Chapter 852: Experience of the Old Breeder
Lion prides have their own hierarchy.
A typical lion pride usually consists of 1 to 6 adult male lions, 3 to 12 adult female lions, and several cubs.
Most lion prides are around 15 lions in size, although there are also large prides of 30 lions, and small prides of a few lions are not uncommon, depending on the abundance of prey in the habitat.
There is even a Bad Boys Alliance, a lion alliance consisting of 6 lions.
The free combination situation is even worse than that of a wolf pack.
It is precisely because lions are highly gregarious that they are not so hostile towards familiar faces that they often come into contact with.
If they are fed regularly over time, they will also regard humans as part of the lion group. As long as you don't deliberately provoke them or challenge the leader of the lion group, even if they just fight and play, it's fine.
In contrast, cheetahs also have a unique social structure.
[Wait, cheetahs live in groups? Why have I never heard of that?]
[When I was a kid, I watched Animal World. I didn’t care about the cheetahs, but they all lived alone.]
[Cheetahs actually live in groups, which shocked my mother for a whole year]
After listening to Bifang talk about the cheetah's social nature, many viewers felt puzzled.
In everyone's impression, it is true that wolf packs and lion packs live in groups, but when did cheetahs also live in groups?
The only memory I have is of cheetahs and their prey running wildly on the prairie. I have never seen a pack of wolves surrounding them, right?
"Yes, but unlike the wolf packs and lion prides you see, cheetahs have a loose social structure."
Bifang confirmed his statement again.
"Among cheetahs, females are usually solitary and do not engage in territorial behavior, but males are highly variable in their sociality and territorial behavior."
"They will form 2-4 permanent teams, and most of the cheetah hunting team members are brothers, but if it is profitable, there will be non-blood-related members in the team, accepting strange cheetahs to join, especially in self-defense, to jointly drive away other predators."
"Not only that, even when stranger cheetahs meet, they will look each other in the eye. Fighting will only occur if they don't like each other."
【What are you looking at? 】
【What are you looking at? 】
[Oh my god, does this really exist? ]
"There are very few records of cheetahs killing their own kind. Basically no cheetah will kill its own kind, which is very rare among large cats."
Compared to lions that would kill the cubs left behind by other males at any time, the cheetah's behavior is simply like that of an angel.
They will not kill each other simply to defend their territory or food, and even courtship does not rely on violent fighting to compete for mating rights.
[It's so warm, I cried to death]
[When will the cheetah be free?]
[In your next life, remember to be reborn into a family with a white hat on its head. Not only can you raise cheetahs, you can also raise lions and tigers (dog head)]
"The bottom line is that cheetahs are efficient hunters , but they are not very strong. They know that getting injured will greatly reduce their success rate."
"There's a saying about cheetahs that goes 'three failed hunts will lead to death'. I don't know if you've heard of it."
What does that mean?
【I haven’t heard of it.】
[I think I've heard it five times?]
[Fuck, is this what I meant by this? ]
"Yes, that's what it means literally. It means that if a cheetah fails to catch prey three times, its life will come to an end."
Hearing this, many viewers were suddenly shocked.
How come if you fail three times, you will die?
"Although this statement is a bit absolute, the reality is not much better, because while speed brings absolute advantages to cheetahs, it also poses huge safety risks."
"Cheetahs can reach a speed of 112km/h at full sprint, but most of the time, the speed they use when hunting is usually around 64km/h. Even so, cheetahs cannot run for long."
"Although they are fast, their endurance is very poor. Exercise will accumulate a lot of heat in their bodies. If they cannot be discharged in time, their lives will be in danger. Therefore, cheetahs often have to stop and rest after a chase."
"In some documentaries, we often see hyenas snatching the prey that cheetahs have worked so hard to catch, and the cheetahs show no signs of resistance. The reason behind this is that the cheetahs need to rest."
"After a cheetah completes a hunt, even if it catches its prey, it will not eat immediately, but will choose to rest for a while. This is because the cheetah is too tired to eat at that time ."
"Hyenas living in the same area often seize this opportunity to snatch the cheetah's prey, and the cheetah can only stare blankly as the prey is taken away."
[Damn it, why is there the figure of the second brother from Africa everywhere]
[You are so strong, but you still like to steal other people's things. You have no moral integrity! ]
[It's natural, brother. Who would dare to talk to you about martial ethics? The one who survives is the boss.]
"Therefore, scholars who study cheetahs have found that if a cheetah fails to hunt three times in a row, it may no longer have the energy to complete the next hunt, and its life becomes precarious."
