near wetlands and in tree holes near mangroves. They are typical night owls, so it is very difficult to confirm their presence.

After making arrangements for the following week, Chen Ying prepared to go and help search for fishing cats that might have given birth.

This time he went with Yanhan's cousin. An elder sister of Yanhan's family married into the village over there, and she wanted to seek help from the elders in the village.

After arriving there, he met with the team there and summarized their findings. Chen Ying then came up with a guess: maybe this fishing cat was actually hiding in a corner of the village to give birth.

Maybe it’s because the light is dark, everyone subconsciously thinks that these cats will stay away from humans, but in fact, because humans are expanding too fast and encroaching on the territories that originally belonged to these wild animals, their coexistence with humans is forced and is also the result of natural development.

The villages on the Nanla River side are slightly larger than those of Yanhan. Because they are close to the scenic area and the Nanla River is a large river, the village has launched a river cruise project, and the number of tourists coming and going increases and decreases seasonally.

It just so happened that the time they came was the off-season for tourism, so there were very few cruise ships on the river, and only two boats went out in the morning.

Yanhan's brother found his sister and told her the purpose of their visit. The beautiful Dai girl agreed to help without hesitation. The villagers who were more familiar with the surrounding situation spontaneously helped to find the cat. While searching, they proudly said that they now attach great importance to the environment. The previous rubber forests have been abandoned, and the original fenced-off areas for breeding have been demolished to restore the natural ecology.

There are many small animals around here. They will educate children not to harm the small animals, and will take the initiative to feed the animals at regular times and locations when food is scarce.

"We don't know what fishing cats or leopard cats you are talking about. Anyway, they are all cats. They can catch fish, mice, snakes, etc. As long as they don't enter the house to cause trouble, we will let them run around the village."

The young lady who accompanied Chen Ying in looking for cats in the village spoke with pride. Just as she said, Chen Ying also saw a clouded leopard flash by in the woods behind a house.

The clouded leopard is considered a relatively violent cat species, but it obviously had no intention of harming anyone. It jumped from the railing on the second floor of the house onto a tree and disappeared in a few seconds.

"That's a clouded leopard. It was rescued and raised by people from our village." The young lady also saw the clouded leopard. Seeing that Chen Ying was staring at that place, she took the initiative to explain.

"Two years ago, it came to the village to steal chickens. It killed the chickens but didn't have the energy to eat, so it was discovered. We invited an expert to come and take a look. They said it was a clouded leopard and that it must have eaten something dirty and had an upset stomach. We gave it medicine for two days at the clinic in our village and fed it a chicken every day. It recovered in a week. Then it stayed in the village and never left."

In addition to the clouded leopard, Chen Ying even saw two monkeys eating a buffet in the banana grove not far from the clouded leopard.

"These two monkeys were also rescued by people from our village. Last summer, the river flooded and the mother monkey and her newborn baby monkey were lying on a piece of driftwood pitifully. They were found by a young man from the village. After rescuing them, they observed them for two days and let them go. As a result, these two guys left more than ten days later and brought back several more monkeys. Look, do you see them in the woods over there? That's their family."

After a closer look, he saw a group of Philippine leaf monkeys. He had seen these monkeys before when he came to Banna last time, but this was the first time he had seen them so close to human settlements.

Philippine leaf monkeys are arboreal and live in families consisting of one male and multiple females, usually with 5 to 15 members.

This small family is not big. It seems that there are only about six or seven monkeys, including adults and baby monkeys.

Although they live close to banana groves, they do not eat much bananas. Their favorite food is the newly grown young leaves.

We walked around the village and saw many cats, dogs, chickens, ducks and other common wild animals, but we did not find any traces of leopard cats or fishing cats that were similar to leopard cats.

"Teacher Chen, are you sure it was found near our village?" The two young ladies who had accompanied him for several hours looked a little serious. While confirming the news with Chen Ying, they took out their mobile phones to call their familiar friends.

Chen Ying didn't quite understand the local dialect they were speaking, but she could tell from the expression that it was not good news.

“I asked my mother and she said no foreign cats were seen in the village.”

Similar to other ethnic groups, each village has its own news distribution center, and the mother of the young lady who made the call is a member of the gossip group.

Chen Ying was not too disappointed. She had not come here with much hope, so not finding anything was within her expectations.

Just as I was about to say goodbye to the two young ladies, I saw a group of children coming back on their bikes.

"Sister, sister, bring me a fish. I want to feed the cat."

A little girl rode her bicycle to the girl on the phone and said, "Sister, the cat in our school gave birth to kittens. She gave birth to three kittens in the bush behind our classroom."

She even took out her cell phone to show it to her sister.

Chen Ying glanced at it subconsciously, then widened his eyes and moved his head closer.

At first glance, the cat in the photo looks no different from an ocelot. Its appearance is not very clear because of the grass and bushes blocking its view, but there is no mistake about the pattern on its body; it is the leopard pattern, the symbol of the genus Ocelot.

"Teacher Chen, is this it?"

When the little girl saw her sister take her phone and give it to a strange uncle, her face suddenly tensed and she stared at Chen Ying's hand without blinking, fearing that it was a bad guy who wanted to steal her phone.

"It looks very similar." Chen Ying held the phone and looked at it horizontally and vertically, and finally returned the phone to the little girl. "Little sister, can you take me over to have a look? This may be a very rare fishing cat, one of the targets our research team is looking for."

When she heard that it was the research team, the little girl nodded immediately, "No problem, I'll take you there!"

After looking at this bicycle which was not much bigger than a children's bike, Chen Ying quickly waved her hand. Just as she was about to ask if she could walk there, the girl next to her patted her arm.

"Teacher Chen, I have an electric car at home. Please wait for me and I will drive over right away."

Twenty minutes later, Chen Ying and the two teams that were notified met at the entrance of the village primary school.

The school leaders also received a call and arranged for school security to cordon off that area and prevent students from passing through.

In fact, the students were quite conscientious. At most, they just looked upstairs and did not run to disturb the mother cat who had just given birth to cubs.

"This cat is usually taken care of by our cafeteria chef. It eats fish most of the time, and occasionally chicken or something like that."

The village primary school is next to the woods, and about seven or eight hundred meters away is a pond. The other end of the pond is connected to a small tributary of the Nanla River.

This cat occasionally goes to the river along the pond to fish. It was probably photographed fishing in the river some time ago.

No one expected that its residence was actually next to the village primary school. This creature is obviously afraid of noisy environments and humans, so the scientific expedition team considered all aspects and did not turn their attention to the school.

Chen Ying entered the bushes alone, trying to get close to the mother cat who had just given birth to find out what kind of cat it was.

However, after going there, Chen Ying discovered that the mother cat seemed to be in an abnormal condition. There were already three kittens under her, but her belly still looked a little big. Moreover, the mother cat was twisting around in the nest in a very restless manner, licking her butt from time to time. It seemed that she had not finished giving birth yet?

Normally, fishing cats give birth to 2-3 pups per litter, but occasionally four, most of which occur in captivity.

But now this cat has already given birth to three kittens. Giving birth to another one will be more of a burden for the mother cat than just having one more.

Originally, Chen Ying wanted to let this fishing cat mother be the foster mother of the disabled kitten if possible, but now... no matter how thick-skinned he was, he couldn't say it out loud.

(End of this chapter)