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99% of people have no idea that the family of Snow Leopard is like this.

Published: 2024-09-16 Author: mysheen

Last Updated: 2024/09/16, Today, I'm going to tell you a cold story. I think I know Bingbing, but it's a pity that it doesn't know me-in fact, I really haven't had face-to-face contact with it. But I've seen a lot of ice photos and videos, and I know it does.

Today, I'm going to tell you a cold story.

I think I know Bingbing, but it's a pity that it doesn't know me-in fact, I really haven't had face-to-face contact with it. But I've seen a lot of ice photos and videos, and I know what it does, what it loves, what it hates. From the camera, I pieced together its story.

Bingbing is a snow leopard. In 2014, volunteers in the wilderness of Xinjiang photographed it as soon as they set up an infrared camera in the No.1 glacier area in the southern suburbs of Urumqi. In the eyes of the volunteers, it was good-looking and elegant, and the same camera photographed a leopard cub at the same time, presumably its child.

When I first saw Bing Bing, the camera was not very good at that time. Picture: wild Xinjiang

This must be a female leopard! What should I call it? The volunteers thought that if the snow leopard lives in an ice and snow environment, it would be better to call it Bingbing. Fan Bingbing and Li Bingbing, we have a leopard Bingbing. How nice!

As a result, not long after, the volunteers were "hit in the face". More and more photos, a meow ice flagrantly showed the balls, it turned out to be a male! What's even weirder is, why would a male bring a cub?

The coronation of the King of Glaciers

In the last 20 years, infrared trigger cameras have changed animal research. In the past, it was very difficult for people to track a specific individual, and most of the time they could only learn about wild animals indirectly through footprints, feces, traces, sounds and other evidence. If you can encounter a snow leopard in the wild, quietly observe for ten minutes, that is, the ancestral grave emits green smoke.

But with the infrared camera, the situation is different. Put one or several to the place where the animal must pass, and you will know what it does after a few months to collect the photos.

The ice captured by an infrared camera for 15 years has clearly discernible spots on the side of the body and on the tail. Picture: wild Xinjiang

With photos, if you want to study the relationship between snow leopards, you need to do individual identification. Fortunately, their individual identification is not difficult, and the markings of each snow leopard are different, just like fingerprints. In particular, their big tails are not only easy to absorb, but also have a clear and recognizable arrangement of markings.

Through infrared cameras, volunteers figured out the size and status of Bingbing's territory. Boy, this handsome offspring actually occupied the best habitat in the southern suburbs of the mountain area.

The territory of the ice is located near Glacier No. 1 in the southern suburbs, covering an area of more than 100 square kilometers and across three ditches. It is located in the higher altitude area where the prey is most abundant, and is loved by large groups of northern goats. Only it and its two wives and children live in this territory. The other leopards only dare to wander around the edge of the territory and will leave soon. In theory, the more abundant the food is, the more animals should be provided, but this is not the case in the snow leopard society in the southern suburbs. Strong males occupy a vast high-quality hunting ground, allowing only families to move in. In places where food is less abundant, the density of snow leopards is much higher.

Such a large area of territory is maintained by Bingbing by force. Next to his house, there lived a male leopard named May, a large, round-waisted but older individual, occupying a lesser first-class territory.

Ice competitor in May. Picture: wild Xinjiang

The war between Bing Bing and May may have begun before the volunteers began to investigate. But the amazing thing is, after years of fighting, the territory of Bing Bing and May is very stable, you can't drive me away, I can't beat you, and I maintain the balance of power. This can be bitter to other male leopards, two strong competition, the third, the fourth, the fifth, the sixth is just soy sauce.

During the breeding season, the infrared cameras at the junction of the two leopards always show ice and frequent inspections in May. Although these cameras do not capture pictures of fighting, they can always capture new wounds on their bodies. One of the most conspicuous scars on Bing Bing's body was probably scratched in May in 2015. The scar is still visible.

The ice photo of 2016, pay attention to the scar on the top of the nose, can be compared with the previous ones. Picture: wild Xinjiang

Is it worth taking such a big risk and fighting so hard with people of the same sex? It's worth it! The old data say that snow leopards are loners and that males and females meet only during the breeding season-which is probably not true. Observations in the southern suburbs tell us that top males such as Bingbing and May maintain a stable home in this area. Fixed wives and concubines live in this family domain and interact more frequently with those in charge. Such homes occupy the best hunting grounds, where females can get better food and their children have a higher survival rate.

The volunteers' observations confirmed this. Over the past five years, Bing Bing's two wives have bred continuously, and the cubs are almost alive. In places where the density of individuals is higher and the food is worse, few cubs appear.

The balance of power between Bing Bing and May lasted until 2017. That summer, May suddenly disappeared and never appeared in the infrared camera. I don't know whether the hero in his twilight years was old, killed, or fell off a cliff. In May, the family domain collapsed instantly, and the wife, without the protection of the owner, could not keep the land, and soon withdrew from the hunting ground. A new young male leopard squeezed in.

