Chapter 667 Musk Ox
Bifang walked among the woods, took off his gloves, and touched one cold tree after another. Behind him was a hundred-meter-high cliff, which was a natural city wall.
Although nature is so vast, the landscape is quite cruel. There is not a trace of green on the ground, which is completely covered by thick snow.
Standing in the forest in the Arctic, as a human being, Bifang inevitably feels a little insignificant.
Looking back, on the cliff, a huge inland ice surface formed an ice tongue, which could fall from the sky at any time during a storm and smash everything to pieces.
In Greenland, there is endless wilderness as far as the eye can see.
"The Arctic is an extreme region in every sense of the word. Only species that have successfully adapted to the harsh climate conditions, the huge difference between summer and winter, the fact that there are no fallen leaves, and almost all trees are green, absorbing as much sunlight as possible and photosynthesizing."
Bifang stroked the tree trunk, leaving some very clear scratches on it. He squatted down, shoveled away the snow on the ground, and found a colony of moss that had been eaten.
There are tooth marks on the edges of these mosses, which clearly shows that herbivores have visited here and left traces.
After digging more snow, more traces were soon exposed, including not only large footprints, but also some long brown hairs.
Looking at the hoof prints on the ground, the audience felt a sense of déjà vu.
[What is this? A reindeer?]
[It looks very similar, but it feels a lot bigger. ]
Bifang dug out the remaining moss on the ground and shook his head: "It's not a reindeer. Reindeer are not so big. These are the footprints left by musk oxen."
[What kind of cattle is musk ox? ]
[Blind guessing is a big bull]
[Can I eat it? ]
"Musk oxen are representative animals of the Arctic tundra and are also the northernmost ungulates on Earth. Among ungulates, no animal lives further north than musk oxen, not even reindeer."
"It is said that the undercoat shed by musk oxen during the annual shedding period is eight times warmer than sheep wool, and the outer protective hair is the longest in the animal kingdom, even up to 60 centimeters long, perfectly protecting against temperatures as low as minus 40 degrees Celsius."
Bifang gave a brief introduction and then pointed to the very clear footprints on the ground and said.
"The reason you think the two footprints look similar is that it and the reindeer are both even-toed ungulates and both are ruminants, and they are different only in the family, so the footprints look similar at first glance, but the size of the two is very different."
"Musk oxen generally weigh more than 300 kilograms, while reindeer weigh less than half that. It is precisely because of their huge size, their tendency to live in groups, and their lack of rivals that they often scrape against trees. This is rarely the case with reindeer."
[Hiss, three hundred kilograms? ]
[Damn, is catching just one enough? ]
[I suddenly feel that the 20 kilograms goal set by Lao Fang is not so outrageous. This one should be enough, right? ]
[Cluster? My DNA is moving]
The soil here is all frozen, and the mark left by one's foot is difficult to disappear, which makes it difficult for Bifang to judge the time when the prey leaves.
Bifang closed his eyes and twitched his nostrils slightly, trying to capture the lingering scent of musk ox in the air.
"Musk oxen are called musk oxen because both male and female musk oxen emit a musk-like smell, which is especially noticeable in males during estrus."
"But the smell doesn't come from a dedicated gland, but from their urine, which is why musk oxen are called 'body odor'."
A faint fragrance in the air quickly entered the nasal cavity, but it was not obvious. Bifang had to lie on the ground and identify it again.
[The taste is getting stronger]
[Damn, doesn't that smell like urine? ]
[Musky urine (dog head)]
[What's the big deal? Shit diluted a thousand times still smells like jasmine]
[Ah, I know this. A certain chemistry teacher never gives his girlfriend jasmine perfume, and every time he sees someone else using jasmine perfume, he just smiles and says nothing (dog head)]
“This is wrong.”
Bifang opened his eyes and shook his head after seeing the barrage.
"Even if feces is diluted, it still smells like feces, but it's not as bad. Even if jasmine is concentrated, it still smells like jasmine, but it's not as nice."
"This term comes from 'indole', which is indeed a common odor component of feces and jasmine. Former Hermès perfumer Keane described the smell of high concentrations of indole as the stench of corpses. I think it smells like the smell of sun-dried cow dung in the countryside."
"But when Hodole is diluted to 0.1% or lower, it is not the complete jasmine flavor, nor is it the main component of jasmine fragrance."
"Take Jasmine Absolute as an example. The odor components from high to low content are sweet fruity, soft sweet, dry tea smell, both grass and flower scent, refreshing flower scent, a hay smell, and then indole, which has a content of about 0.16%. There are also about 20 other odor components."
【？ ？ ？】
[Can people smell this? ]
[Damn, this is real cowhide]
Bifang shrugged his shoulders. These were all smells from professional perfumers and he himself couldn't do it.
Distinguishing smells requires a lot of training, and it is not enough to have a good sense of smell. Someone who has never smelled jasmine will not know what it is if he suddenly smells it.
The strong sense of smell helps Bifang track and search for enemies.
"The same is true for feces, which is not made entirely of indole."
"If you are a chemistry teacher, you should know that the smell of natural substances is inherently complex. It is normal for things that are far apart to have the same or similar smell components. Cheese, beef, pork, shrimp, eggs, strawberries, cherries, peaches and other foods also contain small amounts of indole."
"You can admit that you actually ate, uh..." Bifang scratched his cheek and smiled, "That?"
[Fuck, I was confused for a long time and finally saw an authoritative explanation]
[What a bullshit! The truth still lies in Lao Fang]
[So do you smell it? Are the musk ox still there? ]
Bifang nodded and picked up a stick beside him.
"As I said earlier, the smell of musk oxen is stronger during the estrus period. The breeding season is from mid-September to October every year . After resting in the summer, musk oxen have accumulated a lot of energy. Females mainly breed, and males also compete for reproductive rights during the estrus period in autumn."
"At this time, the musk glands on the male musk ox's face secrete a strong-smelling secretion, which is spread through the legs onto the plants on the ground to mark its own territory. The female musk ox is penned in it and is strictly guarded and protected. No other male musk ox is allowed to invade."
"Therefore, the smell on the ground will be stronger, which is why we just lay on the ground."
"but……"
Bifang raised his head and looked at the sky.
It's getting dark.
