One early morning in July 2008, an old man was planning to go out to herd sheep in the home of a herdsman in the Ili region of Xinjiang. However, when he reached the sheepfold, a cruel scene came into his eyes. One of the sheep fell in a pool of blood, its stomach was torn open, and the meat and internal organs had been removed!
When the old man saw this scene, he immediately called his son Zhang Peiwei. The father and son entered the sheepfold and looked carefully. They suspected that a wolf had gotten in in the middle of the night. After all, there were deep mountains nearby and wolves often appeared. There was reason to suspect this, but two people I checked the sheepfold and found that there were no holes and the door was locked properly. So how did this sheep become like this?
Just when he was puzzled, Zhang Peiwei looked at the two big cats in the corner of the sheep pen. I gave up in my heart, how could a cat eat a sheep? It wasn't until Zhang Peiwei's friend arrived a few days later that the truth of the matter came to light!
The real murderer
The father and son of the Zhang family felt distressed when facing the sheep that had been harmed. Although the sheepfold was not damaged, the two people hurriedly reinforced the sheepfold. Although they were not sure whether it was the wolf, it is always good to take some measures. Yes, after all, a sheep is a lot of money for a herdsman.
A few days later, Zhang Peiwei's friend came to his home as a guest. Zhang Peiwei entertained him enthusiastically, and while chatting, he talked about the incident where his sheep was bitten to death by a wild beast a few days ago. Then Zhang Peiwei invited his friend to see him for reinforcements. sheepfold. The two people walked to the sheepfold. Zhang Peiwei's friend glanced inside the sheepfold and suddenly looked at Zhang Peiwei in disbelief.
The friend looked inside the sheepfold again and again. Zhang Peiwei was confused by his friend's actions and simply asked: "What are you looking at?"
"Peiwei, where did you get those two guys? "Okay, you dare to raise this? Are you desperate?"
Zhang Peiwei looked at the place pointed by his friend and said doubtfully: "You said Guli and Bahad are those wild cats I raised? ?"
My friend said anxiously: "What wild cats! These two guys are leopards Zhang Peiwei was very surprised after hearing this. Where's the leopard? My friend immediately said that he especially loved watching "Animal World" and he would not admit it wrong. After discussing with friends, Zhang Peiwei immediately contacted local animal experts. They first took photos of two wild cats and sent them to the experts!
It didn't take long for the experts to reply to them. Through the analysis of the photos, it was found that the fur of the two big cats was gray and white background dotted with black ring-shaped spots starting from the head were black spots. Like spots, it will evolve into three solid black lines from the neck back to the base of the tail. The tail is as long as the body and the claws are thick. Combining these characteristics, experts concluded that the wild cat raised by Zhang Peiwei is exactly the snow leopard known as the "King of the Snow Mountain"!
Zhang Peiwei took a breath when he heard the news. The "wild cat" he slept with in his bed every night turned out to be an extremely dangerous leopard!
The snow leopard is a first-level protected animal in my country and is also an endangered species worldwide. It mainly lives in shrubs and alpine meadows, tending to steep and rugged areas. The snow leopard is also the only large cat that survives in high altitude areas.On the one hand, the snow leopard's habitat is poor and there are few food sources. On the other hand, coupled with the crazy hunting of humans, the number of snow leopards is rare.
According to the survey, there are only ~8 snow leopards in the ~8 snow leopards at the bottom of the Muzat Valley on the edge of the Tomur Peak Nature Reserve in Xinjiang, my country. The density is -3.2/100km². What is this concept? ? You must know that the area of Beijing, the capital of our country, is 6410km². If a snow leopard is compared to a person, then it is equivalent to only 64 people in Beijing!
It can be seen from here that the scarcity of snow leopards is even greater than that of the national treasure giant panda. Coupled with the snow leopard’s cautious character and natural protective color, it can blend well with the rocks hidden in the mountains. As a whole, some people who live within the snow leopard's habitat may never see it in their lifetime, and it is also difficult for cunning poachers to detect the whereabouts of snow leopards.
So, how could such a precious "King of the Snow Mountain" appear in Zhang Peiwei's home? Moreover, he kept them as wild cats. How did Zhang Peiwei discover them?
Adventure
The story started half a year ago. One day at the beginning of 2008, Zhang Peiwei was grazing in the mountains as usual. The weather was extremely cold. At this time, an abnormal noise in the grass alerted Zhang Peiwei. Zhang Peiwei followed the sound and turned over. Opening the weeds, two cute "little milk cats" were revealed in front of us.
