Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

The conditions here are quite good, with deep and concealed forests and a fairly large pond nearby. According to current observations, the number of tigers and leopards active here is extremely rare, mostly just passing through, with no frequent appearances over any extended period.

The Fishing Cat chose this place to give birth to cubs with considerable thought... right?

Returning to the current situation, the group of Asian Elephants that was originally supposed to just pass by suddenly stopped. An hour later, the other adult elephants slowly departed, leaving a young female elephant and two older female elephants behind.

Chen Ying is not an expert in specialized research on Asian Elephants, but as an animal medicine specialist, he still has a basic judgment of wild animal behavior, not to mention he can understand animal languages.

At this moment, the cries he heard were clearly from the young female elephant expressing distress, as she was about to give birth, feeling very uncomfortable and irritable!

This unexpected scene left the three people lying in ambush here staring at each other in disbelief; what kind of amazing luck was this?

Good luck or not, depends on for whom!

At this moment, the Fishing Cat lurking in the farther bushes was about to go berserk.

Damn it, do you guys know how hard it is for an old lady like me to choose a place to give birth? Oh, you big guys obviously don't know, you can just randomly find a place to pop your offspring, right? Unlike us, where we have to consider the environment, food supply, and threats from other animals.

The young and pretty Fishing Cat was so angry that her mouth twitched, were it not for the fear of provoking these Asian giants, she would've gone up there with hands on hips to scold them for a couple of rounds.

The otter nest is of course by the water's edge, yet it's about 100 meters away from where the elephant gives birth. But damn it, the amniotic fluid and placenta post-birth attract predators. To elephants, an adorable small Fishing Cat poses no threat, but they still need to be wary of larger creatures like tigers and leopards. Hence, after the elephant baby is born, they prompt and help the baby to stand and walk, guiding it to suckle for the first time.

After that, they will move the baby to a new location, waiting for the most dangerous first three days to pass. Once the baby has gotten used to walking and breastfeeding, they'll bring the baby back to the elephant herd to continue their carefree walks in this rainforest.

The remains from giving birth will attract many predators in a short time.

The young female Fishing Cat, seeking a safe birth and nurturing place for her child, will have to choose another spot.

It's like you just bought a new house, only to find out that a random chemical plant has appeared next door, with a chemical leak occurring... Who do you even complain to?

Two hours later, the mother elephant finally began giving birth. The baby elephant landed on its rear end first, flopped down like a soft pile, wrapped in the fetal membrane.

The mother elephant, too exhausted from delivery, used her trunk to help tear open the fetal membrane. The two older female elephants assisting with the birth also nudged the baby with their feet, encouraging it to struggle free from the confining fetal membrane.

This process usually lasts for one to two hours.

This was a good kid who didn't trouble its mother much, successfully born after just an hour. Based on past experience, Chen Ying estimated that this Xiao Xiang weighed roughly about 100 kilograms, a healthy baby.

Normally, an elephant calf learns to stand within half an hour, and starts nursing within two hours. This healthy baby followed this timeline, efficiently finding its source of milk.

(This footage was captured during the Yunnan elephant tourism group's self-guided tour, borrowing it for a bit.)

After feeding and drinking its fill, the baby began practicing walking under its mother's guidance, with the two older female elephants extending their trunks to protectively support its wobbly steps.

It wasn't until dusk was almost setting in that the elephant mother, with the baby in tow and under the protection of the two older females, moved to another safe spot to spend the night.

Once they left, the group of people who had been lying still for hours finally let out a sigh of relief, turned over, and moved their almost stiff bodies.

"Teacher, will that Fishing Cat come back?"

"Definitely not," Chen Ying glanced through the lens, chuckling wryly, "This mother elephant seems inexperienced with dealing with afterbirth and the fetal membrane. Normally, a mother would eat part of the placenta to replenish herself, but this one didn't even glance at it. Just wait, the placental remains and amniotic fluid will definitely attract other carnivores."

He took a breath and stood up, "Hurry up, set up the cameras and camcorders, we need to get out. There's going to be a big party for the rainforest natives here soon."

The three of them hurriedly left sturdy cameras, checked the pre-installed infrared ones, and then swiftly departed with their equipment.

Once back at the base, after editing the video footage a bit, Chen Ying sent it to the work group, and also shared a copy with the Asian Elephant observation group next door.

Oh boy, both groups exploded with excitement!

Almost no one had ever observed the entire wild birthing process of Asian Elephants from such a close distance and clear angle. The appearance of this video could be said to fill a significant gap in the observation of wild Asian Elephants.

Originally, Chen Ying had planned to stay today with another researcher for company, but the latter couldn't come due to food poisoning, leaving it to Chen Ying's doctoral student! A fierce glare ←_← Glare (｀ﾍ´)=3

Although their main research focus was on Fishing Cats, hey, who wouldn't want to see an Asian Elephant giving birth!

Chen Ying had no reservations; he directly handed the unedited footage to the Asian Elephant team, and even the local reserve management bureau requested a copy, since the land where this elephant stood belonged to Old Fang's side.

Chen Ying's openness greatly increased the goodwill from the bureau, and the officer who came to collect materials also chatted with Chen Ying for quite a while. The next day, Chen Ying dispatched another team to observe a different water area.

That area is located at the transition between farmland and wetlands, where the biggest threat isn't from the wild animal food chain, but rather from the threat of floods.

"The gentleman who used to conduct wetland explorations mentioned that the area once had a high density of Fishing Cat sightings, but due to local fishing poisoning and the deployment of anti-poaching electric fences around rice paddies, Fishing Cats gradually moved away."

"However, since the implementation of the 'Fishing Cat-Friendly Paddy Field Initiative' over the past two or three years, where farmers are subsidized for maintaining embankment vegetation for Fishing Cat hiding, records have shown at least seven to eight Fishing Cat sightings each year. He speculated that it's now a peak breeding period for Fishing Cats, and there might be expectant Fishing Cats in that area. The whole territory is within the domain of the two Fishing Cats introduced there, and it's possible that the mother or father of the kittens might be those introduced cats."

With such a lead, they couldn't let it pass, so they made temporary staffing adjustments.

Chen Ying didn't plan on going himself. He appointed one mature and steady researcher, a graduate student proficient in language and communication, a local guide, and a security officer, forming a four-person team to go to that wetland.

Not many people were left behind, so the workload for each increased accordingly. Luckily, everyone in the team worked together with a united spirit for the cause, though tired, they were still in good spirits.

With the elephant birth incident, that area would temporarily see no Fishing Cats, though plenty of other animals came by. On the third night, a particularly striking little creature with a vivid pattern appeared in the lens.

That's not the point; the point is that above this little creature in the tree, a pair of cold eyes were already locked onto its body.

Chen Ying was browsing papers and casually discussing the day's work progress with team members in the group chat, when he inadvertently glanced at the monitor connected to the camera, and uttered, "Am I seeing things?" startling the other two teammates.

"Chen, what's happening?"

Chen Ying pointed at the screen, "Look here, isn't that a Clouded Leopard, and over here, an Indochinese Leopard?"

So now the scene about to unfold before the few viewers here was a potential imminent Clouded Leopard and Indochinese Leopard showdown?