Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

The South also has Northeast Tigers, but most of them are captive and offspring of artificial breeding.

Genuine wild Northeast Tigers would never be sent to the South for exhibition.

Chen Ying and Professor Bai's concerns were not without reason, after all, the emergency station Chen Ying was at was a semi-wild environment, where the climate conditions were more suitable for Huanan Tigers and Bengal Tigers.

Moreover, the emergency station already housed two young Huanan Tigers, and the addition of a disabled Northeast Tiger raised the question whether the little Northeast would be bullied by the two little Tigers banding together.

Another thing was, considering the current situation of the little Northeast, even if it regained some ability to walk later on, releasing it into the wild was almost impossible.

That is to say, even if it recovered physically, it could only stay in a zoo or a wildlife park for the rest of its life.

This was, in fact, the fate of most rescued animals.

But one cannot refuse to rescue them because they will lose their freedom in the future, life surpasses everything.

After tossing and turning and sleeping like a dead person, Chen Ying arrived at the special care room at six in the morning to see the sub-adult Tiger.

"Everything else is okay, a bit of inflammation, and it's on medication now. A little sedative was added to let it rest well."

Sister Fen, the group leader, came over with a tablet to show Chen Ying, "We did a CT scan last night, the result wasn't bad. Unless there's an accident, recovery from the bone injury shouldn't be a problem, it's just that we can only save one eye."

Chen Ying entered the ward, touched it all over by hand to ensure that the small movements overnight hadn't caused the reset bones to dislocate again.

"This is already very good. With such a serious injury, I doubted yesterday whether it could survive."

Eye issues are trivial matters, the injury on its neck was the most lethal.

If that adult Tiger had let go a moment later or bit down a little harder, this sub-adult Tiger would have died on the spot.

Sometimes, I really don't know whether death is a stroke of luck or misfortune.

Looking up at the monitor, Chen Ying resisted the urge to administer medicine.

It wasn't that he didn't want to help. First, its condition was relatively stable, not yet reaching the degree where it required all-out treatment.

Second, this wasn't his own patch of land; using medicine outside the prescription would require writing a report of thousands of words, better to wait for a chance to be alone with it later.

After ensuring there were no issues, Chen Ying left the monitoring room and went to have breakfast, then turned a corner to the animal kindergarten next to the Tiger park.

The kindergarten occupied a large area too. Predators, common animals, and herbivore young were all raised separately.

The disabled Tiger cub was placed alone in a room.

The room was very clean, and there were toys that little Tigers liked, but the disabled cub didn't play and instead curled up in the corner, hiding its head under its forelimbs.

When Chen Ying entered, it visibly trembled.

"What's going on?" Chen Ying turned his head to ask the Keeper.

"This little fellow has been moody ever since it arrived, not like other cubs that throw tantrums or bite and run around, it has always been silent, even going for checks without a struggle."

The Keeper hesitated for a long while, struggling to spit out a few words, "It's as if it has resigned itself to fate."

Resigned? Resigned to what? Does it think its mother has abandoned it?

As an expert proficient in Animal Psychology, Chen Ying realized what the issue was in an instant.

This Little Brain Tiger, its thoughts were quite heavy.

He walked in, picked Little Brain Tiger up from the ground.

Upon entering the park area, one had to wear a coverall, which served as a uniform and was also very sturdy, waterproof, and tear-resistant.

After all, the young animals couldn't yet control their claws with precision, and without such clothing, by the time you leave work, your own clothes would be all but ruined.

A ten-month-old Tiger cub should be heavy, but this Little Brain Tiger was developmentally delayed, weighing about as much as a five- or six-month-old cub.

Chen Ying picked it up, sat down on the specially built platform for the little Tigers, and then began stroking the Tiger while feeding it specially formulated cat food.

This cat food was specially blended by the center to supplement the nutritional elements the little Tiger was lacking while also helping to grind its teeth and clean its mouth.

"If you don't eat, and you get too skinny, your mom will have to hit me every time she sees me."

Hearing Chen Ying's voice tinged with worry, Little Brain Tiger didn't quite understand what he meant, but it grasped the words "mom will hit him."

"Ow, my mom doesn't want me anymore."

"What nonsense are you talking?" Chen Ying covered Little Brain Tiger's mouth with his hand, and began looking around pretentiously, "Your mom has simply entrusted you to me for the time being. How could she possibly not want you?"

"Then why isn't she with me?"

Chen Ying's eyes darted about, he cleared his throat lightly.

"Do you remember that male Tiger?"

Little Brain Tiger tilted its head, nodding in confusion.

It remembered very well—that Tiger was what it dreamed of looking like when it grew up!

"That male Tiger wants to court your mother, but..." Chen Ying looked down into Little Brain Tiger's eyes, too innocent, too clear, making it hard for him to continue the story, "your mother is worried it might hurt you, so she left you with me and went to deal with that male Tiger. Once it's safe, she will come back to take you."

After hearing Chen Ying's words, Little Brain Tiger's clear yet lifeless eyes gradually brightened.

"Really? Mommy really hasn't abandoned me?"

"Of course it's true. With such a good relationship between us, how could I possibly lie to you?"