The energy that the body can store is limited, and most of it is in fat. However, the cheetah's speed requires it to not rely on fat to store large amounts of energy.
Three hunts is the maximum number of times a cheetah's energy will be completely exhausted. If it cannot get food replenishment after three times, death will eventually await it.
"The cheetah's hunting success rate is 58 percent, so theoretically it only needs to hunt twice to succeed once."
"But the reality is very bleak. Cheetahs have to face pressure from other competitors. Lions, leopards, spotted hyenas, brown hyenas and so on on the grassland are all eyeing them. The probability of being snatched away is as high as 10%."
"Cheetahs' survival depends entirely on being caught in the cracks, so cooperative hunting is the wise thing for cheetahs to do."
On the African savannah, if you want to gain a foothold, you must either be strong enough or unite and cooperate. Over the long course of life, cheetahs have gradually developed the habit of cooperative hunting.
When they go out to look for prey, if several cheetahs meet, they will form a short-term alliance and cooperate in hunting. After capturing the prey and eating it, they will quickly separate and live alone, and work together again when there is a chance next time.
This situation is called "short-lived clustering".
Cooperative hunting is undoubtedly a wise move. It not only saves energy to capture prey, but also prevents the prey from being snatched away by other competitors to a certain extent.
Therefore, it is easy to understand why cheetahs do not attack people. They do not attack people because of their habits. They are afraid of fighting and do not like to "make trouble". In the social interactions between humans and cheetahs, they often leave a friendly and harmless impression.
They possess both the advantages of the feline subfamily and sociality, making them the most worthy "cats" that are most friendly to humans.
There has been no incident of cheetahs actively attacking humans in the world.
In many documentaries about Africa, we can see scenes of cheetahs living peacefully with humans. Some cheetahs will even take the initiative to run into sightseeing buses and have close contact with tourists.
As he spoke, Bifang stood up and came to the center of the cage and sat down.
Now the distance between the two sides is no longer the longest diagonal line, but the distance is directly halved.
This action immediately made Harley feel a little uneasy. He stood up again after lying down after eating and kept circling around the iron net.
"Cheetahs are very timid and will be scared away by the slightest noise."
"Because it doesn't have the size and weight advantage that predators like lions and tigers have. Cheetahs sacrifice a lot of the abilities that cats should have for their extreme speed."
"Most cheetahs are very honest and straightforward, so they are often bullied by other predators. In addition, the survival rate of cubs is not high, so the cheetah population cannot be expanded. Add to that the serious poaching, and the cheetah population has dropped sharply, which is difficult to recover."
"You know, at the beginning of the 20th century, there were about 100,000 cheetahs in Africa. In 1975, zoologists counted them again and found that there were only about 14,000 cheetahs left. Now, the number of cheetahs has dropped by half compared to more than 40 years ago."
"There are only about 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild."
"On the black market, cheetah cubs are very expensive, more than 30,000 U.S. dollars. Imagine if you saw a young, defenseless cheetah playing in the grass on the grassland, would you let it go?"
[To be honest, if you just work hard, you may not be able to get 200,000 yuan (cover your face)]
[It seems that the wealthy people in the Middle East have a lot of them. ]
"Because cheetahs are family animals, humans have a very long history of domesticating cheetahs. As early as 3000 BC, the Sumerians had already started domesticating cheetahs."
"In ancient Egypt, the cheetah was a symbol of royal power and nobility. People domesticated cheetahs and kept them close to the pharaoh, symbolizing the protection of the throne."
"The ancient Egyptians also believed that cheetahs could help the dead pharaoh's 'soul to be reincarnated'."
"It can be said that in history, those who could own cheetahs were either rich or noble, which may be one of the reasons why cheetahs are sought after by some wealthy people today - to show their identity and status."
[If we want to protect an endangered animal, can we relax the restrictions on its captivity and allow it to become a pet for the public, so that it can be saved from the danger of extinction? ]
Bifang shook his head.
"This is what I said at the beginning. The reason why the cheetah is not suitable to stay in the zoo is not because it is the king of speed and likes to gallop on the grassland. In fact, it is the nature of almost all animals to open their mouths to eat and stretch out their hands to wear clothes."
"The fundamental reason is that cheetahs in captivity are extremely difficult to reproduce."
"According to ancient records, during his 40-year reign, Akbar the Great, the Mughal emperor of India, raised about 9,000 cheetahs, but only one litter of cheetah cubs was born."
With a probability of one in several thousand for reproduction, it is conceivable that it is almost impossible for cheetahs to reproduce in captivity.
