Chapter 1551: Ecological Chain

Due to the smell of the dead cat chasing them just now, Zhang Zian and the others deviated from the previous route. Although they could make mistakes and continue walking from here, considering that it would be easier to get water upstream along the creek, he decided to turn back. go back.

It may be that seeing the death of the same kind, the hearts of several cat elves are a little heavy.

Richard has no feelings for ordinary cats, but he feels a little gloating in his heart, because these stray cats usually pose a great threat to birds including parrots, and many parrots kept at home eventually died in the cats' mouths. It gloated in its heart, but dared not say it, lest disaster come out of its mouth.

Back to the starting point when he first smelled the smell of a dead cat, Femus turned his head to look in another direction and asked, "The smell is coming from there, do you want to chase after it?"

"Forget it, don't go there, the cat has been bitten for at least 12 hours, even if you chase it, you may not be able to find any clues."

Although the death of the cat was quite strange, Zhang Zian didn't want to waste any more time on it, so he decided to settle the business first.

The elves didn't object. The law of the jungle is the way it is in the wild, either hunting or being hunted. Didn't they almost become the prey of coyotes last night? Human beings are no exception. Once they enter the primeval forest, they will become a link in the ecological chain of nature, and they can't blame anyone if they are eaten by ferocious beasts.

So what if you followed the scent and found that the killer of the cat was probably a large beast? Fight with it and let it pay for its life?

After entering the forest, Zhang Zian kept talking to them about the ecological chain and why he hesitated to save the head of this herd of red deer. This gave them a new understanding of how nature works. Questions never thought of before.

It is difficult to explain this problem in the desolate desert, but the rich virgin forest is the best classroom.

As they walked, a gust of wind blew by, and the elves stopped almost at the same time, and even Zhang Zian's nose faintly smelled a strange smell.

The wind brought a rancid smell.

After the cat died just now, the body has not yet shown signs of decay. Perhaps anaerobic bacteria have begun to decompose the internal organs, but at least it is not visible on the surface, and this smell... If someone hadn't built a septic tank nearby, That's probably the smell produced by the highly decomposed corpse of a large animal after death.

Zhang Zian and the elves didn't speak, they changed direction tacitly, and followed the smell.

Turned through a forest,

The rancid smell became stronger and stronger, and the nausea surged up. Zhang Zian had to cover his mouth and nose with a towel to hold back his retching.

Elves have a better sense of smell, but physiologically they don't feel like humans vomit.

On the contrary, the herd of deer who had been following behind felt a faint sense of nervousness, hesitated to follow, and stayed where they were and gnawed grass.

Walking in the forest, the eyes suddenly opened up, and what appeared in front of him was a small clearing in the forest.

Among the shady green grass lay the corpse of a large animal, a deer.

From Zhang Zian's perspective, the complete body of the deer could not be seen, because it no longer had a complete body, but from the white underside of the deer's tail, one could roughly guess that it was a white-tailed deer.

Not only did they see the deer carcass, they also saw several coyotes tearing up the carrion next to the deer carcass.

The coyote saw them too, and stared at them through the deer carcass.

Canines have the nature of protecting food. Domestic pet dogs, if they are not repeatedly trained by the owner, will often bite the owner wildly even if the owner touches their food when they eat.

The same is true for coyotes, this deer is enough to fill their stomachs, so they don't plan to attack Zhang Zian and the others, but if Zhang Zian intends to snatch food, they will definitely not be polite.

Of course Zhang Zian was not interested in rotting deer carcasses. Seeing this situation, he didn't want to have unnecessary conflicts with these coyotes. He was about to tell the elves to leave when he suddenly saw the deer's eyes.

He raised his binoculars and took a closer look.

The deer died with its eyes open, with gray eyes that seemed to be covered with gray.

He put down the binoculars, gestured to the elves, and said in a low voice, "This is probably a deer infected with prion protein and died of illness. Let's retreat immediately."

The elves are not afraid of the coyote, but the mysterious and incurable prion makes them stay away, so they turn around and back away as told, even if it is a sign of weakness in the eyes of the coyote.

"Zian, it seems wrong to let the coyotes eat the sick deer?" Old Cha said.

Old tea means that coyotes may be infected with prion protein and continue to spread in the ecological chain.

"There is a problem, but there is nothing we can do. Self-protection is important."

Why doesn't Zhang Zian know, but what can be done? The U.S. officials are helpless. If he can stop this time, how can he stop the dead deer in the entire forest from being eaten by scavengers?

He took one last look at the dead deer and the coyotes before leaving.

At this moment, a black figure suddenly appeared from the woods on the opposite side, and while the coyotes were focusing on Zhang Zian, it threw a coyote down in the blink of an eye, and bit the coyote's neck tightly.

Zhang Zian and the coyotes were all taken aback. He hurriedly raised the binoculars again, fine-tuned the focus, and clearly saw the new uninvited guest from the imaging of the lens.

It was the North American gray wolf, the largest wild canid in the world, much larger not only than the coyote, but also more massive than its Eurasian relatives.

Certain pet dogs that have been selectively bred by humans to become larger and larger are larger and heavier than the North American gray wolf, such as the Great Dane and various mastiffs, so the North American gray wolf is the largest wild canine family Animals, the word "wild" cannot be ignored.

The North American gray wolf looks very similar to the coyote in appearance, but when compared together, it weighs at least 1.5 coyotes, and the outline of the body is two circles larger than the coyote. The prey coyote bit its neck and held it up whole, and let it struggle but clung to it.

Zhang Zian immediately remembered the wolf howl last night, was it the howl of this North American gray wolf?

Seeing that their companions were captured by natural enemies, the remaining few coyotes were afraid and did not want to give up their companions. They surrounded the natural enemies in a fan shape and kept barking at the gray wolves.

The elves heard the movement, came back again, and saw the big bad wolf.

Through the binoculars, Zhang Zian noticed that there was an eye-catching gadget on the gray wolf's neck, and he couldn't help being stunned, because it was a collar.