American Hunting: Starting with Solitary Life in the Wilderness

Chapter 265 Cruel Wild Training

“We will completely sever all positive connections between it and humans. There will be no more hand-feeding, no more comforting interactions, and not even any fixed sounds.”

"The food will start with fatty fish and seal scraps, and will be delivered through computer-controlled chutes that cover the entire venue at times and locations randomly generated by the algorithm, in order to force it to learn to use its sense of smell to search for food instead of waiting to beg for it."

“More importantly, it’s about negative reinforcement.” She paused, looking directly into Lin Yu’an’s eyes.

“We will simultaneously place clothing with your scent into the venue along with high-frequency sound waves and intense pulsed light. We will monitor its cortisol levels and, through constant repetition, forcefully establish a completely new connection in its subconscious: the scent you trust most is equivalent to danger, pain, and discomfort.”

"Wait a minute." Lin Yu'an abruptly interrupted her. "Why are you using my clothes? What's the purpose of doing this?"

McCormick looked at him quietly, his eyes showing no emotion, but rather a hint of expected sorrow.

“I know this sounds cruel, Lin,” she said slowly, her voice soft but each word carrying immense weight, “but in animal behavior, December’s feelings for you are called imprinting.”

"It met you when its mind was at its most blank and its life was at its most vulnerable, so your scent in its world is not equivalent to a human being, but rather to a mother, safety, and food."

"And this mark is a death sentence for predators that are about to return to the wild."

“A polar bear that is attracted to the scent of humans will actively approach human settlements, research stations, and even hunter camps. At that point, there is only one fate for it: it will be regarded as a threatening problem bear and thus legally shot.”

"Its trust in you will kill it."

McCorz's gaze sharpened, piercing straight into Lin Yu'an's heart.

"Your emotional connection with her is the strongest, and you are the source of her trust. To instill a healthy fear of the human species in her, you must start with the individual she trusts and is most attached to!"

"By destroying the strongest point of trust, this fear can be generalized to all of humanity."

"Our goal is to use the principles of classical conditioning to forcibly establish a completely new reflex chain in her brain that can save her life. Lin Yu'an's scent = danger, all similar scents = deadly threat, and we must escape immediately."

She paused for a moment, then delivered the cruelest conclusion: "Lin, you must understand. What naturalization in the wild means is to personally rewrite her love for you into fear of you."

The office was deathly silent. Lin Yu'an opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

McCormick gave him a few seconds to process it before coldly continuing his explanation.

"When it reaches the standard weight and strength, around eight months old, it will undergo the second phase of training, which will awaken its hunting skills and build its survival sequence. This will take place in a semi-wild enclosure that we have designated for five hectares."

"That paddock has a deep pool filled with seawater and is equipped with an underwater ice-making system that can simulate the different thicknesses of Arctic sea ice."

"We'll start by releasing dead seals to teach them how to tear through tough skin and find and prioritize the fat layer. This is the most basic lesson in calorie intake."

“Then,” McCormick’s eyes sharpened, “we will release live prey, first large Arctic salmon, then young seals that we have legally captured.”

“We will precisely control the food supply to keep it in a state of near-starvation for a long time. A predator that is full has no desire to kill. We must use hunger to force it to awaken the most primitive killing instinct engraved in its genes.”

"It must learn how to ambush for extended periods near artificial breathing holes, how to use its weight to crush thin ice, and how to use the most effective method to crush the seal's skull with a single bite, instead of tearing it apart as if playing."

"This process will be very bloody and very long, and failure and injury will be the norm."

"If it can successfully get through this stage, it will be released into the third stage of isolation when it is about one and a half years old and its body is close to adulthood."

“We will anesthetize it and transport it by plane to an uninhabited area in the Svalbard archipelago within the Arctic Circle. We will leave it to live on its own for at least six months, through a full winter, in a temporary enclosure covering tens of square kilometers.”

"Completely cut off from our supplies, facing the polar night, blizzards, and real prey alone."

"Only when the data transmitted back by the satellite collar it wears shows that its activity range, heat consumption, and predation frequency all meet the standards, and it has been able to hunt independently for several weeks and successfully overwinter, can we begin the final stage and hard release."

"We will anesthetize it one last time, give it a full physical examination, and then take it by helicopter to a floating sea ice floe to remove the collar."

"From then on, its life and death belonged only to itself and that white wilderness."

