Chapter 910 The Missing Lion King

"Mensah, did you see Cecil during your patrol today?"

On the road about to reach the protection center, two patrol cars happened to meet each other. The worried Barry slowed down the car and shouted to his colleagues on the other side to ask.

"Cecil, let me think about it, I don't think I saw it."

In the other car, Mensah, who was shouted at by Barry, slowed down, frowned and thought for a while, and while replying, he also saw Barry's unhappy look, and smiled, "Ha, don't worry, this kind of thing happens all the time. Maybe he just found a place where he was not easily discovered and had a secret tryst with his new lover. Cecil’s energy has always been very good.”

When Barry heard Mensa's negative answer, his worried expression did not relax at all, but became more serious: "But I haven't seen it for at least six days. Counting a few days, it has been a full week. "

After hearing this, Mensa's face became serious, and he realized the possible problem.

For wandering male lions, they do not have a fixed territory or pride. They will roam in different areas, interact with different lions through different territories, and may die unknown in a fight or hunt. corner of.

It is quite difficult for the patrollers of the conservation center to ensure that they are discovered and check their living conditions during patrols.

But Cecil is not a wandering male lion. He is a young lion king with his own territory and a pride. There are more than twelve adult lions in the pride, making it an extremely large family.

The territorial area of ​​each lion group is quite clear, which can be as small as 20 square kilometers in areas with abundant prey; in areas with sparse prey, such as desert lions, they can also establish territories as large as 400 square kilometers.

The African savannah is obviously not a barren land like a desert. It is very rich in food. It only requires less than ten square kilometers for a large lion group to live and compete for accumulation.

The Cecil family has always stayed in their own territory. They have experienced several generations of lions and have not changed for decades.

Under such circumstances, Cecil, a lion king, actually disappeared in his own territory for a full week under the eyes of the protection center?

"Maybe it's just a coincidence?" Mensah pretended to be relaxed and comforted Old Barry, and made a suggestion, "Instead of worrying here, it's better to ask Dr. Loveridge. He has Cecil's position there. Maybe it’s like I said, where is it alive?”

"Yes, let's go and ask, otherwise I will always feel uneasy."

After hearing his colleague's suggestion, Barry nodded. Not seeing each other for two or three days could be considered a coincidence, but a week was too suspicious.

The two then parked their car at the conservation center and went together to find Dr. Loveridge.

Dr. Loveridge is a scholar at the conservation center who specializes in studying the ecology of lions. He has the location information of most of the lion kings with their own territories. If you want to know the current situation of Cecil, the fastest way is to ask Dr. .

Unfortunately, when the two of them arrived at the research room, they learned that Loveridge was not here at this time, but had gone to the Central Country to attend a seminar.

Fortunately, the doctor's field assistant, Brent Steberkam, was here, and Barry immediately told him what he had discovered.

Brent's expression froze after hearing this.

Old Barry quickly asked: "What's wrong, what happened?"

At this time, Brent seemed hesitant when faced with Old Barry's questioning, but he still told the truth: "Cecil's collar has not had any data updates for several days."

"What? Why didn't you tell me earlier!?"

Barry and Mensa were both shocked. Old Barry even grabbed Brent by the collar and shouted.

I don't know whether it was shame or suffocation after being grabbed by the collar. Brent's face was red, and beads of sweat were visible on his forehead: "I thought there was just something wrong with the collar, out of battery or..."

Before Brent could finish his words, he was interrupted by Old Barry: "Shit, it's out of battery. Cecil's collar was just replaced last month. How could there be a problem?"

"It's just a bump in the wild, who knows"

The more Brent explained, the drier his mouth became. His heart was pounding, but he couldn't get enough oxygen. Big beads of sweat fell from his forehead and dripped onto old Barry's wrinkled face. But at this moment, it is in the strong and powerful tiger's mouth.

In the end, Brent lowered his head silently, and there were only a few heavy breaths left in the entire institute, which hit his heart again and again.

Ruined.

Brent could only pray to God at this moment. Cecil's positioning collar was really just malfunctioning. Maybe it was broken while hunting?

Although the lion almost no longer participates in hunting after becoming the lion king, but that is almost, maybe even a very small probability beyond almost?

Or maybe another lion challenged Cecil?

Thoughts kept popping up one after another in Brent's mind, but when his eyes came into contact with the angry old Barry again, all luck was extinguished.

Zach Sitz Barry, one of the oldest employees at the Conservation Center.

The young people here like to call him Old Barry. Even the most professional scholars are willing to listen to Barry's opinion first when judging certain issues.

The long working experience has allowed Old Barry to know every elephant group and every lion group on the grassland, and he will never admit a mistake.

He could easily identify the lion king of every lion group and the elephant owner of every elephant group on the grassland. Animals that looked the same to ordinary people were like two completely different people in the eyes of old Barry.

Moreover, the long experience of patrolling and feeding also gave Barry a strange feeling for animals. He can always easily find the king who rules it in a territory. It is magical that he has special powers. Many zoologists like to find him. Come be a guide.

Old Barry said he didn't see or find it, so something unusual must have happened.

Brent knew he was in trouble. If something happened to Cecil, he didn't know what his teacher would do to him.

When the furious old Barry pushed Brent down on the monitoring table, Brent hurriedly retrieved the information.

But general positioning is different. Collar positioning will store a lot of information. In addition to basic position information, height, weight, and heart rate are also included, including trajectories within each period of time. This is of great help in studying animal behavior and can clearly Explore what they do every day.

When the last piece of information transmitted by the collar was read, a certain area on the map was marked with a red line, and the red line finally broke off at a certain point.

"This is where?"

Mensah asked quickly. He did not remember such a place in the reserve.

"It's a rocky slope. I heard it's an old abandoned mining area."

Old Barry looked at the location on the map and recognized the place where Cecil last disappeared at a glance.

Mensah felt a little confused: "It seems that I have never patrolled here before?"

"Because it no longer belongs to the protected area, nor is it Cecil's territory. Not only did Cecil leave his own territory, he also left the protected area! For a full week!"