Chapter 827 Unexpected
The scorching sun hangs high in the sky, and the yellow-orange beams of light stretch for thousands of miles.
In addition to bringing color, the light also brought scorching heat. The terrifying high temperature of over 45 degrees made the air twist and move like a long snake.
The scorching and fierce light shone on the vast land without any blind spots, except for a deep cracked canyon, where the rock wall blocked the view and cast a large shadow.
The shadow enveloped Bifang. He pulled Alpha and curled up in it to hide his body, even his breathing was suppressed.
The canyon is not straight. There are many extensions on both sides of this crack, just like a leaf vein expanding to both sides, shrinking in the shadow of one of the thin branches. If you are lucky, you can cover yourself.
The atmosphere in the live broadcast room was filled with low pressure. If the various barrages were not turned off, they would almost flood the entire screen. However, Bifang had no time to read the barrages at this time.
Dozens of meters away from him, a large gazelle with a body length of more than half a meter was lying on the ground, with blood gushing out from its body, flowing along the ground into the Blackwater River.
The smell of blood spread and soon attracted nearby crocodiles.
Crocodiles lurked beneath the water, like pieces of dead wood, quickly approaching the river bank.
The tan hair and white hair alternate with each other, and there is no wide black stripe at the dividing line between the two. There is a distinct white circular patch on the buttocks.
The most important thing is that this gazelle has a pair of long and thin horns on its head, with extremely dense circular ridges on them. They look thin and long, like two sharp spears.
Judging from all the characteristics, this is a slender-horned gazelle.
Bifang narrowed his eyes, feeling a little regretful.
Before it even hit the ground, he recognized the animal's species with his excellent dynamic vision.
An endangered species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
The slender-horned gazelle was listed as an endangered species last century, and its total population is estimated to be no more than a few hundred, far below the threshold of 2,500 mature individuals, and is still declining.
The main threat is uncontrolled poaching.
Although increased human activity and desertification can also lead to the degradation of natural habitats and have negative impacts, these impacts are nothing compared to poaching.
Poaching on the African continent has a long history.
From the 19th century onwards, large European hunting parties travelling to Africa were almost universally guilty of poaching, although some were tried and convicted by African kings who hunted on their lands without permission.
By 1900 AD, European colonial powers had enacted hunting bans across Africa, prohibiting most Africans from hunting.
Subsequently, most forms of hunting in Africa, including hunting for food, were also considered poaching by colonial authorities.
Commercial poaching is therefore a relatively recent problem that has begun to pose a significant threat to animal populations.
And the further you go, the more serious it becomes.
In the 1950s and 1960s after the end of World War II, European countries were severely damaged and had no time to take care of their overseas colonies. The wave of national independence was rising around the world. Many African countries broke free from colonial rule and gained independence during this period.
After independence, most African countries retained the hunting bans established by European colonizers, but poaching for food or "bush meat" continues, and poaching for commercial gain is still common.
The inefficient management of the new government is certainly one of the reasons for such behavior, but there are also many managers who knowingly condone violations. After all, many of them also rely on "bush meat" for precious protein.
In Africa, "bush meat" is almost the only source of meat for poor families.
Live by the mountain, eat from the mountain; live by the sea, eat from the sea.
If a country is too poor to mine, it can only rely on primitive animal resources.
It is undeniable that those who hunt for food pose a threat to local animal populations, but the threat is nothing compared to those who hunt animals for international trade.
In the 1970s and 1980s , poaching in Africa reached unprecedented levels, causing a serious crisis.
Elephant and rhino populations are particularly at risk of extinction.
These two animals do not fall into the category of "bush meat" and no one uses their meat as food. They are hunted entirely because of the international market's crazy demand for ivory, rhino horns and their products.
The same is true of the genus Gazelle, which also has long and graceful horns.
Regardless of the species of gazelle, almost all of them have a pair of graceful and gorgeous long horns.
This makes them very popular with poachers.
Cheap but sturdy motorcycles and quad bikes allow poachers to access nearly all areas of the species' range.
