Chapter 187 Jackal Blood and Golden Eagle

Several people followed him to the entrance of the cellar, and Uncle Zhao put the wild boar down from his shoulders.

The wild boar fell to the ground, and the five red dogs that had been following behind it and seemed to be well-behaved immediately surrounded it and started biting the fat-rich area under the wild boar’s belly.

The bite force of this red dog is obviously stronger than that of a hunting dog. Its sharp canine teeth can tear through the belly of a wild boar in one bite, and it can pull off a piece of flesh with a single shake of its head. Its teeth are extremely sharp.

Uncle Zhao seemed to know the nature of his dogs. He took out the leg plugs from their legs and directly cut off a long strip of meat. Then he kicked each of the dogs that were gnawing on the meat.

“Come here, eat meat!”

While speaking, he opened a small wooden fence nearby and threw the meat in.

Five dogs immediately got in, and Uncle Zhao instantly blocked the door and locked the dogs in this special kennel which was half underground and half above ground.

“It’s finally quiet now, come in! I’ll boil some water for you to warm up!”

As he spoke, Uncle Zhao opened the gate of the cellar and led a few people into the house through the sunken steps.

This underground cellar is about the size of two adobe houses. The light inside is dim, with only a small window less than half a meter wide. There is a heated bed near the northeast corner. Common daily necessities are placed against the wall.

Because most of the structure is underground and the chosen location is in a windproof and sunny place, the house is much warmer than outside.

After the old man came in, he picked up an iron pot from the stove, turned around and went out to fill it with snow, and then brought it back in.

Boiling snow water is the most common way to get water in the mountains in winter. Just light some firewood and it will be ready in a short while.

It was obvious at first glance that the old man had already adapted to life in the mountains, and he was very efficient in his work.

When the water boiled, Uncle Zhao scooped a ladle of water with an aluminum iron ladle and poured it into a canning bottle. Then he said, “The conditions on the mountain are limited. Usually, not many people come here. You guys can take turns drinking! Drink some hot water and you will be warm!”

Yue Feng did not drink the water, but instead carried the bulk liquor that had been towed on the sled into the house.

“Uncle, I brought this for you before I came here! It’s just a bunch of white stuff, it’s not worth anything, please don’t despise it!”

Seeing the ten-pound plastic wine barrel, Zhao Dashan was stunned: “Brought it for me? You don’t even know me, how did you think of bringing this for me!”

“Hehe, we came here from home, and the journey is too far. It takes nearly a whole day to go back and forth, so we discussed before we came and planned to spend the night in the mountains.

I heard from Uncle Chen that you have a cellar on Woniu Mountain and live there all year round, so I brought some wine with me in advance. If I can meet you, I will treat it as a gift from my junior to you!”

Yue Feng was not embarrassed at all when he said these words. Through his dealings with Chen Pao, he had already figured out the temperaments of these old-school hunters. The more fake and pretentious a person is, the more he dislikes them. On the contrary, people appreciate those who are open and honest.

“Okay! I ran out of food at the beginning of this month, and I was thinking of going down the mountain to get some wine when the weather is good. Thanks to my nephew! You can spend the night here. The kang can’t accommodate so many people, so you can just sleep on the floor. It’s better than sleeping in a cave in the snow! I have roe deer buried behind my house, and we can stew their meat tonight!”

“Okay! By the way, uncle, you still keep red jackals for hunting? Aren’t these creatures impossible to tame?” After talking about the main business, Yue Feng turned the topic to the five jackals of Uncle Zhao.

“You are not that old, but your eyesight is not bad. Have you seen a jackal before?”

Uncle Zhao was quite surprised to see Yue Feng recognize the jackal he raised.

Although the words “jackals, tigers and leopards” are often on people’s lips, they are not very common in the mountains, especially in the villages surrounding Xing’an Village. There have been no traces of jackals for decades. Zhao Dashan inferred from Yue Feng’s age that he should not have seen any.

“Hehe, I was just guessing! It has red hair, a big tail, pointed ears, a head and face like a fox, and its barking tone sounds a bit like a donkey. I heard about it from my family before!” Yue Feng scratched his head and said humbly.

“It is indeed difficult to tame this jackal under normal circumstances. It was an accident that I was able to gather these cubs together.

Did you see the jackal I called Red Dragon? They were a mother and a son, a rare combination of a mountain dog and a jackal!

This jackal pack is a matriarchal group. This bitch is the leader of the group. All the descendants only listen to the bitch’s orders!

This female has half hunting dog bloodline, so she is relatively obedient to orders. The other four were pups that were taken from the previous litter and were not even one month old. We raised them from infancy, and took them to the mountains to hunt when they were seven or eight months old. They were considered to be dragged out!”

