314, Fanwai-Lone Wolf 2

Death is the normal state of life, although the old wolf has witnessed countless cruel scenes, but the heart has not been numb, looking at the stiff body in front of the little wolf, which has no life, it is a little sad to lower its head, but it knows that it is helpless.

The old wolf, who was guarding outside, heard the howl of the young wolf in the middle of the night, and the voice was full of panic and desolation.

The old wolf's heart thumped, shook off the snow that had fallen into the mouth of the cave, and then resolutely entered the cave.

On the grass, a little gray wolf and a little black wolf shivered in the corner, and they howled loudly, with a distinct tremor in their voices, it was some kind of call, trying to call out to the brother who had become cold, perhaps to call the mother who was long gone.

The young beasts that have lost their mothers will inevitably die in this cold winter, either by freezing and starving to death, or by becoming the belly of other beasts, the little wolves do not understand the world, and do not understand these cold and cruel facts, but at this moment they have experienced the difficulty of survival.

The death of the little wolf was expected by the old wolf, but it did not expect that it would be so soon.

After a moment of silence, the old wolf approached the grass nest and gently licked the two frightened little wolves, they were still alive, maybe they had successfully survived the catastrophe, maybe it was just a little later, but at least, they were still alive now.

The licking of the old wolf comforted the two little wolves, and the two little wolves no longer trembled and howled blindly, and they were close to the old wolf, trying to get some support and strength from this thin old kindred.

After appeasing the two surviving little wolves, the old wolf picked up a cold little wolf and walked out of the cave silently, turned around and picked up the other one and went out, the old wolf buried the two little wolves in the deep snow, right next to the small slope, this is not a funeral, but a reserve.

It's true that the old wolf is uncomfortable, but so is survival.

Heaven and earth will not have mercy on any living being, all fortunate or unfortunate encounters are meaningless to nature, the snow will not stop, the cold wind will not disappear, the power taken away by time, the physical strength eroded by the years will not return, it must make decisions that are beneficial to survival.

Whether it is a single wolf, or only two wolf cubs in the cave, this reserve is indispensable, even if the two wolf cubs successfully survive this catastrophe, but there is no follow-up food will not last long, in this cold season, not to mention the two full moon wolves, even the wolf cubs who have been able to get out of the nest can not survive independently.

Wolf cubs want to grow up to be able to forage independently, they need a lot of food and time, and they also need to take care of them during this period.

Don't look at the wolf as a high-level beast, but the natural enemies of the little wolf are really not small.

Red foxes, badgers, raccoon dogs, golden witherers, and white-tailed wilts all have the ability to kill young wolves up to two months old, and even wild hoofed animals can kill young wolves.

Like wild boars, it is not difficult for adult wild boars to kill young wolves, wild boars can not only kill young wolves, but also eat some of them to vent their anger. Human observations have also found two cases of roe deer killing young wolves, which shows the fragility of young wolves.

The morning dawn came again, the old wolf slowly opened his eyes, looked at the white sky, and suddenly felt a little unable to come back to his senses,

Looking at the cave in the depths, the old wolf came back to his senses, and it turned out that everything last night would not be dreaming.

The old wolf slowly walked into the cave and did not hear the howl of the little wolf, which made the old wolf a little worried, but it had to go in and reconfirm the condition of the two little wolves.

In the grass nest, the two little wolves breathed smoothly, and they were sleeping together, and the slightly bulging little bellies last night had been flattened, and it was obvious that the two little wolves had successfully digested the venison and achieved the first step to continue to survive.

The old wolf licked the little wolf with satisfaction, and loosened the fur that had been twisted together.

After confirming the survival of the two wolf cubs, the old wolf came out of the burrow again and prepared to leave, it was going to eat the food left over from yesterday, and it was not safe to stay in the snowdrift for a long time, after all, there were many animals in the forest that would dig for treasure.

If it weren't for the wolf cub being led, the old wolf would have been guarding the red deer yesterday, at least until it was finished, and it wouldn't have left easily.

The snow continued to drift, but the momentum was much lower than yesterday, and the forest was already pure white, with the occasional little brown, and the dry branches dotted the sky.

The birds still wake up early and chirp constantly, but they are not as lively as before, and there are many migratory birds, and not many can stay for the winter.

The old wolf walked slowly through the snow, pricking up his ears and monitoring all unusual sounds. Wolves can hear at least 16 times better than humans, and wolves can hear sounds up to 10 kilometers in the forest and up to 16 kilometers in open areas.

