Chapter 11 11. Strange indentation

In the afternoon, the sun is warm and windy. I leaned against the window and carefully recalled the appearance of the deaf wolf, drawing him and his falcon in a sketchbook.Take note of his features, temperament, where you met him, and write "Deaf Wolf" next to his portrait.Thinking that he would never hear the howls of his companions again in this life, I frowned, unwilling to use such a name to refer to a wild wolf that survived tenaciously.I regretfully outlined his auricles with a pencil, and suddenly I had an inspiration. I erased the word "ear" and changed the word "deaf" to "dragon"—"Dragon Wolf" is the name that suits him.The wolf is one of the prototypes of the dragon totem. This wild wolf who desperately jumps off the cliff to fight for freedom, and is still dependent on disabilities is worthy of being the dragon of wolves.

"Dragon Wolf? Well, that's a good name. He is the most handsome wolf I've ever seen, and there is also an eagle bodyguard. If you say that the relationship between the raptor and the wolf is quite subtle, I suddenly think of Green." Feng laughed and said, "Do you still remember that when we first camped on Wolf Mountain, there were a few vultures excitedly following Green? Silly Fei didn't catch anything all day, and finally saw the wolves strolling home to eat biscuits with us, those big birds almost fainted. I watched them stop on the mountain tooth, but shook their heads vigorously, their eyes rolled It's almost thrown out, I don't know what kind of strange wolf this is."

I giggled and brushed off the crumbs of the eraser, and when I looked up, I happened to see the swallows behind the house flying past the window.With a small object in his mouth, he flew to the fence and threw it, turned back to the house, and after a while, he flew out with another object in his mouth and threw it away, back and forth many times.I closed the sketchbook and walked to the fence to see the light blue broken eggshells scattered in the grass. It's great - the little fire swallow is out of its shell! Yifeng and I happily turned on the computer and checked the video of the endoscopic camera.

Big Bird has cleaned up all the broken eggshells.The four newborn birds struggled to raise their heads. Their newly stretched bodies were no bigger than a thumb from head to toe. Their blue-black eyelids were tightly closed. With a wide mouth.Their flesh-pink bodies are almost transparent, and the internal organs under the thin skin can even be seen. The little guys are naked, and even the small wind blown by the wings of the big birds will make the little guys tremble. As soon as the father of the fire swallow flew back to the bird's nest, the little fire swallows immediately raised their heads and chirped, opened their big mouths, and the corners of their bright yellow mouths shone with fluorescence, and pointed out the feeding coordinates for the big birds in the dark nest. Father bird The first bite of food - mole crickets - was stuffed into the children's little mouths.The first bird that had eaten the food pouted its buttocks and squeezed out a dung sac the size of a grape seed. The father immediately picked up the dung sac and threw it out of the nest.The bird nest should be kept dry and clean at all times.Mother Huoyan hugged the little ones under her body to keep warm.

The pair of fire swallows fly in and out hundreds of times a day, hunting for food and cleaning the nests.The father bird was tired from flying, so he stopped on the fence to take a rest, and trimmed his feathers with his beak.He held a tail feather in his mouth and stroked it out. He stroked it and looked as if he was going to reach the end. As soon as his beak was loosened, the feather was pulled out. He twisted the tail anxiously and inserted the fallen tail feather into the gap in the feather. But a beautiful one, what a pity.Father Bird kept it for a long time, but the feathers just couldn't be inserted back in. Forget it, let's take it back and make a nest for the children.Everyone has the problem of hair loss, even birds are no exception, being a parent is a life of worry.

The first time we saw a newborn baby bird, we both thought of another bird's nest—the nest of the black-necked crane. The black-necked crane is a unique species in the Ruoergai Grassland. From the appearance point of view, the black-necked crane is almost the same as the red-crowned crane we are familiar with. It also has slender legs, a snow-white body, bright black third-level flight feathers, and a black neck. Feather outlines a soft and long neck, and a "Little Red Riding Hood" is worn on the top of the head.The difference is that the tail feathers of red-crowned cranes are white, while those of black-necked cranes are black. For this reason, Yifeng often wonders why they are not called "black-tailed cranes".Black-necked cranes migrate between Yunnan and Ruoergai, and they are the only crane species that only breed and live on plateaus. Black-necked cranes that live in bitterly cold places have a more resolute character than red-crowned cranes.This plateau crane is extremely endangered, and the hatching process of wild black-necked cranes is rarely seen, which is very precious information.

