Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

"Little Chen, that Big Ears panda you mentioned, it seems completely uninterested in mating. I thought it was joining the crowd because it wanted to find other female pandas, but in the end..."

Xu Daddy's expression was complex, like he wanted to laugh but couldn't.

"So in the end, every time it joined the crowd, but as soon as it was its turn to interact with a female panda, it ran off as if being chased by a dog?"

Chen Ying serenely finished the thought, and Xu Daddy vigorously nodded in agreement; it was exactly like that, so vivid!

This might be a congenital case of solitary nature, right?

Fufu and the young panda's honeymoon period was really short.

Chen Ying and Uncle Zhao had taken a stroll around the mountain and, within just three days, the pair had split up.

Fufu didn't rush back to the center. With its good-natured temperament and luck, the center wanted to see if it could give birth in the wild by itself.

Besides, Chen Ying had the control of these mountains now, and there could be no safer place for giving birth.

While on the mountain, Chen Ying received a call from Old Gao.

Sure enough, the Huanan Golden Layer research team had internal conflicts and split into two groups.

A trio made up of the Professor from Agricultural University and teachers from the rescue center took charge of long-distance observation.

The other group of researchers wanted close contact, but the most aggressive one was slapped half to death by a Huanan Tiger, suffered a fractured leg, and had no choice but to evacuate.

Perhaps remembering their scents, Grandpa Hu entered sweep mode whenever he caught their scent approaching, which made those few miserably retreat in the end.

"Now only the professor's trio is left, and the Protection Station's forest patrol officers are delivering supplies to them every day."

Old Gao's voice could hardly conceal his schadenfreude, "These people have the spirit of research, but they're too heavy-handed. They even wanted to drag you down with them. Luckily you were fast, or you'd have been morally kidnapped."

"Who says so, they can't kidnap me if there's no morality." Chen Ying jested, then changed the subject, "I've discovered several Golden Eagle nests here; do you want to come up and take a look?"

The cliff nests were newly built this year; he hadn't noticed that there was something extra on these cliffs when that monkey attack happened last time.

He sent a few photos to Old Gao, successfully arousing this "bird" man's interest.

The call was made in the morning, but the person arrived in the evening; the speed had accelerated once again.

This time, many more animal traces were discovered on the mountain.

Whether due to climate factors or a real ecological change in the area, the situation seemed pretty good at the moment.

"By the way, Old Chen, M Alliance came and examined Beibei. They confirmed its eyes were likely gouged out by a claw, preliminarily blaming monkeys. But without video evidence, we can't rule out other predators might be involved."

But in reality, when predators encounter cubs of other species, most simply kill them instantly with one bite, and the more vicious ones might even eat the cubs.

Only some particularly cruel monkeys exhibit behavior that torments other animals.

"I've already reported this, and warnings will be sent out to the villagers not to get too close to monkeys just because they seem docile. Otherwise..."

In recent years, with the rise of social media, some content creators, in pursuit of followers, will go wherever there's traffic.

Some people rush in brainlessly without understanding anything, then blame others when trouble arises, really making one want to curse out loud.

In any population, there are individuals with good temperaments and those with bad temperaments.

Just like in humans, we're also advanced primates, and there are both good and bad people, right?

The concept of 'supermale' can also emerge in the animal kingdom.

The best protection is keeping a distance.

It's just a shame that while the principle is understood, putting it into practice can be quite difficult.

After chattering on about the upcoming work plans for the emergency station, Chen Ying planned to visit Dian Province.

"I'm really interested in those emergency stations invested by the Dao family; they've hired professional designers, and I want to learn from their experience to see if there's room for improvement in our little nest."

Every profession fears becoming complacent; doctors need to continuously learn and improve, and veterinarians are no different.

"Go on, Little Sen is doing well; I think he can hold on by himself now. Oh, and about those two young men who wanted to become apprentices, leave the more reserved one with Little Sen. Take the other one with you; he talks too much, and I'm afraid he'll cause a noise violation in this forest if he stays with Little Sen."

Old Gao was really having a headache; he was even considering whether to invest in adding another room to the building.

But on second thought, that wouldn't do.

Even packed as it is, there are still people trying to squeeze their way in here.

Currently, we're telling everyone there's no place to stay; visitors can only sleep on the floor. That's bearable for a few days, but over a long period, nobody can stand it.

Once we open the door to adding more rooms, I can imagine what the scene will be like.

Terrifying!

Fortunately, Duanmu and Xiao Song are leaving the day after tomorrow, and with Old Chen taking someone away, the building will remain with only three people, perfectly restoring peace and quiet.

Moreover, with Old Chen gone, neither Jinya nor Leopard Sister would return lightly; at most, Great Bai and Jiao Jiao might bring their two cubs back for a free meal.

After dawdling on the mountain for another two days, Chen Ying finally came down.

Returning to the emergency station, he saw three disheveled individuals sitting in a row beneath the raised floor, slurping noodles.

"What's this?" Chen Ying inquired with a tilt of his chin, directing his gaze at Little Sen.

"The professors spent five days mapping out the tiger's territory, determining its approximate range of activity."

Little Sen whispered to Chen Ying, "It seems like the test results are out. They've confirmed the presence of the Huanan Tiger, which had been declared extinct in the wild. They're here to ask for your help putting a collar on the tiger."