McCormick shut down his computer, and the office fell into a deathly silence.

The complex flowchart remained on the screen, each word like a heavy lead weight pressing on Lin Yu'an's heart.

She turned her chair around to face Lin Yu'an, whose face had turned somewhat pale. Her tone was no longer cold as before, but rather weary and solemn.

"Lin, the reason I'm telling you all this today is because the future of December is at a crossroads. And the decision of which path to take is in your hands."

Lin Yu'an looked up at her, somewhat puzzled.

McCormick said slowly, “Normally, according to the center’s standard procedure, orphans like December, who develop deep emotional connections with humans too early, should end up in the world’s best zoos with top-notch Arctic ecology exhibits.”

"There, it will receive the best care, live a life free from want, safe and healthy, and may even outlive its wild counterparts."

“It will become a star, loved by countless people, but it will forever lose its freedom, forever living in a huge, meticulously designed glass box.” She paused, giving Lin Yu’an time to process the possibility.

“And the other path,” she pointed to the brutal flowchart on the screen, “is the one we were just discussing, a path fraught with uncertainty and pain.”

"It's even fraught with the risk of death! It might get injured during training. In the wild, it might starve to death from a failed hunt or be killed in a fight."

"It will return to the wilderness, but at the cost of enduring all its cruelty."

McCormick stood up, walked to the window, and looked at December, who was still anxiously searching for Lin Yu'an in the glass observation room. He said softly:

"Logically speaking, as a scientist, I should choose the first path without hesitation, as it is the option with the lowest risk and the highest success rate."

"But Lin, it was you who saved it. It was you who gave it its first warm meal when it was at its most vulnerable, and gave it the name December."

"It was you who left the first and perhaps only mark of trust in its heart."

She turned around and looked at Lin Yu'an. Those eyes, which were always full of witty remarks and energy, were now filled with the deepest respect for life.

"Therefore, I want to give you this choice."

"It is to let it live a life free from worries about food and clothing in the human world."

"Let it return to its own wilderness, a place of freedom but also full of danger."

"Lin, it's up to you to decide December's fate."

"Whatever your choice, I will do my best to help you make that choice."

These words were like an invisible mountain, pressing heavily on Lin Yu'an's shoulders.

He looked into the glass observation room and saw the white figure still anxiously pounding on the glass and calling out to him.

He remembered its eyes, filled with fear and longing, in the shelter. He remembered the joy it felt when it first clumsily played with that red rubber ball. He remembered its warm and heavy weight in his arms.

He knew he already had the answer.

He spoke slowly, yet with unwavering determination: "Freedom, even for just one day, is far more precious than the security of a lifetime of imprisonment."

Upon hearing this answer, a relieved smile finally appeared on McCormick's face, as if this was the answer she had been waiting for all along.

"Okay." She sat back down in her chair, her expression turning serious again.

"So, since you've made your choice, you must accept all the consequences of that choice."

She looked at Lin Yu'an, whose face was gloomy, and said the cruelest conclusion.

"So, Lin, now I can answer your most pressing question: how many more times will you be able to see it in the future?"

"You will have one more visitation opportunity before the first phase begins, which is before it is five months old."

That will be the last time you have the chance to embrace it like you do today.

“And once the first phase begins, until the day it is officially released into the wild,” McCorz said, his tone devoid of any emotion, “you will never again be able to appear in its field of vision in any form.”

“Every time you appear, every time your scent is exposed, every time your voice is transmitted, it could potentially destroy all our previous efforts!”

"Its trust and dependence on you is our biggest and most dangerous enemy in rewilding training."

She looked at Lin Yu'an and said, word by word, "Lin, do you understand? In order to fulfill your great promise to bring it home, you must first completely and cleanly disappear from its world."

Lin Yu'an looked at the white figure in the glass observation room, his eyes becoming incredibly firm, yet also incredibly sorrowful.

He knew that this was the cruelest and longest farewell he had to endure before their eventual reunion.

“I understand.” He turned to McCormick and said, “I’ll leave everything to you.”

His voice was calm, but McCormick could easily detect the immense pain suppressed beneath that calm.

She looked at the man who had just been so confident and in control in front of the media, but now wore such a heavy expression.

The air in the office was so oppressive that it was hard to breathe.

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(No rush, no angst, no torture, keep reading.)
(End of this chapter)