Zeren had been telling us about the pair of black-necked cranes since we first arrived at the prairie cabin.At the beginning of spring at that time, under the ice-blue sky and thin snow, black-necked cranes were dancing courtship dances between the sky and the earth.They croaked each other, danced and flew together, spread their wings and raised their feet, the jade feathers were blowing in the wind, and the snowflakes were flying. The charming red tops were especially eye-catching against the white background. More than ten days ago, they laid two eggs. Their crane nest was not far from Zeren's house, and they built it in a swamp.It was also a coincidence that we first found out they were having a baby.There was a blizzard that evening. We came out of Zeren’s house and were about to rush back to the hut. I saw two red spots in the swamp that were particularly eye-catching in the snow, so I took a closer look through the snow. It was the pair of black-necked cranes. .The female crane was lying on the haystack built in the middle of the water bubble with her back to the wind and snow, motionless. The male crane faced the wind direction and stood in the ice water behind the female crane, as if it could protect her from the wind.The male crane retracts its legs and shakes its paws from time to time to avoid being frozen by the ice and snow on the water surface.Seeing me approaching, the male crane stretched its neck nervously, but still guarded the female crane and refused to leave.

"Did she freeze to death?" Yifeng ate his stomach as soon as he spoke. "I don't know, it's snowing too much, so I can only come and see it tomorrow." I was blinded by the wind. The blizzard lasted for two days and two nights, and at noon on the third day, the dark clouds finally dispersed.We went to see the black-necked cranes for the first time, only to find that what they were desperately protecting in the blizzard was a pair of crane eggs in the crane's nest.The female crane stood up from the nest, but her originally graceful steps swayed like a lotus leaf in the wind. After two days and two nights of hunger and cold, she looked weak and ragged. She bent her neck and combed her feathers with her long beak. Icicles on top.The male crane was pacing around in the swamp looking for food, and there was a shiny ring of ice on his leg. He stood in the water to shield his wife from the wind these two nights, and he probably didn't move. He also froze his slender legs, and right now he couldn't care less about cleaning the ice off his legs, so he was busy feeding his wife.

"Look at him, a model husband!" I pouted and glanced at Yifeng, "The black-necked cranes are a pair in their lifetime, so they are loyal." Yifeng laughed and said, "If you hatch eggs, I'll feed you too." After that, we often went to Shuipaozi to visit the family of black-necked cranes, hoping to see the little crane one day. When the sun was very hot, we hid in a hidden tent and observed with a telephoto lens.Despite being covered by a tent, the faces of the two were red, swollen and peeling, and the metal tripod of the camera was burned to the touch. Under the scorching sun, the couple of black-necked cranes incubate their eggs in turn. They change shifts every 40 minutes or so, and never let the crane eggs be exposed to the sun for a long time.The incubating crane lies in the nest and measures the temperature of the eggs with its beak at any time: when the eggs are cold, he warms them under his body; Stay on the edge of the nest and build a pergola for the babies to shade.According to Suo Lang, crane eggs are very delicate, they cannot hatch if they are hot, and stillborn if they are cold, even if the temperature difference is half a degree, the hatched chicks may die due to congenital deficiencies.

"Her feathers are almost scorched. It must be 50 or 60 degrees in the sun?" I wiped my head profusely with sweat, "I'm going to suffer from heatstroke while hiding in the tent. Black-necked cranes can really survive the sun exposure." Carry." "If you don't carry it, her eggs will be cooked." Yifeng showed admiration for the bird for the first time, "It's not easy, this is really a veritable suffering. In comparison, we humans Raising a child is so much easier." After many days of contact, when the black-necked crane couple gradually trusted us, we were able to wade through the water, install two hidden cameras near the crane nest, and record regularly, hoping to photograph the little black-necked cranes hatching.