"This is because cheetahs, like desert cats, fishing cats and snow leopards, have poor adaptability to the environment and are easily affected by environmental changes and do not reproduce."
"Even with more advanced technology and breeding techniques today, people are still unable to achieve stable reproduction of cheetahs under artificial conditions."
"So in zoos around the world, lions and tigers are easy to see, but cheetahs are very rare. There are only about 10 zoos in China that keep cheetahs, and there is almost no news of cheetah cubs being born in zoos."
"That's why Harley had to learn to hunt and then return to the wild."
"In fact, the reason why humans cannot domesticate cheetahs is not because they have bad personalities, but simply because they cannot reproduce. If this problem can be solved, cheetahs can definitely become a more successful domesticated animal than cats, second only to dogs. What a pity."
Bifang sighed when he thought of this.
Harley paced around Bifang for a long time. Seeing that the other party was just sitting there, he seemed to feel a little bored and lay down again.
Bifang smiled upon seeing this.
It only took him less than a day and a half to successfully shorten the safety distance between the two sides to less than ten meters. This is definitely news worth celebrating.
Bifang was confident that he could catch the big cat within three days.
Next, Bifang called away a drone.
"Come on, we will not stop the live broadcast today. I will take you to meet a staff member who has worked here for more than 20 years. Let him tell you about the attitudes of lions, tigers, cheetahs, and leopards towards their owners, and find out whether cheetahs are the closest to their owners."
【Good guy, practice makes perfect! 】
[Awesome, Master Fang can combine theory with practice. ]
"His name is Zach Schiz Barry. He used to work at the zoo. He is responsible for almost all the animal care at the conservation center. I met him while wandering around here these two days."
Then, in front of the audience, Bifang found a staff member who was feeding a lion.
The staff member looked quite old, with half of his beard white. When he saw Bifang coming, he threw the piece of meat in his hand over the iron net and greeted him enthusiastically.
The lion in the iron net took the piece of meat and started tearing it apart on the spot.
Bifang took a look and directly stated his purpose.
"Oh, so that's how it is." Barry lifted his cap and laughed. "Then you've found the right person for this question. I have raised tigers, lions, bears, leopards, birds of prey, and dogs. Especially when I worked at the zoo, I was able to come into contact with animals not only from Africa but from all over the world, and in quite a few of them."
"So where do we start?"
"Let's talk about tigers first."
"Well... if a tiger is raised from a young age, its average level of ferocity to humans will be greater than that of a lion, because they are solitary animals and generally not very friendly to humans."
"But if you raise them from a young age and cuddle and kiss them every day, they will be very well behaved. But no one in our zoo raises them that way. They are all a bunch of hungry babies, and we don't have the time to look after the little ones every day."
"Only a few are relatively well behaved, but they are still a minority. Most of them don't like to talk to people. You never know when they will suddenly attack you. A three-month-old tiger can already cause serious harm to a person."
"If you stretch your hand out to grab the meat from a four-month-old tiger cub, 80 percent of them will bite you."
"Of course, there are a few tigers that are relatively gentle. I once raised a tiger named Qiqi, who was particularly gentle. When I put my hand in her mouth during meals, she would not bite it but would just walk away silently. If I touched the soles of her feet, she would at most hit me with her tail or turn around to scare me."
"In general, I have kept more than 10 tigers. Among these 10, I have confirmed that only 6 will not attack me."
"What about the lion?"
"Lions are safer to humans than tigers in some ways. They are social animals and you can become one of them."
"But lions and tigers are cats after all, and the intelligence of cats is far inferior to that of dogs and bears. You never know when they might go crazy and hit you."
"But generally speaking, lions are safer than tigers, especially female lions, who can be petted. A few male lions have very bad tempers and are more ferocious and violent than tigers. Some have good relationships with people and will even come to you and rub their heads against you and then fall to the ground for you to pet them."
"You can touch most of the lions I raise without worrying about it. I usually don't tease male lions because they have bad tempers."
"In the eyes of a lion, the owner who raised it from childhood may be a standing lion."
Hearing this, the audience couldn't help but laugh.
"What about the leopard?"
"Leopard?"
Barry seemed to recall a bad memory and then shook his head repeatedly, making the audience curious.
"It is almost impossible for leopards to be friendly to humans. This kind of animal has an extremely unstable personality. Even if you raise it from a young age, it can still be extremely dangerous."
"They are more dangerous than lions and tigers, but they are smaller in size and less intimidating than lions and tigers. If leopards were the size of lions and tigers, they would be very scary."