Who is this young male leopard? Bing Bing wife's son smashed! In this way, the Bing Bing family unified the best hunting ground in the southern suburbs.

However, in the process of the transition of dynasties, a disaster came.

The plague struck.

Snow leopard's favorite food is sheep. In the Himalayas, they mainly eat rock sheep; in the Tianshan Mountains, northern goats are their staple food.

The huge north goat horns in the river valley, where we drove for three hours, stopped to look around, and picked up three pairs of north goat horns.

In 2016, a sheep plague hit the mountains in the southern suburbs. The plague climbed over the mountains that were not high enough, wiped out the wild sheep in the river valley in flocks, and left white bones. Up to now, the northern goats in the river valley have not recovered, and the huge horns, as relics of death, are still common in the mountains.

The Bing Bing family also suffered. His two wives, one is Jiefang, the other is ferret. The two female leopards each occupy one of the three ditches in the ice. When the plague hit, the ferret's ditch was particularly badly hit, but the liberated ditch was not a big problem. What are we going to do?

There is still a way. I don't know how Bing Bing did his ideological work, and eventually the ferret moved with his children to the core of the icy territory, which before that was the main activity area for liberation and children. It seems that Bing Bing is regulating the ownership of her territory and coordinating the relationship between wives.

The ferret and its two children. Picture: wild Xinjiang

Later, probably due to a shortage of food, two new female leopards successively entered the icy home and were accepted as concubines. The Bingbing family occupied the best hunting ground in the southern suburbs, and there were still some northern goats left. There were such great changes in their families. The fate of the snow leopards in those not good hunting grounds really made the volunteers sweat.

But unexpectedly, in that year, the number of snow leopards in the southern suburbs was not much less. What's going on? The snow leopard has gone down the mountain to eat sheep!

The snow leopard is coming down the mountain!

The No.1 Glacier is the source of the Urumqi River, and the whole valley is not only a habitat for snow leopards, but also a pasture for herdsmen. But in normal years, herdsmen occupy low-altitude areas, snow leopards and the northern goats they eat live high, and people and leopard wells do not invade the river. In 14 or 15 years, volunteers visited herdsmen 'homes, and many of them said they had never seen snow leopards.

But that changed after the plague of 2016. The snow leopard came down the mountain, the snow leopard ate the sheep, and the herdsman's dog could not stop it! In normal years, a shepherd will raise about 100 sheep, snow leopard or wolf at most 1 or 2 a year, this is normal wear and tear, the shepherd does not care. But this year, some people lost 10 or 20 sheep, which is unbearable.

Herdsmen have animal husbandry insurance, but this insurance is not suitable for animal damage: first, the insurance company is big or small, and the wild beasts mainly eat lambs; second, it is impossible for the snow leopard to take away most of the corpses.

As a result, herdsmen thought of revenge, and even bad-tempered scoundrels, in front of volunteers, deliberately stuffed rat poison into the dead sheep bitten by the snow leopard.

What can I do? We can only make ecological compensation, and we have to use money to make up for the loss of herdsmen and reward herdsmen for their forbearance. At present, the local snow leopard protection volunteer organization is actively preparing to launch a human and animal coexistence compensation mechanism for herdsmen.

Domestic sheep. Family bucket?

Bingbing their home, in fact, also had the idea of domestic sheep. The volunteers even filmed strange things.

On December 22, 2016, before dark, Bing Bing and a ferret with two children set their sights on a domestic sheep. They didn't act until it was dark. But I don't know if he has never killed a domestic sheep before. The ferret seems to retain its fear of people and hesitates all the time, just staying nearby. Until the wee hours of the morning, Bing Bing made a move.

Bing Bing came to the sheep, who was in the red circle. Pay attention to Bing Bing's big tail. Although the infrared camera is of ordinary quality at night, you can still see the markings on the tail to confirm the identity of Bing Bing. Picture: wild Xinjiang

In general, snow leopards protect their food after hunting and do not allow any other predators to get their hands on it, not even of their own kind. However, at 2:48 on the 23rd, the camera recorded the ferret and the child going to share the sheep.

Does the public snow leopard hunt for his wife and children? This is an unheard of thing. Unfortunately, the volunteers never filmed anything like this again.

If this behavior is really widespread, then Snow Leopard's family may be more like a lion, with close cooperation between family members: the male is responsible for horse racing enclosure, protecting the family territory, and helping his wife and children. More and more substantial evidence is needed to prove this inference. The volunteers are still watching.

The ferret family divides the ice-eating prey. The few bright spots in the distance are the eyes of ferrets and children. Picture: wild Xinjiang

If the family of the snow leopard is so close, it is not so surprising that a male leopard and his child appear in front of the same camera.

Bingbing's appearance has been changing in recent years. It from the beginning of the face green, to now covered with scars and frost medals, temperament has changed a lot, a lot of old, has the demeanor of May that year. How many more years can it dominate the No.1 Glacier?

Bingbing in 2018 looks much older. Picture: wild Xinjiang

We'll see.

This article is the 160th article in the fourth year of the species calendar, from the author of the species calendar @ flower eclipse.

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