At this moment, we parked the car on the pasture road and came to Shuipaozi. The black-necked crane couple saw us coming from a distance, got up and left the nest calmly, and paced around looking for food.The black-necked cranes deep in the grassland are not afraid of people. We have observed them for some time, and they are very reassuring to us. I took off my shoes and socks and rolled up my trouser legs to test the water.Very good, the sun is at noon, the water is not ice.I flicked my feet to gather a group of water plants and rolled them into a futon-like grass ball, and settled on the grass ball.Even though it was supported by the flexible grass ball, my feet would sink half a foot deep in the mud, and the water surface was below my thighs.The edge of the crane's nest is full of tender yellow flowers, and two crane eggs lie quietly in the nest.The size of a pear, oval, the shell is not smooth, the color is brownish gray with greenish, brown spots on the surface, and the tentacles are warm and moist.Take a sniff with the tip of your nose, there is the smell of rotten grass and the soft warmth of feathers.The hatching period of the black-necked crane is about one month. Because we don’t know when the eggs will be laid, we can’t estimate the exact date of shell breaking. If you hear the crackling sound in the eggs, the little cranes will be about to hatch soon. up.I carefully held this baby bump and put it close to my ear to listen carefully. It was very quiet inside the eggshell, and the little crane had not yet formed. The two cameras have been suspended above the water bubble for a long time, and there is some water mist in the lens, which needs to be opened to deal with it.In order not to delay the black-necked crane's return to the nest, I temporarily retrieved the camera. Back at the shore, Yifeng handed me a towel, I dried my feet, and sat on the grass with Yifeng, the weather was cool today, we watched the black-necked cranes catch fish while basking in the sun.Suddenly, someone shouted not far behind: "Ah Ruo! Yifeng! Guona?" (Hey, where is Yifeng?) I turned over and stood up to see that it was Zeren. Tsering stopped by the side of the pastoral road on a motorcycle, carrying his wife Rinzen Wangmo, who was carrying a huge burden. Zeren smiled happily: "I knew it was you when I saw the car, don't just sit here, go to my house and drink yogurt!" "Okay!" I put on my shoes and ran back to the SUV. Yifeng took Rigzin Wangmo's burden and put it on the off-road vehicle: "What is so heavy?" "New Tibetan clothes for the whole family." Zeren's family stood at the door to welcome them.Zeren's seventeen-year-old daughter-in-law (that is, Gongga's wife) threw the burden on her back and greeted us to enter the house. I noticed that Zeren's daughter-in-law's belly was slightly shy, and her waist was much thicker than before. I said happily, "Have a child?!" Zeren's daughter-in-law pursed her lips and nodded shyly. Yifeng congratulated Zeren: "No wonder the whole family has made new clothes. They are going to be grandpas at such a young age!" Ze Ren smiled shyly, and Ren Zeng Wangmo brought me a bowl of yogurt that had just been mixed with sugar, and said, "The reason for making new clothes is not because we need to add a doll, but for attending the Fa Conference. Next month A Tibetan living Buddha wants to teach the Seven Heavens Dharma in Tangke, and the herdsmen have to go to listen to it, and our whole family also goes, this Dharma meeting is held every 20 years, and it is the biggest festival for Tibetans.” As soon as Yifeng heard it, he became interested: "We also want to go and see, okay?" "Of course! You have to go if you don't want to go," Ze Ren said with a smile, "Tang Ke is more than 60 kilometers away from here. We rented a truck to move tents and belongings. There is not enough room for people. We are planning to requisition your car." Jen always speaks straight to his friends without being devious. Yifeng suddenly realized: "No problem! Let's go." When I asked about the specific time of the Fa conference, there were more than ten days left. Gongga and his wife helped each other to try on the new robes. Rinzeng Wangmo took out a brown and black Tibetan dress from the bag and offered it to Yifeng: "You have to wear formal clothes to participate in the Fa conference. I will prepare all the Tibetan clothes for you." Come on, let's try." I choked on a mouthful of yogurt, it was really "premeditated", I laughed and booed: "Put it on!" On a hot day wearing a T-shirt, the temperature in Caobazi is more than 40 degrees. In such a hot weather, it