Chapter 102: Lynx preys on pangolin, the little one is going to be a mother (55)

The cute pangolin appeared in the camera and caused joy to many people.

The little guy looks very interesting, with brown keratin scales covering his body like armor.

In addition to the sparse, thick, hard hair on the head, abdomen, and inside of the limbs, there is also sparse, long, hard hair between the scales.

The pangolin that appeared in the camera was about one meter long, and its head was shaped like a small cone.

Its small, round eyes looked very smart as it looked around the surroundings. After making sure there was no danger at the door, it crawled over on its short, thick limbs.

"The chance of photographing wild pangolins in the wild is very small now, which plays a big role in our subsequent research and protection." In the live broadcast room, Deng Jiaying said with great pleasure that Su Ran's live broadcast video is a very precious scientific research material.

Su Ran also called up the species introduction of the pangolin, and soon the basic information of the pangolin filled his mind.

"We are very lucky today. Not only did we encounter a pangolin, but it was also a Chinese pangolin, which is a first-class protected animal in China." Su Ran said, "The Chinese pangolin is the best at digging holes among the eight species of pangolins."

There are an unusually large number of barrages in the live broadcast room.

Su Ran continued to talk about a little-known fact: "Did you know that the pangolin that accidentally broke through the cave in Calabash Brothers was the Chinese pangolin?"

"It has stronger front claws than other pangolins, and its five toes are equipped with sharp nails. It digs downwards with its front claws and pushes the soil out with its hind claws. It can dig a 1-meter-deep hole in the soil in half an hour."

Just by listening to Su Ran's words, netizens had pictures in their minds.

One audience member said humorously: "It has another identity, a double agent, codenamed Pangolin."

"Haha, here comes the chicken soup."

"Drinking soup is such a beautiful thing~"

The burrows dug by pangolins are highly practical.

Although the nest opening is not large, the tunnel inside is winding and sometimes as long as 10 meters.

Pangolins are good at digging holes and often change their nests, choosing different places to live according to the changes in seasons and food.

In summer, we live on a high, well-ventilated hillside.

In winter, they live at the foot of a low-lying mountain facing south and sunny.

The pangolin entered the cave and laid branches inside, then crawled out of the cave and began looking for branches.

"Let's follow and see."

Su Ran took out a wing drone from his backpack. The modified drone made much less noise when flying than before.

By operating the drone to take off, the pangolin's movement route can be seen clearly.

However, its crawling speed was so slow that netizens who were secretly watching behind the camera couldn't help but complain:

"If we walk this slowly, it will be hard to escape if we encounter a natural enemy."

"Indeed, at this speed, others have all slid back home, but it is still crawling slowly. If it is not endangered, then who is?"

Seeing that netizens in the comments all thought that the pangolin's endangered status was closely related to its slow escape speed, Su Ran smiled and said, "You're wrong if you think so."

"Pangolins are indeed slow. They don't even have sharp teeth, a strong body, nimble limbs, a bad temper, or even a smart mind."

"But even such a cute and silly looking creature has not been completely eliminated by nature. Its existence is reasonable, and it has survived to this day thanks to its strong defense."

Just by listening to the explanation, the audience was unable to understand Su Ran's words.

At this moment, the drone suddenly captured a yawning lynx standing on the branch of a big tree.

"Look, there's a lynx squatting on the tree. It should have noticed the pangolin on the ground." Su Ran zoomed in the drone camera.

Lynx, a member of the genus Lynx in the family Felidae, is a carnivorous mammal whose size is between that of a cat and a leopard.

They have strong limbs and agile bodies, allowing them to move freely in dense forests.

The most striking appearance feature of the lynx is the striking tuft of long hair on the tip of its ears.

The lynx also noticed the drone on the opposite side and stared at the camera coldly.

"Wow, the big cat is so handsome."

"Fuck, I used to think the name Lynx wasn't very nice, but I didn't expect him to be so handsome."

"I really want to raise one. It must be very easy to rub."

The handsome big cat attracted the attention of netizens. At this time, the lynx discovered the pangolin on the ground, locked it as its prey, and jumped lightly to the ground.

