Chapter 636 Midnight Visitor
Under the starry sky, the snowfield is not dull.
Snowflakes are crystal structures, and the snow on the ground is like a mirror that reflects all the light around it.
Under the starlight, every raised snow-capped mountain was glowing with a faint dim light, and occasionally a huge figure could be seen running on it. It was a polar bear that came out to forage for food at night.
October is the beginning of autumn, and polar bears need to do a lot of foraging to survive the entire winter, and this is also when they are most active.
The Doomsday Seed Vault emits a faint green light in the dark night.
The engine made a low roar, and the heat generated by the burning fuel quickly spread throughout the entire off-road vehicle. The prisms on the exhaust pipe slowly melted, and clear water droplets fell and froze again on the ground.
As if hearing the roar of a car, the polar bear that was originally running on the snowfield suddenly stopped and turned around to approach Bifang.
Seeing this, Bifang subconsciously reached for the hunting knife on the side of his thigh.
I had killed so many bears that when I saw them approaching, I subconsciously wanted to draw my sword.
"NONONO!" Barritt explained quickly.
"Don't be nervous, this is a normal reaction."
Bifang was stunned: "Normal reaction?"
How can this be considered normal?
Bifang saw with his own eyes that the polar bear went from jogging to running wildly, with its hair flying, obviously a sign of extreme excitement.
Is this normal?
So far, the beast that Bifang deals with the most is the bear. Although it has never faced the polar bear head-on, as a unified subfamily, the difference between the two is not much, especially the brown bear and the polar bear. The two have diverged after geographical isolation for less than 600,000 years and have no reproductive isolation.
They all have abnormally developed acromions, which are structural features formed by the attachment of the shoulder muscles. The well-developed shoulder muscles can drive the front paws to swing very powerfully.
The polar bear's claws are more than 5 cm long, shorter than those of a brown bear and slightly longer than those of a black bear, but sharper.
The claws of brown bears and black bears are very blunt, but the claws of polar bears are extremely sharp, which is an evolutionary adaptation for walking on ice and snow.
Being so powerful and sharp, the polar bear can easily tear apart armor plates that are more than 5mm thick. This means that the two people in the off-road vehicle at this moment are not safe, and it can even be said to be very dangerous!
Bifang could see that Barritt himself was also shaking very often, and his little finger holding the steering wheel was trembling slightly.
But since Barritt said so, Bifang did not take any further action.
Compared to himself as a traveler, Barritt is more familiar with the indigenous people here.
Barritt took a few deep breaths, put the seat back down, climbed into the back seat, pressed the switch on his shoulder, opened the backrest, and pulled out a rather large object wrapped in butter paper.
Barritt slowly unwrapped the oil paper.
A strong smell of grease emanated.
This is……
The butter paper was wrapped so tightly that Bifang didn't smell any strange odor after getting on the car.
Barritt cut it open with a knife, and everyone could see clearly that it was actually meat!
It's pork belly.
Bifang could tell the type of meat based on the smell.
There was quite a lot in this bag, at least the amount of several pigs. All of them were the fattest parts of the pig's belly, which were usually the scraps that no one eats. At first glance, there wasn't even any red lean meat, just fat.
Although not many people eat it, for polar bears, there is nothing better than food full of fat. Only fat can allow them to spend the entire polar night comfortably.
Carrying the heavy bag of butter, Barrett quickly opened the car door, raised his legs, and took the fat off the seat. Then he picked up the yellow paper, quickly closed the car door, returned to his original position, stepped on the accelerator and left quickly.
The whole process was very quick and it looked like it had been done more than once.
"Huh, I get super nervous every time I do something like this. This is the fourth time, but my palms still sweat." Barrett let out a long sigh, as if he had accomplished some difficult task.
Well, feeding polar bears in the wild is indeed a difficult task.
After all, no one can guarantee that what the polar bear will eat in the end is a sheep.
"Every time we come here, we feed the polar bears some food, so that they can live in peace." Barritt explained while driving.
He used both kindness and force. Holding a rifle in hand was force, while feeding them on time was kindness.
As the glaciers melt, there are fewer and fewer polar bears able to catch seals, and every year a considerable number of polar bears die.
According to calculations based on ecological data, polar bears may become extinct by 2100.
"We don't feed them too much each time. We usually feed them once each time they come to ensure they don't attack us due to excessive hunger."
The law that has always existed in nature is survival of the fittest. Most polar bears are still able to catch enough food to survive their difficult times.
Only a small number of weak polar bears will have difficulty surviving due to environmental changes. If humans continue to feed them food, they will lose their hunting instincts.
Therefore, Barritt and others have always maintained a relatively fragile balance with polar bears.
Overall, this trip was an eye-opener for the audience.
There was a magical feeling of seeing future technology in the real world, and it was also the first time I realized that humans really have made practical plans for the future.
Many people couldn't help but think of what Bifang said a long time ago.
The history of life is a story of mass elimination followed by differentiation of the few survivors.
The Earth has witnessed five mass extinction events, each of which wiped out 70% to 85% of species. In the Permian period, more than 95% of animals died out and never returned.
Humans have survived successfully time and time again for nearly three and a half billion years.
Then in the next hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of years, will it be swimming freely in the sea of stars, or will it become a part of a fossil?
After traveling all the way back to the city, Bifang said goodbye to Barritt, turned off the live broadcast, and walked slowly on the city streets alone.
Quite deserted...
After all, it is a place where there are more polar bears than people.
There were no vendors, let alone stalls, only orange-yellow street lights and the occasional warning sign.
The background is black with a white polar bear painted on it, and the warning sign with a red outer outline also informs passers-by of the possible dangers outside.
The vast majority of polar bear attacks on humans occur at night.
In fact, it is only six o'clock in the afternoon. In any city at low latitudes, it is still dusk, but here, it is as late as midnight.
After returning to his hotel, Bifang had nothing to do. He was about to take out his mobile phone to play a few games before going to bed, when suddenly the phone rang and the hotel front desk informed him that someone was looking for him downstairs.
Is someone looking for me?
Bifang was stunned. Although he had many friends, they were not yet spread to the most remote city in the world, right?
Out of curiosity, Bifang came downstairs, but what he saw was a complete stranger.