really takes some concentration to wrap up in a thick robe.Respecting the traditions of herdsmen, Yifeng had no choice but to try. I thought Yifeng would be tedious and funny when he put on a Tibetan robe, but when he changed his clothes and entered the room, everyone’s eyes lit up: thick eyebrows and deep eyes with a little elegance, gray beard mixed with wildness, wheat-colored skin and grassland people They were exactly the same, under the cowboy felt hats with round edges and slightly turned up sides, his shoulder-length hair was curled lazily behind his head, the wide belt tied to his hip bones did not shorten the length of his legs at all, and the jeans below his knees were worn on the battlefield. The boots are full of spirit.I didn't expect this guy who is 1.83 meters tall to wear Tibetan clothes so interestingly. Yifeng put the sleeves of his robe on his shoulders, put on the sunglasses and said, "How about it? You're handsome! I'll shave my beard again to look younger!" "Well, you look younger if you wear crotch pants." Yifeng pinched my face, and everyone in the room was overjoyed. "Yesterday, the helper at the ranch next door said that they saw Han people setting up tents on Langshan Mountain. I guess it was you, so I told him that you are my friends. It's okay. If you go up the mountain wearing Tibetan clothes, it won't be so conspicuous." I remembered the man on horseback I saw from a distance on the mountain, and asked Zeren, "What do you do to help people?" "Bangren are people hired by ranchers to help him graze cattle and sheep. Usually they don't have their own pastures, cattle and sheep, or their pastures have been deserted, so they have to work on other people's pastures. By the way, next time you go to the mountains, If you meet a herdsman and ask, you will say that you are my friend, and the owner of the ranch is Wang Qingjia, and he knows me." "Wangqingjia", I wrote the name on my wrist with a ballpoint pen. Zeren's daughter-in-law folded her Tibetan clothes and thought of something: "Weiyi, we have a nest of foxes here. I saw them playing on the nest when I got up early to dry the milk dregs. There are five foxes, one big and four small. They are fiery red. .It’s over there.” He led me to the window and showed me. "No way, so close to people?!" Both Yifeng and I couldn't believe it. The fox den that Zeren's daughter-in-law pointed to was actually only two or three hundred meters away from Zeren's house.It was a large winter meadow separated by the east side of the house. After one winter and one spring, the cattle and sheep had gnawed almost all the grass, and it was bare and not hidden at all.This fox is very courageous, isn't he afraid of people?Not afraid of dogs?What did he think? "You read that right?" Renzeng Wangmu laughed and said, "How can I be mistaken because it's so close, the fox has been here for many days. Take a look!" He said and showed us the photos taken on his mobile phone, "That mother fox is very experienced. A cub fed like a piggy bank." I zoomed in and saw that the fur color of the female fox was bright, which was much redder and fuller than the mother fox we observed. Yifeng was very excited: "Quickly install those two hidden cameras in front of the fox den, this den is more beautiful." "But, we only have these two machines left, and put them in the fox's den. What about the black-necked crane's eggs?" "Didn't the crane eggs hear the sound of their shells? It's still half a month before hatching. Let's take the time to observe the fox for a few days. Don't you want to know why the fox came to be a neighbor with people? How much is this?" It’s a rare and harmonious scene. Looking out of the window is the home of wild animals. Do people in the city dare to think about it? I must see what kind of fox dares to make such a decision.” What Yifeng said made sense, and I was also curious, so I quickly polished the camera and followed Zeren's daughter-in-law to the fox den. Motuo, the old yellow dog of Zeren's family, followed us slowly. It is said that he is already twenty years old.I can't remember whether his name is "Moto" or "Wato". Zeren's daughter-in-law said that as long as there is "Tuo", he will know that he is calling him. Yifeng tried to shout: "Fantuo?" The dog's tail wagged. "Doesn't Moto bite foxes?" "Don't bite, they get along pretty well." We laid the stakes beside the fox's den and tied up the surveillance cameras. Unexpectedly, as soon as we got back to the house, Motuo pulled out the camera connector and brought it back to us. He felt that we had left something behind. "Mo Tuo is very