The pangolin was still slowly collecting nearby branches and leaves, completely unaware that a big cat was slowly approaching from behind.

When the pangolin found itself suddenly covered by a shadow, the timid creature looked back and saw that it was a lynx, and immediately curled up its body.

Su Ran smiled and said, "The pangolin follows the tortoise tactic. It never attacks others. If others attack it, it will run away."

"If they can't run away, they will curl up into a circle, protect their heads and abdomens tightly, and use their bodies to build a solid wall. The pangolin in a defensive state can make many beasts return empty-handed."

The lynx stepped on the pangolin with one foot and bit it with its sharp teeth, but it had no effect at all and even caused some toothache.

Faced with the pangolin's impenetrable defense, the lynx finally had to give up hunting and stood aside, staring at the pangolin as it left.

"Are you just giving up?"

"Haha, it seems like the lynx has no way to deal with the pangolin."

"It's amazing! Animals in nature really do have their own abilities."

As the audience rushed to post comments, Deng Jiaying also said: "If the lynx chases it again, the pangolin will curl up again. Even if we work hard to kill it, it won't be enough to fill our teeth. The gain will not outweigh the loss. If I were the lynx, I would definitely not want to chase it."

It was also thanks to Su Ran that they were able to see such a magical scene.

Su Ran was controlling the drone at this time and said, "Let alone a lynx, even if a tiger comes, we can only watch from the sidelines."

"Although a tiger's bite force is 450 kilograms, the scales on a pangolin are made of keratin, which is thicker and sharper than human nails."

"If tigers, lions and other fierce beasts insist on biting the pangolin with all their strength, the pangolin will use its muscles to move its scales and cut open the enemy's mouth."

Just as Deng Jiaying said before, if tigers, lions, leopards, lynxes and other ferocious beasts bite the pangolin without thinking about the consequences, they can still bite the pangolin to death.

But they will definitely get hurt, just like when they deal with porcupines and poisonous snakes, and there will definitely be a price to pay for eating them.

To these beasts, pangolins are just a snack, far from filling them up. Moreover, eating them will incur the cost of injury, so the cost is not proportional to the benefit.

So, when they encounter pangolins, they either ignore them, take a few bites just to grind their teeth, or just stare blankly to see who can be more patient.

Although the lynx felt regretful and even a little reluctant, it could only hang its head and sigh.

I looked at the drone above my head again. What are you looking at? Just do what you need to do.

It just turned around and left.
-
It was a male pangolin. Su Ran had originally planned to continue patrolling the mountains after it finished decorating its own home.

Unexpectedly, the little guy actually ran to another cave a hundred meters away in the forest.

What’s amazing is that another pangolin emerged from the cave.

Su Ran's eyes lit up and she said in surprise, "This is a female pangolin. They should be a couple, and this female pangolin looks pregnant."

"What? Is it going to be a mother?"

"Yes, that's right," Su Ran said excitedly, "Combined with the previous scene, I seem to be able to infer a complete storyline."

"Originally, these two pangolins lived in this cave, but because the mother pangolin was about to give birth, in order to provide a larger living environment, the father pangolin found the cave under the hillside where they first lived."

"And if I'm not mistaken, that cave should be a nest abandoned by other animals."

Su Ran smiled and continued, "After finding a bigger new home, Pangolin Dad started decorating the new home, and then came to take his wife to the new home."

Hearing this, netizens were also very happy.

"Wow, it really feels magical and warm."

"Wow, I wonder if we'll have a chance to see a pangolin give birth?"

Su Ran said, "I don't know about that. The gestation period of pangolins is usually 69-150 days, and each pregnancy only gives birth to one baby pangolin, or about three."

Even if the birth starts in the next few days, it still depends on luck.

The two pangolins walked slowly towards their new home together.

"To be honest, this long and narrow pangolin looks like a crude and weird looking plow stick made of old elm wood in the countryside at first glance."

"And when he walks, his back is always slightly arched. Is he ready to stir up trouble at any time?"

Su Ran looked at the comments and smiled, "Of course not. They never cause trouble and don't even look dangerous. Just like when they were in danger before, their only means of defense was to curl up into a ball."