“A mixture of a dog and a jackal? Aren’t these things not allowed to mix?”

After hearing Uncle Zhao’s explanation, Yue Feng was stunned, feeling that this information directly impacted his own cognitive concepts.

Dogs belong to the genus Canis of the family Canidae, and jackals belong to the genus Culicidae of the family Canidae. From a biological classification perspective, these two creatures do not belong to the same genus, so how could they possibly hybridize successfully?

Besides, jackals are notoriously vicious and cunning, and they move in groups. The probability of them accepting a mountain dog and successfully getting pregnant is probably smaller than spending two dollars to win five million.

“I heard from the older generation that you can’t mix them up, but he is a mix of a dog and a jackal, and I don’t understand the specific reason!

Logically speaking, a mule shouldn’t be able to give birth to a foal, right?
But there are exceptions to everything. I heard from my grandfather’s generation that in their county, a female mule gave birth to a foal, and the foal grew up and was even stronger than the mother! “

After Uncle Zhao’s explanation, it seemed to be true.

There is reproductive isolation between different species, but many times, for species in the middle, reproductive isolation is not reflected in the inability to conceive. Another possibility is that, like a horse and a donkey giving birth to a mule, the offspring are infertile, which is also a kind of reproductive isolation.

To go into more detail, it may involve the issue of chromosome pairing. Dogs and jackals both have 78 chromosomes, so theoretically there may be a certain possibility of successful low-level hybridization under natural conditions.

It’s the same situation as a mule that originally has no ability to reproduce but has a very low probability of giving birth to offspring.

“This red dog has fierce teeth. It should be useful for hunting, right?” Yue Feng asked again.

Uncle Zhao nodded: “Yes! It does have fierce teeth. It is a bit like a honey dog, not big, but has fierce teeth and is smart!

These red dogs of mine can kill wild boars weighing three or four hundred kilograms without any help!
Normally, the hunting dogs that go up the mountain to hunt dogs are mostly used to hang pliers or bite pigs’ mouths. It is rare to occasionally find a dog that can sneak out through the back door!

These five red dogs are all good at biting the balls and digging out the back door!

In addition to their natural ability to sneak out through the back door, they can also run very fast. Roe deer are nicknamed “Flying on the Snow”. No matter how good a hunting dog is, it cannot catch up with a roe deer, but a red hound can catch up!
These guys can also bite their hamstrings, and can easily jump more than two meters high. In ordinary mountain valleys, no matter how rough the terrain is, they can walk on flat ground almost as if it were flat ground!”

When talking about his red dogs, Uncle Zhao opened up and talked endlessly about the habits of these jackals.

“In that case, these jackals are more useful than the hunting dogs we raise at home! They are smaller in size, so they must eat less!” “You are wrong. Jackals have a higher metabolism than dogs, and they cannot tolerate roughage. Except for the red dragon which is slightly better, the other four pure-blooded jackals can only eat meat. They can hardly digest cornmeal, and the more they are fed, the thinner they get. They will be useless before long!

Besides, these jackals are not as obedient as hounds. Smart dogs can understand human language and know when to advance and retreat, but once these jackals see blood and meat, their obedience plummets!
For example, if I use a sled to drag the wild boar I killed today, these four or five cubs will probably have to eat until they are completely full, and then the rest will be at my disposal!”

“So that’s how it is. That’s similar to the wolf blood strings I raise at home. They all need to eat meat!”

“Wolf blood? Wolf blood is good! If it is well raised, it is much better than this jackal blood! Where did you get it?”

When Uncle Zhao heard Yue Feng say that he had a wolf-blooded dog at home, his dog love was aroused and he started asking again.

Yue Feng: “My uncle Chen helped me get it from the market…”

Yue Feng patiently recounted how he met Uncle Chen and how he bought the dog.

“I was wondering why Chen Erguai didn’t come up the mountain to see me. It turns out this happened!

He managed to kill the blind bear by mistake but he didn’t lose his life. It seems that this guy only killed black-haired people when he went up the mountain and accumulated merits, so the mountain god doesn’t want to take him in for the time being!

He gave you his dog, and now he’s raising eagles instead?”

Yue Feng nodded: “Yes, I helped him train a slow-moving eagle. Every day, he lets the eagle go outside the village, at the foot of the mountain, and catch rabbits and pheasants at his doorstep for fun! A few days ago, the eagle ran away while catching pheasants, so I helped him catch it again!”

“What kind of eagle is that in your hand? I’ve been in the mountains for many years, and I’ve never seen a pure black eagle!”

Speaking of eagles, Uncle Zhao focused his attention on the big black eagle that Yue Feng was holding with his hat on.

