Chapter 728 Light
Twenty years ago, no biologist working in the Arctic would have used words like skinny and frail to describe polar bears.
In people’s general impression, polar bears are always the strong overlords of the Arctic.
They have no natural enemies in this land and can run carefree on the ice field. Their huge bodies can even shake the earth.
They swim in the ocean, and their strong front limbs can provide them with webbed feet, allowing them to move freely in the sea water.
Some polar bears can even migrate across the ocean between lands hundreds of kilometers apart, spending most of their lives floating on sea ice and only coming onto land during the breeding season.
Sea ice also has another benefit: it provides polar bears with a stable source of food - seals.
When seals breathe and rest on the sea ice, they are likely to become food for polar bears. In addition to seals, polar bears occasionally eat whale carcasses.
Even if polar bears are not so lucky and fail to hunt seals, the fat layer stored under their skin can provide them with energy for a certain period of time.
"This layer of fat makes them look strong," said Bifang.
The body shapes of polar bears and brown bears are completely different. They have extremely thick fat layers and larger body skeletons to accommodate and support everything huge, so the head-to-body ratio is completely different.
The difference between the two is visible to the naked eye.
The polar bear has a relatively small head, a slender neck, its hind limbs slightly longer than its forelimbs, and its body is leaning forward; while the brown bear has a rounder head, a short and thick neck, no obvious difference in limb length, and its body is parallel to the ground.
Even non-professionals can easily distinguish the two species. How come professional staff from animal protection organizations can't recognize a brown bear just because it's wearing a white vest?
The online story that an albino brown bear named "Joey" was mistaken for a polar bear and was sent to the Arctic twice is nothing but a false fabrication.
Although no albino brown bear named "Joey" has ever made it to the Arctic twice, many polar bears have actually lost their homes and have been forced to move inland in search of food.
It was at the beginning of this century that everything began to change.
When exploring the Arctic, people occasionally spot polar bears that are so emaciated that they look like walking skeletons.
If these polar bears cannot find food, they will inevitably starve to death, but their weak bodies can no longer withstand the intensity of hunting, and death is inevitable.
The acceleration of global warming has shortened the life of sea ice, making hunting very difficult for polar bears. They may face increasingly tense living conditions and higher mortality rates. In order to obtain enough food, polar bears can only travel to more distant areas to capture prey.
Polar bears have left the Arctic.
Over the years, polar bears have been struggling with some unfavorable factors. The disappearance of these polar bears also tells humans that they still lose the battle without natural enemies.
"Freed from sea ice, polar bears lose a vital food source, seals, but in southeast Greenland we found an isolated and genetically distinct population of polar bears."
"Unlike other polar bears that rely on sea ice for survival, these bears hunt year-round on freshwater ice near marine glaciers, where sea ice conditions are close to what we predict will occur in the Arctic by the end of the 21st century."
From the past to the present and into the future, Bifang fully explains why the polar bears in Greenland seem to be living a good life.
"The polar bears here may be the only ones that survive in the future. They are more adapted to the environment."
Bifang stood on the ice field, looking at the giant bear that was looking at him in the distance, and smiled.
During the days of galloping on the snowfield, Bifang saw many creatures, which brought him a great sense of novelty. Recently, he set his eyes on a mother Arctic bear. Every day, she took her cubs to look for food on the ice field. It was very interesting to watch from afar.
The huge mother Arctic bear sways her huge body as she walks forward, and the young cubs follow behind her. Their attention is often attracted by other things around them, and when they come to their senses, they find that their mother has gone far away.
The little polar bear got up in a panic, ran and jumped to catch up, and then was attracted by the ice or stones on the side of the road, and this cycle repeated over and over again.
"For many endangered animals, they only have one chance, and the shrinking base number means they have no chance to make mistakes. They are not like the wild rabbits in Australia. Even if a special racial virus is developed, there is a large enough base number to ensure the emergence of individuals with antibodies, and they can still reproduce stably."
“Not to mention that many plants, animals and small organisms cannot be effectively counted, and most of the time it is not even clear whether they are extinct.”
"The extinction risk of many species may be much more serious than we thought. For example, the northern-stomach brooding frog in Australia went from being discovered to being completely extinct in less than a year."
[Whoever killed it should be held responsible. Someone else made the money and now they have to bear the consequences. Even if it becomes extinct, it won’t affect me, who has to pay to enter the zoo.]
[The sufferings of life make people boring, alas:-(]
[Human development is like removing the wooden boards in the wooden house to keep warm in winter, but building a concrete house next to it. If the wooden house is completely gone before the new house is built, human beings will not be far from extinction. But if the wooden boards are not removed, some people will not see the sun the next day.]
"Many people may not understand the impact of the extinction of such small creatures. For example, the Pinta Island tortoise or the Yangtze giant softshell turtle have no impact on our lives at all. Protecting animals is more out of compassion."
"But I think species protection is like playing Jenga, a building block game. I don't know if you have ever played it. It is a large number of square wooden blocks neatly stacked into a large rectangular block, and individual wooden blocks are continuously extracted from it until someone extracts a wooden block and the rectangular block collapses."
The netizens have some understanding. Many people may not have played this kind of game, but they have heard of it. It is used as a metaphor at the moment, which is vivid and figurative.
"The purpose of species protection is to minimize the number of building blocks that are removed and to prevent the biosphere from collapsing."
Bifang smiled and said, "I have said similar things many times. If I say more, it will sound like a lecture. However, this survival is almost over. If I don't say something, it seems that I can't elevate the theme. It reminds me of the ending that I must have when writing essays in the past."
"So start having some fun."