"If it was a hillside, it would just roll away."

The commentary went by: "I suddenly realized that among all geometric shapes, the sphere is the easiest to survive."

Netizens used drones to take aerial photos and watched the pangolin couple on the ground return home.

Because it was an aerial shot, the field of vision was very wide. In a haystack a few dozen meters away from the pangolin, the audience seemed to see several small mice gathered together.

"That's not a rat."

Su Ran zoomed the camera in.

Netizens discovered that it was actually a bunch of pangolin cubs?

Armadillo: Your whole family is pangolins!
In fact, it’s not the netizens’ fault. The giant armadillo looks very much like a pangolin, while the small armadillo looks like a mouse from a distance, especially its ears, tail, and posture, which are almost the same.

"Brother Su, are armadillos and sandpipers close relatives like otters and weasels?"

Netizens have begun to learn to think for themselves.

But unfortunately, I was thinking wrongly.

"No," Su Ran shook his head and explained seriously, "Although they are somewhat similar in appearance, such as being able to shrink their bodies into a spherical shape, they belong to different categories."

"Armadillos belong to the order Scaphodontidae, and pangolins belong to the order Pholidodontidae. They also live in different environments, with armadillos mainly living in the Americas, while pangolins live in warmer areas of Asia and Africa."

So Su Ran was very confused as to why there were little armadillos in the forest.

He speculated that someone must have been raising and selling armadillos, and they accidentally ran away.

Su Ran ran to the haystack. When the four little armadillos saw Su Ran appear, they huddled together timidly, then jumped on the spot in unison and shrank into a ball.

"Wow, it's so round, just like a ball."

“Even pangolins can’t shrink this much, right?”

Su Ran said, "Well, because the scales of pangolins and armadillos are different. The scales of pangolins grow one by one at the root, overlapping and arranged all over the body, even the tail."

"That forces them to curl up into a ball, with their legs and tail still exposed as part of their defence."

"The armadillo is also called a leather-armored pig. Its scales are a whole piece of armor. When in danger, it can curl up into a ball. The clever structure of its body allows its head, limbs and tail to be perfectly embedded in the armor, leaving only a round back armor exposed."

"There is a certain chance that armadillos are carriers of leprosy, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to catch one with my hands."

Su Ran originally didn't know how to catch these armadillos, but he didn't expect them to curl up into a ball by themselves, which was exactly what he wanted.

He took off his windbreaker, kicked all four balls into his clothes, and finally wrapped them up.

"Armadillos are an alien species. It is not good to leave them in the forest. They will have a hard time surviving. And like pangolins, they are also endangered species. So I will hand them over to the local animal protection agency when I go down the mountain."

Su Ran said this to the live broadcast room, and this was also meant for Deng Jiaying to hear.

Soon Deng Jiaying sent someone to drive to Beilinhai to pick up Su Ran.

When Su Ran and netizens were about to observe the two pangolins through the camera again, they suddenly found that they had disappeared.

After searching for a while, Su Ran finally found a pangolin digging a hole beside a small pond.

"Don't they have homes? Why do they need to dig holes?"

"He must have nothing to do, and his paws are itching so he's looking for something to amuse himself."

The audience thought that the two pangolins were bored, so Su Ran explained with a smile: "You have misunderstood them. They are now looking for ants by digging holes."

In nature, the process of digging holes does make pangolins happy, and finding ants makes them even happier.

The male pangolin was working tirelessly to dig a hole with his front paws.

The pregnant female pangolin actually hung its tail on a branch, hanging itself upside down, with its head in its claws like the pendulum of an old-fashioned clock from the Republic of China era, swinging left and right.

Looks so leisurely.

The whispers of insects and the cheerful singing of birds gently rang in the pangolin's ears, interweaving into a natural melody that floated in the breeze with its swaying rhythm.

Su Ran had no idea what kind of comfortable feeling he felt when he was hanging upside down and looking at the blue sky and white clouds.

But such a harmonious scene in the corner of the woods made netizens intoxicated and relaxed.

When the mother pangolin saw the drone above its head, it seemed to be stunned for a moment, then its tail suddenly loosened and it fell directly from the branch.

(End of this chapter)