“This big black eagle also has a story. When it snowed a few days ago, we…”

They are all people who like hunting, no matter it is eagles, dogs, guns, or anything else, as long as they start a topic, they can chat for a long time.

Uncle Zhao is both Chen Pao’s brother and an old friend of Yue Feng’s grandfather, so Yue Feng was quite relaxed in chatting with him and basically talked about everything there is to talk about.

After hearing that this big black eagle could recognize gunshots, fly over people’s heads, and was the leader of eight dogs in the family, Yue Feng had to demonstrate it to him on the spot.

While chatting and drinking water, several people warmed up. Seeing that Chen Pao was in high spirits, Yue Feng simply took the eagle and went out again.

I took off my hat and released it. The big black eagle circled over my head for more than ten minutes and rose directly to a height of one hundred meters. Looking up from the ground, only a black dot was left.

After having enough fun, Yue Feng took out the meat to feed the eagle from his bag. With a whistle, a big black eagle descended from the sky. When Uncle Zhao saw this scene, his eyes lit up and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothed out.

“Your falcon training skills are inherited from your grandfather!

I know where there is a nest of eagles. Can you help me train them later?
Living in the mountains all year round, it is still too expensive to hunt with a gun. If I can have a good eagle, I won’t have to worry about bullets when I hunt small things in the mountains! ”

No matter what era, the density of livestock in the mountains is always limited, which is directly related to the maximum carrying capacity of the mountain forest ecology.

From this perspective, it is impossible for hunters to go up the mountain and hunt large animals every day. Even if they can guarantee a considerable hunting success rate in a short period of time, it is impossible to maintain it year after year.

After all, big prey require more stringent conditions for survival and must follow the objective laws of nature.

Uncle Zhao, who has been active in the mountains for many years, knows the ins and outs of this. He knows which prey is active in the mountains within a radius of dozens of miles, and what the population size is. He will only hunt when he needs to.

From this perspective, if you have a falcon that can catch chickens and rabbits, you will consume much less bullets.

After all, not everyone is like Yue Feng, who can find a way to get bullets without spending money.

This situation is even more obvious because Uncle Zhao doesn’t like dealing with strangers and is too lazy to socialize.

“Eagle? Is it a golden eagle?” Yue Feng asked with a slight movement in his heart when he heard what Uncle Zhao said.

“I don’t know what species they are, but they are very big. I have seen them catch rabbits that weigh four or five pounds. They would grab them with their claws, pick them up and run away!
They have a nest over at the cliff of Hanging Eagle Stream, and they have chicks every year. If you can help me train them, I’d like to find someone to dig out a chick from the nest next year!”

There are golden eagles distributed in the Changbai Mountains. If Uncle Zhao said that he could carry away a rabbit weighing four or five kilograms, then it is likely that there were many golden eagles.

Yue Feng shook his head after hearing this and said: “If you want to raise a falcon, I can help you do it next autumn!
But this sculpture, to be honest, is not practical!”

Uncle Zhao said confidently: “An eagle is definitely more powerful than a hawk, so how can it not be practical?
We raise it from childhood, and it will surely become our family when it grows up! Then it will be like your eagle, coiled above our heads and waiting, and when it encounters prey it will come down and catch it!”

Hearing this, Yue Feng felt a little helpless.

People only want to believe what they think is right, but many times, the truth is not so.

Yue Feng paused for a few seconds, organized his words in his head, and then said slowly: “It is true that the eagle is more powerful than the hawk.

But think about it, why is it that such a powerful eagle is not seen in many places?
For example, at the bottom of the autumn forest ravine where you shot the wild boar today, do you think the eagle could spread its wings?
We raise eagles to use the power of their tendons and claws to help us catch prey. What matters is the cost-effectiveness, not which eagle is the most powerful!

If you want to catch a rabbit or a pheasant, you can just raise a big eagle. Why bother with an eagle? What do you think? “

After this explanation, Uncle Zhao finally understood what Yue Feng meant.

“You’re right. Most wild animals move around in the woods. There are many places where this eagle can’t really show its abilities!
I’ll listen to you then. Next spring, Hinako, I won’t pay for it!”

“Young eagles have many problems when they grow up, so it would be better to catch a mature eagle in the fall and train it! Since you and my grandfather are old friends, I will help you!
It’s definitely not the right time this year, as the eagles have all migrated away. I’ll get you one next autumn!” Yue Feng promised generously.

“Okay! You have the same temper as your grandfather, you are very kind and honest to your friends!
I won’t ask you for your help in vain! Rest at home this afternoon to relieve your fatigue, and then we can have a drink together in the evening. Tomorrow morning, I will take you to kill bears!”

The third update, 10,000 words updated.

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(End of this chapter)