"They are extremely violent and neurotic, and are very hostile to humans."
"You can search India and you will find leopards often sneaking into villages to attack livestock and humans. They are very erratic. The leopards I have raised for more than a year would not let me get too close to them. They are very likely to attack people. If you make a threatening move, the leopard will immediately get angry."
"At first I thought I had done something wrong, so I consulted a few keepers and they told me that this is the nature of leopards, and they are very unstable."
"Maybe it's because he has been bullied by lions, tigers and hyenas for many years, which has caused him to become neurotic. He doesn't think anyone is a good person."
"In the eyes of leopards, there are no friends, only enemies and food."
"If a tiger or lion is well-fed, I can kiss it on the cheek. But for a leopard, it's impossible. I won't kiss its cheek anyway."
"Even if you raise it from a puppy, it's basically useless unless you extract its teeth and sterilize it, maybe it will be better, but don't even think about raising it normally."
[My goodness, are leopards so ferocious? ]
[Neurotic, this description scares me a little]
[No wonder I’ve never seen rich people in the Middle East raising leopards. It turns out they are afraid of them too, hahahaha]
"What about the bear?"
"Hmm..." Barry groaned for a moment, "As for the bear family, they have very high intelligence."
"The black bears and brown bears I raise can open the tap to drink water on their own, and they can drag the feeding trough to the feeding place. When it's time to eat, I can feed a few of the smarter bears with my hands, and they know not to bite my hands."
"In short, it's not a question of whether they are friendly or not, but that they are very intelligent and can accurately distinguish between keepers and other personnel."
"But one thing is that bears have almost no vision. They are blind. They just have a very strong sense of smell and hearing, especially smell. They can smell whether someone is their keeper."
"And everyone, please be careful, don't put your hands into the cage to feed the bears in the zoo. No, I should say that you should not feed any animals."
"Many stupid bears can't tell whether it's your hand or food, so they might just chew your hand."
"If we talk about raising bears from a young age, bears are definitely better than tigers because bears are naturally more intelligent. Personally, I feel that it is about the same as raising a lioness from a young age."
"But bears are particularly irritable and aggressive during estrus."
"In general, if bears are raised from a young age, theoretically they can be raised to be relatively well behaved, after all, the bear family is closely related to the dog family."
"If I have to say which one is more docile, I personally feel that brown bears are slightly more docile than black bears, but only slightly."
"Bears are also very intelligent and often steal food from people, so bears are a very threatening creature to humans. Don't touch bears just because they are fat."
"What about the last cheetah?"
Bifang finally asked about the cheetah, which was also the ultimate purpose of this topic.
"Ha, Cheetah, compared to the ones above, it's a total elf."
Barry laughed.
"I feel like they are similar to cats. They have ambitions, but not much. If anything, they are not as ambitious as dogs. They are probably similar to tamed wolves."
"Wolves are very sensitive animals. I once raised a fat wolf that was rejected by the pack and became depressed and even lost its tail."
"I played with it every day and it got better. Finally, I reshuffled the pack and mixed them together again."
"If wolves are raised from childhood, their intimacy is similar to that of dogs, but their obedience is far lower than that of dogs. After all, dogs have been domesticated, while wolves have not yet been domesticated."
"If you don't raise them from a young age, wolves are very afraid of people and are aggressive. They will get better after they have been raised for a long time, so I think cheetahs and wolves are similar."
"In the eyes of a wolf, the person who raised it from childhood is a real old wolf standing up. The two are like ants on the same rope."
"Generally speaking, wolves and cheetahs are the safest and most friendly of these beasts, but that doesn't mean they are not dangerous. Golden retrievers can bite people and cause serious injuries, let alone wolves."
"Don't ever think that wild animals are safe. I can tell you clearly that it takes less than 10 seconds for a tiger or lion to kill a person."
"Bears kill people more slowly, and may even eat them alive bit by bit."
"These beasts are inherently dangerous. Don't be fooled by their cute appearance. Well, that's about all I know. It would be difficult for me to tell them apart based on their structure. I just have some experience."
After Barry finished speaking, he pushed the cart full of meat away.
He then has to go to the next feeding location.
【Just some experience】
[This experience is too rich]
[Too awesome, the protection center is full of hidden bosses]
[It has to be Fang Shen, he really knows everything, you are only 26, this old man must be over 50]
[Indeed, I can still watch live broadcasts for at least 20 years (laughs)]
On the morning of the third day, after Bifang had finished feeding for the second time, he finally felt that he should be able to have some physical contact with Harley.