The biosphere has evolved over hundreds of millions of years to become what it is today. During this period, countless species have appeared and disappeared, and it has also experienced various reshuffles and started over again. Human beings are the biggest beneficiaries of this round.
The extinction of one or two species certainly cannot destroy the entire body size, but their extinction warns of huge changes in the environment. At present, humans have no way to repair the damage to the biosphere out of thin air, so preventing it from continuing to deteriorate is already the best practice.
Bifang believes that in the future, humans will definitely explore a way of development that is more beneficial to themselves and the biosphere.
Just as he finished speaking, the young polar bear accidentally tripped and fell to the ground because he was chasing too fast. He rolled over several times, and his fluffy fur was covered with dry snow.
The mother polar bear finally noticed her naughty child. She turned around, bit the cub's neck, shook it a few times, cleared the snow, and helped it stand up again.
The two bears, one big and one small, continued to walk away.
The audience who saw the same scene burst into laughter. Many female fans felt their hearts were melting. The little bear was so adorable.
And more people were still discussing what Bifang had just said.
[Not long ago, the Yangtze River sturgeon was completely extinct]
[I first learned about the Yangtze sturgeon in a text called "Living Fossils". At that time, it was an endangered species. Now it is gone, which is a pity.]
[Each species has its own unique advantages. For example, artemisinin is extracted from Artemisia annua. Each species has the potential to bring huge benefits to humans. Humans protect animals not only for kindness and morality, but also to protect themselves and leave themselves a way out in uncertain crises in the future.]
【It is the evil consequence of destroying the environment for humans, but humans are not criminals. Survival of the fittest. If humans destroy the environment, they will gradually no longer be the "fittest", so they will protect nature.】
…
Mid-January.
Bifang has survived in the Arctic for more than ninety days, and there is less than a week left until the end.
Three months of survival in the wilderness is the longest mission Bifang has ever done, and his entire image is completely different from when he first came here.
The hair that had not been taken care of for a long time did not look oily because it was washed frequently, but because it was too long, it still looked a little messy.
This is inevitable, and Bifang can simply shave some of it off, but in the cold Arctic, this is completely unnecessary. On the contrary, thick hair can also keep warm to a certain extent.
The overall weight has also been reduced to a certain extent. Although hunting has been going on during this period, it is inevitable that it has dropped, but the drop is not much, and it still remains at around 80 kilograms, which is probably the state before weight gain.
After all the goings and goings, there was no change and everyone was happy.
This also further proves that Bifang's survival ability is indeed at the top among humans.
In the same program in the previous life, the environment was not even as bad as Bifang. When in the forest, almost all the contestants would drop drastically in weight. Some even lost dozens of kilograms, which was terrifying.
But this actually only shows that the contestants are not capable enough. After all, if you have to lose weight to survive in the Arctic for 100 days, then the Inuit would have become extinct long ago.
Bifang only felt a little uncomfortable in the early stage, but in the later stage he quickly controlled his own survival status and entered a stable living environment.
The ability to move from one environment to another and still live as comfortably as the natives, or even better, all demonstrates Bifang's ability.
He has the ability to survive stably and for a long time in one of the harshest environments on earth, and even has enough energy to feed six big dogs!
Sled dogs eat more than humans. In other words, Bifang can even feed ten people by itself!
This horrifying conclusion made everyone realize one thing.
If he really came to a doomsday environment, as long as a meteorite did not hit the earth and destroy the entire planet at once, this guy would definitely be the last one to survive, and he could even bring others to survive with him.
Today, Bifang went out as usual. He put on a snow-white scarf, called the six sled dogs, gently closed the wooden door and put in the bolt.
The uninhabited Arctic did not need such a thing until Bifang was attacked by a pack of Arctic wolves. Then he thought it necessary to install one to prevent the sled dogs from suddenly running out.
After the wooden bolt was inserted, the cabin trembled slightly, and a few smoked rabbits hanging on the edge of the cabin swayed a few times. The snow on the edge of the roof fell down. There had been a snowstorm some time ago, and the top of the cabin was completely covered with snow, but the tilt angle was too large, so the snow was not thick.
The sight of the swaying smoked rabbit meat made the sled dogs nearby salivate. Bifang looked up and patted his forehead.
“Forgot to put them in.”
If you don't bring them back into the house, who knows what might eat them when you get back.
After collecting the smoked rabbit meat on the edge and putting it into the house, Bifang drove the sled and set off again, traveling on the vast ice field to witness more scenery.
The temperature is still very low, only around minus 30 degrees Celsius, but compared to the minus 60 degrees Celsius during the snowstorm some time ago, it can be considered "warm".
That period was truly terrifying. The temperature was as low as minus sixty degrees Celsius, and Bifang felt as if even his soul was about to freeze.
The surrounding environment is still the same gray and white, but Bifang does not feel lonely or monotonous.
Even on the eternal ice field, new life and new things appear every day.
Every morning is different.
Every life has a fresh story.
The wind brings the seeds of stories, and time makes them germinate.
Bifang enjoyed this kind of life and did not feel it was hardship.
Of course, such a life security comes from Bifang's strong survival ability. If it were someone else, it would be very difficult just to survive, let alone experience the beauty of it.
Normal people who come to the Arctic to survive can only feel the cruelty of nature and the harsh environment, and even cry in despair.
"Logically, the sun should rise in these two days. I wonder if I can catch it."
In mid-January, the polar night is about to disappear.
Bifang, who was driving the dog sled, talked to himself. He had been wandering on the ice field for the past two days. There were no hills or woods here, and it was just a boundless expanse. He did this just to be the first to see the rising sun.
From polar night to polar day, the experience is absolutely extraordinary and shocking.
