1246 Return to Mother Nature

Zhang Zian brought Wei Kang and the students to the sand dune where they'd caught the fennec foxes. They brought the anesthetized foxes out of the cage and placed them on the sand, giving them some water and food as repayment for what they had done to them. It was just like the milk that a person got after donating their blood.

The anesthesia was wearing off. Even though they hadn't completely woken up yet, their bodies were starting to wriggle. Occasionally their tails swished, or their ears twitched.

Zhang Zian and the rest grabbed onto the empty cages as they retreated to the other side of the sand dune, waiting for them to fully awaken before they could leave in peace. Before they regained their strength, they had to take responsibility for their safety and health and prevent any eagles or other animals from taking advantage of their weakened state.

The sun was up. Yet another hot day had begun.

They raised their binoculars, observing the fennec foxes' actions. The morning sun drove away the chill of the night, enveloping the fennec foxes in its glow. The breeze rifled through their sandy fur, nearly a perfect camouflage. If they were paying less attention, they would have lost the foxes in the blink of an eye.

Suddenly, the fennec foxes' leader's eyelid twitched before opening. It struggled to stand. Due to the remaining anesthetic in its body, its muscles had yet to fully regain control, and its actions were still clumsy. It observed its surroundings, confused.

It was the strongest one out of all the foxes in the group, and therefore it should wake up first.

It picked up on the fragrance of food nearby, giving it a hard sniff, and noticed the food and water sitting a few meters away from them.

But as the leader, it did not keep the good things for itself. It ignored the temptation of food and water and ran first to its companions' sides, using its snout to nudge at them and using its tongue to lick at their faces.

Its companions gradually woke up too. With their strength not yet fully recovered, they walked about like drunk men in the dead of night.

They all smelled the food and drinks. Even though they had eaten quite a lot last night, the lack of food and water in the desert meant that they would eat anything they could find as soon as they could. They quickly gathered around the food, fighting to have some of it.

Out of respect for their leader, they left one plate alone for the leader to have.

Wei Kang gave the others a satisfied smile, meaning to say, "They sure are canines. Even though other foxes are solitary animals, these pack fennec foxes exhibit pack behavior similar to other pack canines."

Gao Ke held the camera, filming this precious sight.

In some countries, fennec foxes could be reared as domesticated pets. Even in China, you could do it after some complicated procedures. But no one would keep an entire pack of fennec foxes, so many of their behaviors could only be seen in the wild, and their habits also changed when the environment they were living in changed too.

This was survival of the fittest.

For example, tigers were solitary animals. There were barely any exceptions in the world. They were extremely territorial, and other than during breeding season, it was difficult to find two tigers living together in one space.

But in 2002, China's Save China's Tigers Association and a few international organizations gathered together to protect China's South Chinese tigers. In consideration of the fact that there was barely any remaining natural habitat for tigers in China, they started the Save China's Tigers Rewilding project, placing five South Chinese tigers from zoos in Africa's Tiger Nature Reserve.

People didn't think that the project would work at first, as these five tigers had been born and raised in zoos, and there were no tigresses around to teach the cubs how to hunt and fight. When they first reached the reserve, they were afraid of the smallest breeze. How could they return to nature and survive there in the long term?

Besides, everyone knew that tigers lived in the forests and not on the flat plains. Wasn't there a saying that "tigers in Pingyang get bullied by dogs"?

These few South Chinese tigers would most likely just get bullied by the local wild dogs in the African plains and wouldn't be able to survive at all, and the entire project would just become a laughingstock.

But the project was surprisingly successful. By 2017, the number of South Chinese tigers in the Tiger Reserve had grown to 17.

Everyone had belittled the survival capabilities of the South Chinese tigers. Just as Michael Crichton said in Jurassic Park, "Life finds a way."

The most surprising thing was that these 17 tigers had actually changed their habits and became colonized animals. They had grouped themselves together, hunting for the large herbivores of the land.

As for being bullied by wild dogs… It had been proven that that was just an unfounded worry. In reality, the group of tigers was even chasing the domestic lions out of their own lands…

Tigers, being from mountainous forests, had larger hearts than lions, had stronger hind limb strength, enabling them to stand on two legs, and were able to jump three meters high. They could slap and were even able to climb trees, even if there weren't many trees to climb on the plains.

They bullied the lion prides on the plains, climbed the trees to steal the cheetahs' food, and became one of the scariest predators in Africa, bringing much hope to their future!

The only regret was that this project wasn't headed by the Chinese government, and it had now landed in the hands of other organizations to keep it going. These South Chinese tigers might never be able to return to China.

That wasn't necessarily a bad thing. China's natural habitats were no longer suitable for South Chinese tigers to stay in. Even if they were brought back to China, they could only keep them in zoos. It would be better to just leave them there as a spark of hope that one day might be able to light up the whole plains.

The survival tactics of fennec foxes were similar to these South Chinese tigers. With the harsh survival conditions of the desert, it was like an extremely difficult RPG boss. No matter how strong one person was, they wouldn't be able to kill it by themselves. Only in a party would there be a chance of victory. This was why other foxes were solitary, while only fennec foxes were colonized.

Wei Kang and the rest raised their binoculars as they watched the foxes silently, afraid that they might scare them.

Right then, Zhang Zian nudged Wei Kang with his elbow, asking Wei Kang to watch further away, and patted Gao Ke's shoulder, asking him to move the camera.

Slightly further away, another small group of fennec foxes seemed to have popped out of nowhere, showing themselves suddenly. No one saw where they had come from. Maybe they had a nest near this sand dune.

The rest of them didn't know, but Zhang Zian knew that these fennec foxes were the foxes that had gotten away last night. Seeing that their leader and friends had come back after being missing for one whole night, they came out of their hiding place excitedly.

Seeing that the two groups were about to reunite successfully, the small group of foxes suddenly hesitated in their forward footsteps, watching the others carefully.

Wei Kang and the rest had guessed the reason correctly. These captured fennec foxes had the scent of humans on them, so the other foxes felt that it was something foreign.