Little Brain Tiger was so excited that it almost let out a bark.

It was overjoyed. So Mommy hadn't abandoned it, hadn't considered it a burden.

Mommy, Mommy, I'll be good, eat well, grow into Big Brain Tiger and protect you!

After finishing the cat food, Little Brain Tiger felt hungry in its stomach, craving meat and wanting to gnaw on bones!

Chen Ying messaged the Keeper to bring a small piece of beef rib and a rabbit leg into the room.

A ten-month-old Tiger Cub could already eat meat on the bone. Chewing on bones was also a way to exercise its chewing muscles and strengthen its teeth.

Having watched the Tiger Cub finish a pound of beef ribs and a rabbit leg, cleaning any residue off its body, and then helping it to defecate, Chen Ying let it play freely on its own in the room.

Wild animals need to be quarantined when they arrive at a new location.

Naturally, the Tiger Cub also had to go through this process.

"I'm going to see an older brother tiger. It was bitten by another male tiger, very severely."

Chen Ying squatted in front of Little Brain Tiger, his expression grave as he told it about the wound the sub-adult tiger received from the adult tiger.

After hearing what Chen Ying had said, Little Brain Tiger drew in a cold breath, utterly convinced by Chen Ying's earlier words.

Mommy must have sent it away for its safety!

Little Brain Tiger clenched its paws, swearing to grow into the mightiest and most imposing Big Tiger to protect Mommy from those bad Big Tigers.

(Tears wetting the beef and rice, vowing to defeat the big bad guys!)

After coming out from the quarantine Animal shed and disinfecting, Chen Ying met the leader of the medical group's Tiger Cub team.

"Dr. Chen, do you have a moment? I have a few questions to consult with you."

You don't hit a smiling face, and Chen Ying had nothing pressing at the moment, so he followed the leader to a small office to have a discussion.

During the conversation, he learned that the Tiger and Leopard Park and the breeding center were jointly launching a Northeast Tiger reintroduction program.

"Honestly, although it sounds like the Northeast Tiger's problems aren't as severe as those of the Huanan Tiger, it's only in the past two years since the national emphasis on protecting the Northeast Tiger and Leopard that their numbers have slightly increased."

But now, the number of tigers in captivity in zoos far exceeds the number of wild populations. If this continues, tigers will no longer be tigers.

This is not a joke.

In the wild, a female Northeast Tiger's home range is generally 300-500 square kilometers, while a male tiger's range can exceed 1000 square kilometers.

But what about in zoos? Within an area of several dozen or several hundred acres, several or even more than a dozen tigers live.

And tigers, except during mating and cub-rearing periods, do not share territory with other tigers. Isn't there a saying, "Two tigers cannot share one mountain, unless one is male and the other female"? This epitomizes the nature of tigers.

However, zoo tigers obviously cannot behave the same way, so can these tigers still be called fierce tigers?

"To be honest, the topic of reintroduction of fierce tigers to the wild has been brought up for a while, but there's been almost no progress. Currently, the few reintroductions that have happened are actually the results of transferring rescued wild animals to different locations."

Glancing at Chen Ying, who had remained silent, Group Leader Qi finally got to the point.

"I heard from Brother Hai that Dr. Chen, you're pushing the Huanan Tiger reintroduction project and have already seen some results. I would like to invite Dr. Chen to join our reintroduction team for some guidance."

The invitation was put forward with the consent of the center's leadership and other team members, and it was definitely sincere.

Chen Ying instinctively wanted to refuse; he already had enough projects on his hands, and he couldn't spread his energy any thinner.

Let's see how this year goes. I haven't been back to Jiamu Gully for a few months before leaving again. When I return this time, I don't know if Jinya will be angry.

Group Leader Qi noticed Chen Ying's hesitation and hurriedly explained, "We don't need Dr. Chen to be stationed here, but when we encounter difficult problems, we hope Dr. Chen can provide some ideas and timely advice to prevent us from going down the wrong path."

This request truly wasn't too high.

Chen Ying thought it over. Although there are several subspecies of tigers, the nature of reintroduction work is essentially the same.

He wouldn't be involved in the specifics, merely acting as an expert advisor to offer assistance from the sidelines. This way it probably wouldn't affect his own work too much.

Besides, they still had the disabled Tiger Cub in their care, which was a matter of principle. Later on, he might need their help in obtaining information and husbandry manuals for Northeast Tigers. It would be best not to sour the relationship.

Group Leader Qi was a practical man; for the following time, he didn't engage in idle chat with Chen Ying, focusing solely on substantial issues.

Including some experiences Chen Ying garnered from Leopard Sister and Snow Leopard's second girl about leopard-kind, he shared them almost without reservation with Group Leader Qi.

Although Leopards and Tigers are different, the general direction was the same. What differed were the hunting methods and food sources developed by the living environments.

Towards the end of the conversation, Chen Ying suddenly remembered the slightly silly Leopard who was still waiting for him to find a mate for her.

"Group Leader Qi, I wanted to ask, do you have any information about areas with a higher population of Female leopards?"

"Well, that would definitely be our place," Group Leader Qi blurted out without hesitation.