That sounded easy enough, but Grandpa Hu, as docile as he might appear, was really not someone easy to mess with.

Sure enough, after they had finished setting everything up, the Professor who had completed his meal came to ask for his assistance in collaring the tiger.

"Our survey and sampling work is basically done. The last step is to fit the tiger with a tracking collar to monitor if there are any other Huanan Tigers still around."

The Professor added that if they couldn't manage to put the collar on, they wouldn't force the issue.

There had been cases before where the subject had done everything possible to get rid of the collar, so they were just following the last procedure in case they succeeded, which would be cause for celebration.

Chen Ying didn't rush to agree. He decided to consult with Grandpa Hu first.

Taking advantage of a break when the three researchers were resting in the storeroom, Chen Ying went to have a heart-to-heart with Grandpa Hu in the middle of the night.

Grandpa Hu expressed his refusal, but he mentioned that it wasn't just him alone – deeper in the mountains, in places rarely tread by humans, there were two female tigers.

"This is the boundary of my territory. I seldom come here for a stroll. If I hadn't noticed a lot of food migrating this way, I'd be too lazy to venture out."

Grandpa Hu stretched vigorously.

"It's rare to see two-legged beasts like you where I live. The last time was quite a while ago, when the weather was still a bit warm. That two-legged beast fell down the mountain and died."

Chen Ying wondered which capable individual had ventured alone into the uninhabited area and met with disaster.

It could also have been one of those poachers who got lost in the forest and met their end.

Chen Ying didn't pry further, and since he couldn't make heads or tails of it, he didn't insist on the collar when he learned Grandpa Hu was against wearing anything. He just urged Grandpa Hu to leave quickly.

With more people watching him, all sorts of fiends and foes were a possibility, and some tactics were hard to guard against.

Grandpa Hu took advice well and decided to take a trip east to expand his territory after leaving.

He didn't hesitate at all and left as soon as he said he would.

But before going, Grandpa Hu told him that, if there was a chance, he should venture deeper into the forest, and Grandpa Hu would introduce Chen Ying to his wife.

"By the way, there are other tigers that occasionally come here, looking a bit like me. You need to be careful when you enter the woods."

With a rub against Chen Ying's chest, Grandpa Hu leaped and disappeared from sight in just a few seconds.

Chen Ying took a round through the surrounding area and found five infrared cameras forming a circle.

Unfortunately, all this setup seemed destined to go to waste.

Wait, maybe not entirely.

Remembering what Grandpa Hu had said about other tigers occasionally coming to roam around here, these cameras would eventually be of some use.

Trying not to trigger the infrared cameras, Chen Ying went to check on the Street Rat and the Young Female Bear.

These two were starting to look more and more like a married couple.

The Young Female Bear had visibly gained weight, and Chen Ying, squeezing her belly, was quite worried about her developing diabetes.

He would have to notify the people at the Hive. The quantity of honey consumption had to be controlled.

While chatting with the two, Chen Ying was about to leave when the Young Female Bear awkwardly told him that she seemed to be carrying a cub.

"What? You're carrying a cub?"

Chen Ying found it impossible; he had never heard of Asian black bears mating in winter.

But both the Young Female Bear and the Street Rat insisted, so with a deep look at the Young Female Bear's belly, Chen Ying made an appointment for a home vet service for a pregnancy check the next day.

He already owned a portable ultrasound device, and Daomeihua had sponsored another one recently.

Using both machines, he would carefully examine the Young Female Bear's belly. If she was really carrying, well, that would be another topic for a thesis.

Early the next morning, when the Professor and his group had just gotten up and were looking to speak with Chen Ying, they saw him and Little Sen each carrying a piece of equipment, getting ready to set off.

"What are you doing?"

"There are two black bears in Old Bear Gully, a male and a female. During my patrol yesterday, I noticed that the female bear showed signs of pregnancy, so I decided to bring the equipment to check," Chen Ying explained.

He got back late last night and emailed the experts at the Bear Garden about the Young Female Bear's situation.

This morning, the other party answered him. It could be because she was interacting more with a mother bear who had recently given birth alone, leading the Young Female Bear to exhibit pseudopregnancy.

To determine the situation, two specialists from the Bear Garden would meet him at Old Bear Gully and then go together to examine the Young Female Bear.

The professor from the rescue center laughed, "This pseudopregnancy behavior is not uncommon among giant pandas. I remember a few years ago, the base had a giant panda that exhibited pseudopregnancy, and they almost live-streamed her giving birth. What's more ludicrous is that a male panda also mimicked the pregnant females and showed signs of expectancy, making the keepers who cared for him laugh."

(Cosplaying the thoughtful mother-to-be cat, the black history was written on a cat's signboard.)

They all knew about this incident, and it had been reported in newspapers and on internet news.

Though Chen Ying suspected the Young Female Bear might have false pregnancy, considering that it had unexpectedly cohabitated and eaten with the Street Rat for several months, that behavior was quite different from the normal solitary life of wild Asian black bears.

So, what if it was real?

When they reached the Street Rat and the Young Female Bear's cave, they saw the Young Female Bear interacting amicably with the chief veterinarian from the Bear Garden. Meanwhile, the Street Rat squatted under a tree holding a piece of honeycomb, munching away and glancing over the side with sneaky little eyes.

It was the unmistakable scene of a son-in-law dutifully eating during a mother-in-law's visit, too timid to utter a single word.