The wolf has good peripheral vision and excellent night vision, the retinal periphery of the wolf is very sensitive to moving objects, but the wolf cannot distinguish colors, so the white predator is not much different from the old wolf, it cares about the change in temperature and the difficulty of catching food.

The wolf's visual discrimination is also quite weak, and it is not good at discerning small details.

For example, now, on the snowdrift on the side, there is a mouse hiding under a dead branch, and it is hiding there motionless, and the old wolf does not notice it, but when the mouse sees the old wolf and begins to flee, the old wolf realizes that a mouse runs over from the side.

The rat is a creature that is not important to the old wolf, and it is not interested.

Wolves are opportunistic hunters and will pick the simplest and most vulnerable prey, but this does not mean that wolves will prey on extremely weak animals such as mice.

Wolves are beasts that are designed to hunt large animals, and their preferred prey is large hoofed animals, including deer, elk, reindeer, moose and musk oxen, not to mention mice, even snow hares, which are nothing more than food for tooth sacrifices.

The opportunism of wolves is reflected in the fact that wolves will first observe, probe, and look for prey that are sick, weak, inherently defective, old and young, and reduce the cost of hunting.

In the midst of the snowstorm, the lush larch trees are filled with a large amount of snow to form snow cubes, the dark brown bark is frozen, and the thick branches and emerald green needles hide deep under the snow, this is a dense area of forest.

The old wolf found the snowdrift where the red deer was, and the snow covering the carcass of the red deer had obviously been lifted, and the messy claw marks were carved into the deerskin, revealing the stiff corpse that had been disemboweled, smaller than his own scratches, and easy to identify, probably the handiwork of some small carnivorous beast.

The old wolf didn't care, it was expected to be discovered, as long as the red deer was still here and there was food, it was worth it.

The old wolf lifted the snow and exposed the remaining parts of the red deer, and the intestines taken out by the unmet eaters were exposed on the snow, and the low temperature made the intestinal wall no longer flexible, and the plant residues that the red deer had eaten fell from it, mixed with some blood, and it was chaotic, but the old wolf didn't care.

It stretched its claws into the red deer's buttocks, where most of the flesh had been gnawed off, revealing dark red muscles, and there were still mistaken tooth marks on them, and although most of them had been eaten, there was still a lot left on the back, and the old wolf was ready to bite here.

The sound of swallowing flesh sounded in the wind and snow, and the unknown little beast was probably watching it eat from some hidden hiding place, but the old wolf was not afraid, and although it was old, it was not lacking in courage and cunning.

A small one, unable to steal a red deer from its mouth completely, and not daring to confront its thief, is not worth caring about at all.

The old wolf, who feasted on it, quickly ate the red deer, and only one of the remaining legs, which was not very intact, was torn off and set aside, which he intended to bring back to the two young wolves.

There was not much venison left in the deer leg, but it was enough for the two wolf cubs to eat for a meal, and as for the food acquisition later, the old wolf did not have time to think too much.

The old wolf took the deer's legs in his mouth and returned to the slope smoothly, and did not encounter the robbery beasts along the way, which was its luck and the luck of the two little wolves.

When he walked to the mouth of the cave, he didn't hear the howl of the little wolf, and the old wolf suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart, he bit the deer's legs and quickly passed through the cave wall, and with the expansion of the cave passage, the old wolf's heart sank little by little.

Inside the cave, the old wolf looked at the little black wolf who had lost his breath, and his eyes showed sadness.

......In the pitch-black cave, the little gray wolf smelled the old wolf, and immediately let out a miserable howl.

The old wolf looked at the only surviving cub with uneasiness in his eyes.

This morning, it thought that the two little wolves had survived, but when it came back, the little black wolf was already cold, and it didn't know if the next time it left, it would have to face the corpse of the little bad wolf when it came back.

The little gray wolf who lost its hands and feet was helpless and dazed, it followed the old wolf's side closely, and if the old wolf moved, it also followed closely, as if it was afraid that the only and only remaining familiar breath would also disappear.

Looking at the restless little gray wolf, the old wolf did not take out the body of the little black wolf and store it in the snowdrift, it lay quietly in the cave, licking the body of the little gray wolf one by one, giving comfort and confidence.

The little gray wolf gradually calmed down in the company of the old wolf, it breathed slowly, the little belly was agitating, there seemed to be no problem, and there were no signs of discomfort, but the old wolf still did not dare to take it lightly, the reassuring joy of the morning and the cruel ending of the return were vivid, before the little wolf could get out of the nest, everything was undecided.

Looking at the sleeping little gray wolf, the old wolf made a decision, he did not leave the cave again, he decided to take care of the remaining wolf in the cave until he survived or died.

