Chapter 910 Good News and Bad News
"Andrea, anything?"
In the patrol car, Old Barry honked the horn to drive away the animals that were gathering around him, and shouted questions to Andrea who was searching in the bushes in the distance.
After receiving information about Cecil's disappearance from the doctor's assistant Brent, Old Barry and Mensa immediately reported the matter to the management of the conservation center and repeatedly reminded them that an illegal hunt might have occurred.
Old Barry has worked in the conservation center for decades. His face is a very important pass in the entire conservation center. His words attracted great attention.
Managers reported the suspected illegal hunting activity to the Wildlife Office, where executives immediately ordered an investigation.
Among the investigators, the two discoverers, Barry Sr. and Mensa, are naturally indispensable. At the same time, Barry Sr. is a staff member with rich handling experience. Even under normal circumstances, he would have to participate.
The Andrea mentioned by old Barry is an anti-poaching ranger who has devoted herself to animal protection. She has received professional investigative training in wildlife crime and is a retired military officer with outstanding abilities.
He followed Old Barry to investigate Cecil's disappearance. Now the three of them are in the territory of the lion king Cecil, investigating the situation of the lion group.
When Andrea heard Old Barry's question, he did not stand up. Instead, he raised his right hand above the bushes and greeted Old Barry in a posture that the other party could see.
"Come and have a look."
Old Barry unbuckled his seat belt, and Mensa, who was sitting in the passenger seat, picked up the shotgun on the seat and loaded it with bullets.
This is not to deal with animals, but to prevent possible poachers.
The vast majority of animals on the African grasslands reproduce naturally. Even the dumbest ones know to stay away from humans after experiencing generations of hunting. The real danger comes from humans themselves.
When the two men carefully came to the bushes and saw the horrific scene in front of Andrea, they couldn't help but curse out loud.
Behind the bushes was a lioness that had been shot dead, with bullet holes on her body particularly conspicuous.
The corpse had already been eaten, and the blood beneath it had dried up and turned black, soaking the soil and hardening into lumps. Wherever the blood flowed, it burned all the newly grown grass, leaving only a few unknown mushrooms.
"The high salt content in the blood can cause plants to become dehydrated. If it flows into the soil, it will also make the soil compacted, which is not conducive to the ventilation of the roots. These two points combined make it difficult to grow plants. Unless the salt is diluted with water and then decomposed, some saprophytes, such as mushrooms, may grow."
Andrea squatted on the ground, picked up a piece of soil with two fingers and crushed it. While explaining, he looked up at the sky, felt the humidity of the air, and recalled the weather in the past two days.
He is not a professional mushroom grower, but he has seen a lot of things after spending a long time in the forest.
For example, after a night of light rain, you can find small mushrooms growing on dead trees the next day. With careful observation, you can summarize many unknown strange rules.
"When the blood is decomposed, it will generate a lot of heat and burn the roots. The mushrooms must have grown after the rain. With the scale of the recent rain, it must have been diluted more than once. It has been dead for at least two days."
Everyone present had a bad expression on their face. The death of the lioness, plus the two-day deadline, proved that the lion king Cecil was definitely in danger.
In the wilderness, it is difficult to encounter a poacher in the act of committing a crime, but it is easy to encounter traces left by poachers.
Many times, after the crime scene is discovered or a report is received, the first thing to do is to deal with the crime scene. Some poaching has occurred for 8, 10 days or even longer , and the animal bodies have long since rotted.
Being able to discover the scene within two days is already considered extremely fast, but considering the time span of the entire poaching operation, it is still too late.
Killing an animal is so easy. Just one bullet and it won’t take even ten seconds.
All tragedies are irreversible, all we can do is make up for it.
"Let's dissect it first."
Andrea put on gloves, took out the appropriate knife, and expertly cut open the body from the bullet hole, performing an on-site dissection, which is part of the ranger's on-site processing.
On-site processing includes dissecting animal carcasses to study weapons and poaching methods. Rangers have to cut open the carcasses at the location of the bullet holes, observe the trajectory, and if necessary, remove ribs to remove the bullets.
The real mission of rangers is not to kill poachers, but to bring them to justice, so special attention must be paid to collecting evidence.
If stolen goods and weapons are seized at the same time, the court can sentence the perpetrator to a maximum of 45 years in prison. The reason for this is imprisonment, mainly because South Africa does not have the death penalty.
If there is not enough evidence, the suspected poacher can only be sentenced to 2-3 weeks in prison at most, or a fine of only 500 rand.
One of the proofs of Andrea's outstanding ability is that he is extremely good at obtaining evidence. Most of the poachers he has caught will die of old age in prison.
Corruption had made the lion's muscles no longer tough. The hard steel knife easily cut through the skin and flesh. The strong smell exploded like a bomb, but everyone present remained expressionless, as if they were used to it.
After some operations, Andrea quickly got what she wanted and collected the evidence in a plastic bag.
After taking enough photos, the three of them moved towards the center of the lion's territory.
At this point, Old Barry could only pray that things did not reach the worst possible outcome, which was the annihilation of the entire lion group.
The bumpy patrol car rolled over the uneven grass, carrying the three people with heavy hearts to the core of the territory.
A pride of lions in the Kalahari Desert may occupy a territory of 119-125 square kilometres .
However, due to the abundance of land in all Kenya's national parks, competition for territory among lion groups is extremely fierce. This is particularly true in Nairobi National Park, where lion groups are considered lucky if they can grab 3 square kilometers, and the largest territory is just over 4 square kilometers.
The Cecil lion pride is not in Nairobi, but it is not that big, less than five square kilometers.
In addition, the territories of different lion groups overlap, and almost all members of a lion group are active in the central area, making it very easy to find them.
It's just that the members of a lion pride usually split up into several small groups to spend each day, and they only gather together when hunting or having a group meal.
So after the three of them found all the small groups and confirmed the situation of Cecil's lion group, they discovered both good news and bad news.
The good news is that things did not get to the worst point. The lion group was not completely wiped out and many female lions were left.
The bad news is that all the young lions in the pride have disappeared.
"Wait, come and look, there are wheel marks here!"
Andrea pointed to the indentation in the ground.