Poaching declined after the 1980s, but has become widespread again across Africa following the Arab Spring uprisings of the 1910s and the associated reduction in controls and economic hardship.
Hunters often post pictures of their kills on social media sites, and gazelles, which have a pair of beautiful horns, are a frequent target among them.
At this time, the slender-horned gazelle's hind legs were twitching, and a big hole appeared in its abdomen, with its skin and flesh torn.
Such injuries could only be caused by human firearms. Normal animal hunting would never cause such hole-like injuries.
Considering the environment at the time, the gunshots, the desert, and the wounds, Bifang had no doubt at all and was 100% certain that it was done by poachers.
The hunter used a homemade earth gun and hid in the desert to ambush. When the first shot missed, he fired the second shot and finally succeeded in hitting the target. Unfortunately, it did not hit the vital part. The slender-horned gazelle struggled and fled madly, and finally jumped into the canyon in panic.
The entire scene quickly completed in Bifang's mind.
Bifang compared the gunshot with the knowledge in his memory, but did not find a suitable corresponding target, so he guessed that this might be a homemade earth gun.
The power of the homemade rifle is limited. If the gazelle had not jumped down, the gunshot wound might have been saved.
But it had already happened. After jumping from a height of dozens of meters, even if gazelles were good jumpers, they would have no chance of survival if they landed hard.
[Is it poaching again? 】
[It feels like that]
[It’s poaching again, so pitiful]
The audience in the live broadcast room were not fools. Even though Bifang didn't say anything, they guessed who did it and started talking about it.
[This is all broken into pieces, and the butt is rotten]
[Why does Fang Shen always encounter such things? 】
[You might even run into him if you cross the entire Sahara Desert]
[The more you walk, the more things you encounter. If it is a simple survival mission, you may not encounter them, but in a time-travel mission, the chance of this happening is very high, especially in Africa.]
[You don’t know this in China, but you’ll know once you’ve been abroad. There are so many poachers. Two years ago, I went to Kenya, Africa, and took a cable car. They drove off-road vehicles and shot right in front of you. No one in the car dared to move.]
[Is it true? So arrogant? ]
Faced with the good thing that fell from the sky, the crocodiles jumped out of the river as if they were injected with chicken blood. They came to the gazelle in a dozen seconds and cut the still twitching slender-horned gazelle into pieces.
Large amounts of blood and flesh splattered, skin and flesh were separated, and more blood flowed into the river, attracting crocodiles dozens of meters away.
Before long, a group of crocodiles crowded onto the shore, with four or five of them stacked together, like a mountain of crocodiles. The latecomers fought and bit the earlycomers for food.
West African crocodiles, which feed on fish, rarely eat land creatures.
Bifang raised his head.
In the pale yellow sky, a large bird whose shape could not be seen clearly was circling and flying.
No one came down.
The place where the slender-horned gazelle fell was on the same side as Bifang. If nothing unexpected happened, the other party should also appear above this side.
Sure enough, Bifang soon heard the sound of the motorcycle, and the audience was no exception.
【Someone is coming! 】
[It's a motorcycle. They drove over here! ]
【Be careful, be careful, be careful!!】
Bifang pressed close to the rock wall and tried to lower his breathing as much as possible so that he could hear more clearly.
The sound of the motorcycle came from far away and then disappeared when it was directly above.
A noisy quarrel ensued.
The rock wall was over 25 meters high. Even if Bifang got close, he couldn't hear what they were arguing about. He only knew that they were arguing, and occasionally he could hear one or two words in Arabic.
"Two people, no, more than that, there are three, yes, there are three voices."
Bifang closed his eyes and lowered his voice to reveal information to the audience.
"They were arguing fiercely. I couldn't hear clearly because we were too far away. They were probably yelling at each other... or maybe they were cursing about losing their prey."
Bifang looked at the body of the slender-horned gazelle covered by the West African crocodile, thinking deeply.