Seeing the two little wild cats shivering from the cold, Zhang Peiwei couldn't bear to leave them behind. In addition, he also liked small animals very much and happened to have cats at home, so he decided to take these two poor little kittens with him. Keep it at home and find a companion for the kitten at home. After
returned home, under Zhang Peiwei's careful care, "wild cats" lived well. Zhang Peiwei also named them Guli and the other Bahad.. But Zhang Peiwei was more puzzled by the kitten's growth rate. Because these two cats grew to more than 0 centimeters in a few weeks. You should know that a larger adult wild cat is only about 0 centimeters . The two kittens actually grew to the height of an average cat in half a year in a few weeks. Zhang Peiwei was really shocked by the height he could reach.
Regarding this, Zhang Peiwei just thinks that this one belongs to bobcat . It is normal to grow faster. It may have grown early and it has only grown so big. But these two "wild cats" did not stop growing. After about half a year, the two "wild cats" had grown to 5 kilograms. At this time when going to bed at night, the two cats lay down on the kang and almost caught up with the space occupied by a half-grown child. There was no room for these two big cats in the house, so Zhang Peiwei decided to put these two "big cats" in the house. "Cats" were placed in the sheep pens and allowed them to be companions of the sheep.
For snow leopards who are wild at heart, this behavior is tantamount to putting plump fresh meat in their mouths. Finally, that night, the snow leopard’s hunting instinct was activated by the sheep, and one of the sheep became their cub. Teaching aids for my first hunting lesson since!
After learning that they were raising national treasures, Zhang Peiwei's family did not dare to neglect these two "Kings of the Snow Mountains" . They fed the two snow leopards chickens every meal, and soon they ate all the chickens. They started to slaughter sheep, and even gave the mutton to snow leopards to eat, but the Zhang family was only willing to use the sheep bones to make soup to drink. Even if they could only drink soup, they couldn't treat these two treasures badly!
Over the past six months, Zhang Peiwei has developed a strong affection for the two snow leopards. The snow leopards also regard Zhang Peiwei as their mother. However, the two snow leopards do not know how much burden their own food has brought to this mother. Moreover, under the extra-meal care of the Zhang family, the snow leopard grew faster and became larger. At the same time, the snow leopard's wild nature became unknowingly more difficult to control.
There is an idiom called Raising tigers is dangerous . Although Zhang Peiwei is not raising tigers, the situation is similar. The nature of wild animals is to hunt and kill, and there is no guarantee that they will not hurt people. Moreover, snow leopards are precious protected animals, and there are many lawless elements. They want to hunt snow leopards but can't find any live animals. The Zhang family is worried that if someone with evil intentions knows that they have a snow leopard in their home, they are afraid that they will come to snatch it!
Worried about snow leopards hurting people , unable to afford the snow leopards' food expenses , At the same time, they were worried that black-hearted poachers would target them . Under the pressure of these "three mountains" , Zhang Peiwei decided to report to the relevant departments Ask for help!
Go home
When the relevant departments learned that Zhang Peiwei had two snow leopards in his home, they paid close attention to the matter. After the relevant departments understood the ins and outs of the matter, they made plans to pick up the snow leopards and release them back into the wild!
Zhang Peiwei originally wanted to get help, but he did not expect that they would take the snow leopards away. Zhang Peiwei had mixed feelings about this change, because the two snow leopards were raised by the Zhang family with vegetable soup and minced meat. Zhang Peiwei eats and sleeps together. For Zhang Peiwei, these two snow leopards are like his children. He is reluctant to let the snow leopards go!
People from the relevant departments understood Zhang Peiwei's thoughts very well and patiently enlightened him. Based on the three difficulties Zhang Peiwei encountered, he added another one, that is, it is illegal for private individuals to raise nationally protected animals. After considering the behavior, Zhang Peiwei decided to let the relevant departments take the snow leopard away!
On November 14, the Yining County Police Station organized more than 0 policemen and militiamen to closely protect the snow leopards, 4 hours watch them, and reject external interference. On the second day, considering that Zhang Peiwei's family was in financial difficulty and most of their "assets" had been eaten up to raise snow leopards, the government launched a charity account to help the snow leopards and called on cadres to donate ,000 yuan to the Zhang family. Compensation for .
For the sake of the future of the snow leopard, Zhang Peiwei gave up his feelings for the snow leopard. The relevant departments also revealed the follow-up plan to Zhang Peiwei. They decided to send the snow leopard to the wildlife rescue center first, and wait until the snow leopard's physical indicators meet the standards and it can hunt alone. Then consider releasing them back into the wild!
For Zhang Peiwei, no matter where these two snow leopards will be in the mountains in the future, they will always be in his heart. Maybe they can meet again, maybe they won't meet each other in the future, but none of this is important anymore. Half a year's time It's very short, but for snow leopards, it's the entire process from childhood to adulthood. The most precious , the most important are the happiest memories left in the minds of people and snow leopards!
Reference:
Hong Yang, Zhang Jindong, Wang Yujun "Discussion on the Current Status of Snow Leopard Ecology and Conservation Research" CNKI 2020-11-28
Author: Invincible General Tie Reviewer: Xiaoyang Proofreading Editor: Li Zi
