Agriculture Idol

Chapter 98 The raccoon dog on a hill

In October, the autumn weather was crisp. Li Chengxin and Brother Xiaoyong returned to Lanhai City from the village after the National Day and began to deal with various tasks they had accumulated before.
The two of them and Qi Lanting finally made an appointment with Professor Pan at this point in time to go to Xiaolinzi behind the Town God's Temple to do a live broadcast on the follow-up investigation of raccoon dogs.

Since raccoon dogs were also found under the corridor of the main temple of Chenghuang Temple a few months ago, Professor Pan decided to go there to have a look.

Most of the Chenghuang Temples are ancient buildings with wooden structures. In order to prevent water accumulation under the corridors, the outer corridors of the Chenghuang Temple are covered with sand.

Looking from a distance, there are dense small protrusions on the sandy ground under the corridor. Li Chengxin's first reaction was an ant nest.

Several people approached, only to find that those protrusions were not ant nests, but animal footprints.

Dense small pits are arranged on the sand, and the orientation of the footprints can be vaguely determined.

Professor Pan stroked his beard: "I'm afraid there are many different animals here."

After reading the footprints on the sand, the few people started to observe the scratches they found on the pillars with flashlights.

Professor Pan took out a portable notebook and flipped out a page to show to Li Chengxin and the others.

"Look, this is what a cat's claw looks like. Do you think it's any different from this scratch?"

The cat's paw print on the notebook looks very round, with four toes above the flat soles, the two on the left and right ends are slightly smaller, and the two in the middle are obviously much larger.

The scratches under the porch looked a little more slender, the four toes were about the same size, and there were slender paw marks in front of the toes.

"It's really different!" Brother Xiaoyong observed.

Professor Pan turned over a few pages of the notebook, pointed to the picture on it and showed it to the three of them: "Look, this is the paw print of a raccoon dog."

In the notebook, the paw prints of the raccoon dogs did match the characteristics of the paw prints on the porch.

Looking at it this way, it means that the raccoon dogs in the small forest behind the Town God's Temple may also often appear under the corridor of the main hall of the Town God's Temple.

Professor Pan used the garden shovel to turn over the sand somewhere, and after a while, a large black lump was turned out.

"Huh?" Li Chengxin leaned up to take a look, "Is this the rice paddy of the raccoon dog? It feels...a bit too much."

Professor Pan introduced: "raccoon dogs have the habit of piling up manure. Raccoon dogs in a family will also share a toilet."

Qi Lanting sighed: "This habit is really good. My neighbor's Erha pulls it wherever he goes. It's really annoying."

Professor Pan continued popular science: "The pile of feces of raccoon dogs is used as a way for members of the raccoon family to communicate with each other. By smelling the smell of each other's feces, you can learn about the food the other party has eaten. Of course, there are also theories that this is to confirm The health of family members."

"In this way, does it mean that this is a very important location for filming and research?" Li Chengxin asked.

Being reminded like this, Zhou Hao immediately got into the depths of the corridor, set up the automatic camera, and faced the excrement area of ​​the raccoon family. .

The previous camera was installed outside the porch, so I couldn't see the raccoon's face.

In addition, several people set up cameras at several other locations where raccoon dogs might be photographed.

Early the next morning, several people went to recover the camera and chips.

"Hey, there has been an increase in feces!" Brother Xiao Yong discovered this keenly.

Near the excrement that Professor Pan dug up with a garden shovel the day before, a few more lumps of black feces were added.

"That means there must have been a raccoon dog here last night! Then the camera must have captured something, right?" Qi Lanting became excited.

So, several people turned on their laptops on the spot at Chenghuang Temple, inserted the memory card of the automatic camera, and started watching the video.

Three videos were captured by a camera placed deep in the hallway.

Click on the first video, which was shot at 11:45 p.m.

A raccoon dog slowly walked towards its family's excrement site from a distance under the corridor, but before it got too close, it seemed to smell an unusual perch, and turned and ran away.

Professor Pan nodded while watching: "Indeed, it's a raccoon dog."

Qi Lanting was suddenly a little puzzled: "Is this the same one we photographed before? Why do I think this one is bigger?"

After some operations, Professor Pan opened the previously saved video, and displayed the sideways pictures of the raccoon dog twice on the computer screen at the same time, and adjusted the size of the picture with the leaves on the nearby ground as reference.

After the adjustment, I used a drawing tool to circle the outlines of the two raccoon dogs. Obviously, the raccoon dogs captured this time are rounder than those taken two months ago.

"In terms of body shape, it's really hard to be sure. The one I photographed last night is indeed a little fatter."

Having said that, Professor Pan opened another video that was captured two hours later.

From the same perspective of the camera, a raccoon dog entered the sand under the corridor from the side of the corridor and came to the family excretion area. Like a cat, it squatted down and started to defecate, but its head looked like it had a longer mouth. The head is more like a dog's head.

"Wow, this is so clear!" Several people became excited.

"It looks so round, probably because it has changed into winter fur." ​​After careful observation, Professor Pan judged, "raccoon dogs don't hibernate, so they must change into warmer fur in winter."

Just as he was talking, the raccoon dog had finished shitting and walked towards the camera in small steps.The few people watching the video suddenly fell silent, as if their words might scare away the raccoons in the video.

This raccoon dog seemed to be a little interested in the new camera set up here. While sniffing the camera, it also stared at the camera lens a few times.

"Haha! O(∩_∩)O it must be thinking now: what is this?" Qi Lanting joked.

Through very close-up images, Professor Pan is more observing the raccoon dog itself: "The hair on the back of this raccoon dog is a bit messy, it can be seen that some are new and some are old, but basically they have been replaced. "

The third video was only 5 minutes later than the previous one. When the video started, there was no image of the animal. Instead, the shrill "呵———" sound was heard first.

At the request of netizens in the live broadcast room, Professor Pan controlled the video and played it several times.

"This is the bark of a raccoon dog. I haven't heard such a clear sound for many years."

[Is this the cry of a raccoon dog? It sounds amazing, and it sounds a bit like the cry of an owl! 】

【The raccoon dog can bark...】

[Rabbits and squirrels can also bark, but generally they cannot be heard]

After the cry was played, two small shining dots in the distance in the video - the eyes of the raccoon dog - appeared at the end of the corridor.

With the appearance of this raccoon dog, the barking continued.

I saw the raccoon head straight to the family excretion area, and started to squat down to defecate in a similar position.

"Isn't this the same one? How can the same one poop again after 5 minutes?" Brother Xiaoyong asked.

As he was speaking, the camera lens visibly shook.

"There must be another one behind the camera!" Li Chengxin immediately realized.

Then, the slightly hoarse cry of a raccoon dog came from the distance.

The raccoon dog in the camera also responded.

"It is indeed different. At least two raccoon dogs are calling alternately." Professor Pan also judged.

"It turns out that this is the cry of a raccoon dog," the Taoist priest who accompanied them here was also listening. "It seems that we have heard similar calls at night before, and we thought it was the sound of a cat or a night owl."

(End of this chapter)