As for the problem of food, the old wolf is not worried, although there is not much food in reserve, but the wolf's eating is rarely full of meals, often only once a week There are also cases, not to mention that it has just eaten, and there is no problem at all for three or five days.

And three to five days is enough to confirm the ending of the little bad wolf.

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In the fiercely competitive primeval forest, wolves are considered to be the upper beasts in the food chain, occupying a favorable survival position, and when they gather into a dozen or even dozens of large and small wolf packs, they can dominate one side and run rampant.

Wolves can not only hunt huge herbivores to ensure their survival during the active period, but also wake up hibernating brown bears in the winter when there is no prey, and hunt them to survive. At some point, wolves can even scare off tigers and ensure their own safety.

But when a wild wolf loses the protection of the pack and becomes a lone wolf, the difficulty of survival will rise sharply.

Whether it is a lynx or a mink bear, or a Far Eastern leopard of the same class, the invincible Siberian tiger, brown bear and other large beasts, it is a crisis for wild wolves.

Especially medium and large cats, relying on strong explosive power, swift agility, they can often quickly kill wild wolves, Siberian tigers such as Mengmeng beasts can cause casualties to small wolves or even wipe out all of them, and lone wolves obviously have no self-protection power in the face of such a crisis.

In such a dangerous situation, it is obviously not wise for an old lone wolf to raise a young wolf.

But the old wolf still persevered, guarding the cave, watching the little bad wolf eat raw meat one by one and survive day by day.

Seven days later, the old wolf, who had exhausted the reserves, finally decided to go out again, the little bad wolf had survived on raw meat for seven days, and had obviously adapted to digesting raw meat, and its body would no longer have problems because of raw meat.

The confirmation of this situation made the old wolf happy, and the little bad wolf also regarded the old wolf as the only pro and dependent, after the loss of his parents and brothers, the familiar breath of the little bad wolf was only the old wolf.

The old wolf licked the little wolf affectionately, howled lowly, and signaled that he was going out for a while, so that the little gray wolf would be quiet and obediently stay in the cave.

The little gray wolf rubbed the old wolf's jaw with some uneasiness, it seemed to be afraid of the old wolf's departure, and howled and wanted to follow the old wolf.

Normally, wolf cubs will start to come out of the wolf den within a month.

But because this litter of wolf cubs is born in winter, they are obviously very young and cannot stay in the ice and snow, and the cold wind and ice and snow will easily take their young lives.

Disease is a more ruthless and powerless way for wild animals to die, and no wild animal is not afraid of disease, and experienced old wolves naturally do not make such low-level mistakes.

The old wolf cannot accurately determine the number of days the baby wolf is born, so the old wolf will not take the baby gray wolf out of the den in the short term, at least until it is sure that the baby gray wolf is growing enough.

"Huh." The old wolf howled with no doubt, and the little gray wolf lowered his little head, obediently turned around and lay back into the grass nest.

The old wolf stretched out his paw and touched its head, and after comforting it, the old wolf turned around and left the cave without hesitation.

After crawling out of the wolf's den, the old wolf looked at the light outside and squinted his eyes, and the old wolf completely walked out of the cave.

Outside, the snow was covered, the world was silent, the raging wind and snow had stopped for some time, the white covered the hillside, there was no other color to be seen around, the sparse trees were also covered with snow, dyed white, and the bare brown trunks were condensed by ice crystals, which had a different kind of beauty.

The old wolf had no intention of appreciating the beauty of heaven and earth, so he turned over some branches and came out, covered the hole with snow from branches, and then hurried to the depths of the forest.

The snow cracked under its claws, sinking deep and sticking to the soles of its feet, leaving strings of plum prints, which were swept away by its broom-like tail.

The gift of the first snow has long since disappeared, and the treasure in the snowdrift has long been turned over and over by many treasure hunters, and the old wolf no longer hopes for nothing.

Knowing that it lacks physical strength, it does not seek out large prey for its own troubles, but skillfully wanders around areas with hidden holes, looking for rabbit holes with the smell of snow rabbits.

The snow hare is its most sure prey today, and it is also the one that is least likely to be dangerous.

Before discovering the wolf cub's den, the old wolf, who knows the fate of old age, probably won't be so compromised, and may "do a big job" before dying to show that his ambition is not old, or find other wolves to try to follow him and pick up some leftovers.

However, now it is no longer a lone wolf, what it has to consider is no longer its own survival, nor the glory before death, but the continuation of its will to liveβ€”β€”β€”β€” the gray wolf waiting to be fed.