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The majestic Himalayas are covered with snow all year round, and the severe cold climate casts a layer of mystery over the entire Himalayas.
In order to cope with the harsh living environment, tenacious creatures live in this area in various forms. Due to their adaptability to the environment and their strange appearance, legends about various "monsters" in the Himalayas have been circulating.
Among them, there is a kind of "hairy monster". According to legend, it not only looks weird but also has a very ferocious character. Even the familiar beasts snow leopard and wolves can't take advantage of it. What exactly is this "hairy monster" that is called "a lion born in the wrong fetus"?
The treasure of Himalayan
Like a lion, the male has a long and thick mane. In winter, the majestic mane looks like a thick and noble scarf and can even hang down to the legs.
Four powerful iron hooves, a pair of backward-curving but very sharp horns on the beardless goat's face, and a pair of yellow horizontal pupils add a bit of weirdness and mystery to this seemingly uncoordinated body.
This is the Himalayan Tahr sheep known as the four-unlike long-haired monster.
As the lowest level of the food chain, sheep that live on grass are a symbol of "docility" in people's eyes.
Whether they are sheep living in the prairie or goats living in the mountains and forests, they have always become the prey of various predators. In order to survive, sheep always try their best to evolve stronger escape skills. Timid and cautious are consistent labels for sheep.
But today our protagonist, the Himalayan Tahr sheep, has completely subverted people’s basic understanding of “sheep”.
First of all, physically speaking, Himalayan Tahr sheep are born to be the best in life in the snow-capped mountains. The strong limbs and hard iron hooves allow the Himalayan Tahr sheep to walk smoothly on the steep snow-capped mountains.
The superb rock climbing skills allow the Himalayan Tahr sheep to find food growing on various cliffs in the barren snow-capped mountains. After all, although they have no wings, there is almost no corner they cannot reach with a few jumps.
It can be said that the rock climbing skills of Himalayan Tahr sheep are deeply embedded in their genes. Newly born lambs do not need any learning and will usually awaken to become a rock climbing master within a month.
Just being able to come and go freely on steep mountain walls is certainly not enough to make the Himalayan Tahr sheep the legendary "hairy monster". The biggest difference between the Himalayan Tahr sheep and other similar animals is their "personality."
As we all know, although the snow-capped mountains are poor, there are also many ferocious beasts living there, such as snow leopards, wolves and lynx.
A family of snow leopards live in the Himalayan region of Nepal. As the largest cats in the snowy mountains, they are natural predators.
Snow leopards have strong limbs, sharp teeth, and their fur is integrated with the local ecological environment. This allows them to approach their prey with stealth and then hit it with a single strike. There is no animal that can compete with it on the snowy mountains, so the snow leopard can be said to be the king of the snowy mountains.
But Himalayan Tahr sheep are not that easy to deal with for snow leopards, especially adult rams. They have well-developed limbs and strong bodies. Even if they are attacked by snow leopards, they still have a chance of winning with their sharp horns and hard iron hooves.
Therefore, under normal circumstances, snow leopards will not easily challenge adult Himalayan Tahr sheep unless they are confident enough to sneak up on them.
Even snow leopards may not be able to take advantage of Himalayan Tahr sheep. If wolves fight alone, they have no chance of winning, but wolves have always hunted in groups.
Wolves are smart and cunning animals. They live in groups and make effective hunting plans when hunting.
A wolf pack in the snow-capped mountains discovered that Himalayan Tahr sheep always like to live in a fixed area, and will go to the water source to drink water through the same path every day. As a result, the wolves chose to ambush and hunt the Himalayan Tahr sheep.
But similarly, although the Himalayan Tahr sheep usually like to be solitary, they have also discovered that they are vulnerable to attack when drinking water.
Therefore, although the Himalayan Tahr sheep are not sociable, they always go together when drinking water. And strong rams will be arranged to stand guard to protect the ewes and cubs from drinking water. In this way, even wolves cannot easily attack the Himalayan Tahr sheep traveling together.
Due to size restrictions, the dexterous and ferocious small cat lynx cannot face the adult Himalayan Tahr sheep. Therefore, they often can only focus on their immature cubs and rarely attack adult sheep. After all, the lynx cannot bear the iron hooves of an adult Himalayan Tahr sheep.
Precious first-level protected animals
Since the Himalayan Tahr sheep have evolved to adapt to life in the high mountains and snowy mountains, other predators cannot take advantage of them, but why have they still become rare national first-level protected animals?? This is closely related to their living habits and reproductive efficiency.
The adult rams of Himalayan Tahr sheep have the aloof personality of alpine warriors. Under normal circumstances, they are loners and do not live together or in groups with their female lambs. Only during the mating season every year, the fat and strong adult rams will gather around the ewes.
In order to obtain the right to mate, adult male Himalayan Tahr sheep will first eat desperately to gain weight and muscle to make themselves look taller and stronger.
Therefore, every mating season, you can always see fat and strong rams with thick manes "dueling" on steep hillsides.
Even though the horns of Himalayan Tahr sheep are curved backwards, their horns are actually very sharp. In fights, many rams will accidentally get injured. But more often than not, this kind of duel will end with the surrender of one party.
What’s interesting is that the winning ram will have fattened itself too much, which is not conducive to mating, so they will climb to a high place after winning the duel, not only to show off their majesty but also to lose weight and make mating easier. A ram will typically mate with seven to eight ewes.
But under normal circumstances, each ewe will only give birth to one cub per litter, and twins are very rare.
Moreover, the pregnancy cycle of ewes is very long, as long as half a year. After giving birth to a lamb, the ewe needs to spend a lot of time and energy raising the lamb. At the same time, because lambs are too fragile, the probability of premature death remains high.
Just like that, although the majestic and majestic "hairy monsters" have excellent conditions, it is a pity that their reproductive efficiency is too low. Over time, the group gradually became smaller and smaller, and slowly developed itself into a near-threatened protected animal.
But now, with the joint protection and love of mankind, the Himalayan Tahr sheep population is slowly increasing. I believe that in the future, this kind of "hairy monster" like "a lion born in the wrong womb" will still be able to live freely in the Himalayan snow-capped mountains.
