"Huangshan Chronicles " records: " Pegasus , often flying over the lotus peaks of Tiandu... silver-maned golden hair, holding auspicious clouds on all four legs, and leaping over dozens of peaks in a flash."
Pegasus, with silver mane and golden hair, stepping on auspicious clouds, galloping among the steep mountains.
A "Pegasus" was discovered on a steep rocky slope in Qinghai Sanjiangyuan National Park.
This "Pegasus" is larger in size, but its limbs are not as slender as that of a horse. It has silver manes on its head and neck. It looks very strange, with hooves like a cow, legs like a horse, a head like a sheep, and a tail like a donkey. The most impressive thing is the pair of antlers on its head that look like a deer but not a deer. To describe it, " is not like " Couldn't be more apt.
There is more than one Pegasus appearing here. The monitoring point captured multiple Pegasus with different postures. They shuttled through the forest and were agile. Although there was more than one, they always appeared alone, even under high-speed cameras. , and could only barely record their vigorous postures.
What exactly is this Pegasus? Did it really come out of mythology? After verification by experts and relevant staff, it was confirmed that the Pegasus found in the reserve was not a real horse, but the Chinese serow, a second-level national protected animal.
The distinctiveness of the Chinese serow is not only reflected in its "four different" appearance, but also in its habits.
Experts in flying over walls
Serows mainly inhabit mountain forest areas. They usually like to hang out between cliffs or hide in dense forests. Their ability to fly over walls is unparalleled. Why can serows move freely among the steepest cliffs?
It turns out that the hooves of serows and bison are composed of two small hooves that are close together. The front end is narrow and pointed, and the rear end is relatively broad. The central part of the hoof is relatively soft, and the surrounding part is made of harder horn, like Like a suction cup, it can stand firmly or jump on steep rocks.
Not only that, the serow also has sensitive "peripheral receptors" at the bottom of its hooves. During activity, the receptors can transmit different signals to the brain as the environment changes. When walking on flat ground, the flat ground signal is transmitted. If walking on a steep cliff, the hoof receptors will transmit the signal to the brain, and then the brain will change the work content of the body and limb muscles to keep the serow's body center of gravity stable.
The Lonely Adventurer
Chinese serows have a wide distribution range in my country, and they have been found in many southern provinces. Although serows are found in many places, serows do not like to live in groups. They are born to be lonely adventurers. Except for serow calves, which will gather in small groups of three or five, in most other cases They are found alone, especially adult male serows. They like to be alone and enjoy solitude.
Although the Chinese serow is not as ferocious and aggressive by nature as tigers and cheetahs, it will inevitably be attacked by natural enemies and other predators living in dense forests in valleys. When the serow is forced to have no way to go, it will use its two hind hooves to support its body and stand upright on the ground like a human. The purpose of this is to free up its two front hooves and desperately move towards the rock. Knock it up and make a crisp sound.
If this trick does not work, the serow will never give up resistance easily. They will also defend themselves and use the horns on their heads to resist. Adult male animals are more ferocious and strong, and can often fight one against three. Break out of the enemy's encirclement.
Always like to break into private houses
Although Chinese serows like to travel alone in dense forests, they are very interested in human settlements. To be precise, they may be interested in the food in human homes, so they often go down the mountain to privately Break into houses. Although serows dare to go down the mountain frequently to look for human food, they don't seem to be smart, and they are taken away by the police in despair every time.
"Report, a wild goat jumped on the roof of my house and couldn't get down." A villager in Xinlong County, Ganzi Prefecture, Sichuan came to the police station early in the morning to call the police, saying that it appeared on the roof of his house. A wild goat, the police quickly went to the villager's home. What kind of wild goat was this? It was a Chinese serow. However, this serow was very wary and refused to be captured no matter how attracted. It took the staff 4 hours. It took him a while to subdue the serow and finally drove him to the forest.
In Wuhu, Anhui, this "uninvited guest" who came from nowhere even found his way into a kindergarten in search of food. The glass of the kindergarten window was smashed to enter the indoor garden. When the police arrived, they saw it huddled timidly on the toy slide in the corner of the kindergarten, like a lonely, helpless and aggrieved child.
However, the police were not sure whether this was a disguise. They were afraid that it would run rampant in the kindergarten and hurt the children, so they had to take it out of the kindergarten under anesthesia. After identification by experts, it was confirmed that this was a national second-level protected animal, the Chinese serow. After inspection and confirmation that the serow was in good health, the serow that broke into the kindergarten was released into the wild.
Faced with Endangerment
Why do serows always like to break into human settlements? Since serows can "fly over walls" and resist natural enemies, why are they endangered?
There is no doubt that it is closely related to human activities. The Chinese serow lives in nature and has adapted to the natural environment. In summer, it likes to travel on steep cliffs at high altitudes, and in winter, it returns to the forest to find food for the winter.
However, in the past, the ecology of many places in our country has been damaged to varying degrees. The forest coverage area has been reduced, and the habitat of the Chinese serow has been destroyed. The serow has nowhere to go and can only find another home, so it frequently appears in Human settlements have also affected the survival and reproduction of serows, causing the number of serows to decrease.
Not only that, because of the appearance of the Chinese serow, many villagers may recognize it as a wild goat, and sometimes hunt them. At that time, people often said that when they went up to the mountains to catch sheep, the "sheep" was probably the Chinese serow. This It is also one of the reasons why the serow is endangered.
A serow accidentally stepped on a wild boar trap
However, as the Chinese serow appears in our field of vision many times, this means that our country's ecological environment is really getting better, the forest coverage is also increasing, the Chinese serow has Return to normal breeding state, according to Guangdong Provincial Institute of Biological Resources Application related researchers predict that so far, the number of Chinese serows in the province has reached 3,000-8,000, and the number of serows nationwide is even greater. .