loyal. When we went out to herd cattle and sheep, we lost our mobile phone, and he would always find it back." Rinzeng Wangmo said, lovingly touching Mo Tuo's head, covering his eyes with his hands, "Go again, he can't see now." I pointed to my nose, meaning that he could find it by smelling it. Rinzeng Wangmu shook his head and mouthed silently: "He is old." Dogs have been with their owners for more than 20 years, and they know each other too well. Two days later, we entered the mountain again and pushed the shelter tent above the Ring Finger Mountains.Then I couldn't wait to go to the No. 1 water source. This is where we place our greatest hope. Yifeng took the memory card, and I glanced at the fresh wolf paw prints on the soft mud around me. Next to the footprints I left a few days ago, there were traces of a wolf nose touching the soft mud when it sniffed it.Great, they've been here!This time it finally worked out! Thinking of seeing the long-lost close-up of wolves from the camera, we couldn't wait, and immediately inserted the memory card into the notebook: The first video, turbulent, skip; The second, the bird comes to the water to take a bath, skip it; The third one, the marmot came to gnaw on the tender grass by the stream, and jumped over; Pika, skip; fox, skip; hare, skip, skip... We went through the entire video, but there was no image of the wolf.The more I looked at it, the more my heart became colder. The wolf had clearly been here, and there were no lack of paw prints in front of the camera. Why didn't the camera capture it?What the hell! "This water hole seems to be new," Yifeng squatted not far behind the camera, "I didn't see this spring when I came last time." I hurried over to take a closer look. A shallow pit the size of a washbasin was newly dug on the mud floor, and a clear spring gushed out from the middle of the shallow pit, trickling into a trickle and slowly overflowing, the water quality was clear.There are many wolf paw prints on the soft mud around the puddle, which the camera just couldn't capture from this angle. I have a feeling that the diorama has been ripped apart. The anti-reconnaissance work is well done. These wolves are more cunning than I expected, and they even opened another "stream path" behind the camera. The location of the No. 1 water source has been found out, let alone No. 2 and No. 3. "Why don't you turn the camera around?" I stared at Xinquan and shook my head: "The wolf has already figured out this thing, and it's useless for you to turn around. Here, the wolf is more familiar with us, and if he can think of one way, he can think of the second. It's urgent, wolf As soon as the group left, we were completely disconnected. Remove a few cameras and let them drink water in peace. These guys are no longer agents and blind materials." I was about to get up when I noticed another strange indentation in the ooze.The indentation is semicircular and concave, with neat lines. The first half is submerged in the water and has been softened and blurred by the water flow. Only the second half of the imprint about ten centimeters long remains on the mud near the water.It was neither an animal paw print nor a human footprint, but rather the impression of a pipe.In this inaccessible place, how could there be artificial strange marks beside the newly dug water source? Yifeng came over to look at it for a while, but he couldn't tell what was left behind, and waved his hand: "Whatever, it's not wolf paw prints. These marks are irrelevant. We have to hurry up and collect two or three number monitoring." I hastily snapped a photo of the new spring eye, got up and left.Unexpectedly, this weird indentation was an important detail that we ignored at the time. The reconnaissance plan of the aerial camera ran aground, and the control plan of the water source ran aground. The two took back the camera in desperation. "Underestimate the enemy, and treat the mountain gods as ordinary animals. It is said that this infrared heat-sensing hidden camera is widely used. It has photographed lions, tigers, bears, deer, foxes, rare monkeys, rare wild elephants, and even rare snow leopards. , so many animals can be photographed, why can't we photograph wolves?" Yifeng couldn't figure it out. "Waiting for three or four days is in vain. The probability of meeting wolves when we go into the mountain in person is better. Fortunately, our observation tent has also advanced to the ring finger mountain range in advance. These few days can be regarded as making the wolves suspicious. We will go to the mountain tomorrow morning. Go camp in the tent."