The greatest value of the slender-horned antelope is naturally its pair of long and sharp horns, which are extremely beautiful and collectible. They are also excellent materials for carving. But its fur and meat are also very valuable. Now they have all fallen into the hands of the crocodile and become its meal.
It is a blessing to have a pair of complete horns left in the end.
The West African crocodile is small and not a big threat, but it is not easy to get the pair of horns from it.
Furthermore…
Bifang looked at the rock wall which was more than 20 meters high, almost 30 meters.
Not everyone is a well-rounded athlete like me, proficient in rock climbing, swimming, and hunting. It is not easy to get down from this.
Since it is a homemade gun, it just has some unconventional techniques.
Then it is not difficult to understand the blame among poachers. It is nothing more than why they force the sharp-horned gazelles to jump off the cliff here, and finally turn into a pool of rotten meat, and waste all the benefits.
After arguing for several minutes, the sharp-horned gazelle had already been dismembered. When the crocodiles dispersed, not even a pile of sharp horns was seen. It was obvious that it was dragged into the river by an unknown crocodile.
Seeing this, the poachers who had just stopped quarreling started arguing again. This time it lasted longer, almost five or six minutes, and there was no sign of stopping at all, and the quarrel became more and more intense.
Then, out of the corner of Bifang's eye, he saw a black shadow falling from the top of the canyon.
Accompanied by a scream.
Everything came to a sudden stop.
!!!
Bifang's heart was beating violently and his eyes were twitching wildly. He suddenly pressed the drone's camera and turned it to another direction.
But the audience still saw some images, and after a moment of silence, the entire live broadcast room exploded!
Murder, this is blatant murder!
Not only poaching, but also infighting!
Such a bloody and violent scene made almost everyone watching the live broadcast freeze in thought.
If the thrill of hunting animals is anything to go by, then seeing a crime scene is the only real thrill.
This feeling was like a cold poisonous snake creeping up along my spine, chilling me to the bone.
If it weren't for Bifang's identity and proof, there would be no way his live broadcast would be able to continue at this time.
An unprecedented amount of barrage emerged.
[Oh, oh, oh! ]
【Did I see this wrongly!!!】
【They pushed him down! 】
[This is a fucking crime, a crime!!!]
Almost all the comments were accompanied by a large number of exclamation marks, as if only this could reflect the excitement of the audience at the moment.
There are even worse ones.
The crocodile that had just dived into the river exploded again, causing layers of splashes on the surface of the lake. The group of carnivores were once again attracted by the strong smell of blood.
A gazelle is too small to be shared by these guys.
The audience could not see this scene, but they could hear the sound of water and feel extremely moved.
Bifang's breathing almost stopped. At this moment, he could not hear anything with his ears pressed against the wall, as if the person above had disappeared and fell into a strange stillness.
When the voice sounded again, judging from the tone, it seemed like a question.
Obviously, the poachers also found it hard to believe that this was happening.
But what greeted this round of questioning was not communication or insults, but a gunshot and another black shadow falling and landing heavily on the crocodile.
Bifang was completely dumbfounded.
Alpha on the side became uneasy and kept trying to leave, but was held down firmly by Bifang.
This...what on earth is going on?
It could be explained as an accident just now, but what’s going on now?
Bifang could no longer figure out what was happening above and his brain was in chaos.
What should I do now?
Two black shadows fell in succession, and the West African crocodile went into a frenzy.
The strong smell of blood made Bifang feel a little nauseous.
As a bystander at this time, he received a great psychological shock.
There were two more shadows hovering in the sky, like lingering messengers of death.
Finally, the roar of the motorcycle sounded again, and the last person was about to leave!
Bifang regained consciousness and responded quickly to the extremely messy scene.
We can't let him escape like this!
This is completely a no-man's land. If we let the other party go like this, he might really get away with it!
A small drone quickly flew up and landed on the cliff, and the next moment the audience saw the fleeing poacher.
But there is no front face.
Without any hesitation, the drone moved forward quickly and finally captured the poacher's face before the motorcycle completely disappeared from sight!
