Blue Star Survival Project: Animal Edition

In the middle of the night, the cubs were hungry again.

This was the first time Shengcun went out to look for food in three days. A typhoon tore up the bushes, and the dampness after the rain gave birth to countless dormant insects. Food was not difficult to find.

But Shengcun felt that the pressure on his shoulders was increasing. The cubs were in an embarrassing puberty. They didn't have the hunting ability of adult birds, but they had the appetite of adult birds, and they screamed when they were hungry.

This is already the sixth time that they have returned with food tonight, and the three cubs obviously still look like they haven’t had enough to eat. Shengcun, who was originally a rookie hunter, was miserable.

He looked at the bodies of the cubs who had grown stronger in the past three days, but felt that his body was being hollowed out bit by bit.

The progress of the mission is over halfway, and the rest of the process should be to let them learn to fly, and then teach them how to hunt, just stick to it for another week.Shengcun encouraged himself.

It has to be admitted that Shengcun is not the only one working hard in this family.

As expected of pure-blooded wild animals, the cubs have a strong sense of self-management. They actively compress their sleep time and practice flapping their wings in the nest day and night.

Taking off of a raptor is not simply a matter of waving its wings. Generally speaking, it must be divided into several steps.The first is to spread the wings, exert force with the legs, and provide an upward momentum, and then flap the wings to take off into the air, and finally adjust the flying posture in time according to the wind direction.

This is a process that requires continuous practice. Chicks with poor basic skills often lose their balance as soon as they fly, and fall like a top. Therefore, when the chicks come out of the nest, you can often pick up fledglings under the tree. baby bird.

For the screech owl, superb flying skills are the capital of survival.As small owls with a body length of only 20cm, they are destined to be unable to take advantage of their size to catch large prey, so they must compare their skills with insects that are also proficient in flying.

An excellent screech owl can accurately catch fast-flying insects from the air, and can also snatch sleeping birds from branches silently. It is an out-and-out night killer.

The little red screech owls are still in the stage of practicing basic skills, but they are striving unremittingly towards the goal of "night killer".

The flight instinct engraved in the DNA is enough to provide guidance at the initial stage. What Shengcun needs to do is to ensure sufficient nutrition supply and wait for the day when they take to the sky.

The day passed without incident, except that the lantern briefly lifted its feet from the ground, and then, because of the wind leaking from its wings, rolled over in the air and fell awkwardly on the sawdust.

"It's a hardware problem, let's not be discouraged, take your time." Shengcun stuffed a piece of meat into the lantern's mouth in due course to express his comfort.

He found that the image of himself in the hearts of the cubs was never taller than before. Recently, as soon as he went out, the cubs crowded at the entrance of the cave, watching him flap his wings and take off easily. Feeling envious.

There is no man who does not like the feeling of being admired, Sheng Cun said: I feel very good about myself.

"tataka." (Practice and you will have a day like this!)

He turned gracefully at the mouth of the cave and let out a series of encouraging calls.

When he came back with the food, he must have seen the cubs practicing in full swing like chicken blood.

He is very satisfied with the current state.

In the laboratory, Ding Yi and his senior sister sat in front of the screen, watching Sheng Cun go in and out of the nest again and again.

"The statistics are complete. Today I went out of the cave once during the day and 1 times at night. The food I brought back was all insects of the order Coleoptera and Lepidoptera." Ding also typed the data on the computer.

"Looking at the frequency of foraging, it has increased by about 3 times compared to before, indicating that the young birds are about to leave the nest."

"Out of the nest?"

"It is a short transitional period from juvenile to adult. The body of the juvenile is basically mature. As long as you practice flying and hunting skills for a period of time, you can live independently. This project is basically over. .”

"That's it... Then I bet they will be out of the nest within three days. When I fed the three young birds, I felt that they were almost grown up." Ding Yi said confidently.

"I don't want to bet with you." The senior sister stared at the screen, smiled softly,

"I think this male bird is really interesting. You see, it stopped and turned around after taking off, as if talking to the chicks inside. I have never seen such a spiritual red horned owl before. .”

"Of course, it's my favorite bird father!" Ding Yi was very proud.

The next day passed, and nothing happened, but after a few days of practice, the chick's body became much lighter as far as the naked eye could see, and its wings flapped to create a whistling wind, giving it the momentum to soar into the sky.

They stay at the entrance of the cave for longer and longer, and their eyes reveal their desire for the outside world.

Shengcun looked at the three fur balls, and suddenly found that they were only half a circle smaller than him. The flight feathers had just grown, and the tail feathers hadn't even fully developed.

Although they all looked stunned, Sheng Cun still had a sense of pride that "my sons and daughters have just grown up".

After all, he is a cub brought up by himself, no matter how he looks at him, he is pleasing to the eye!He is going to surprise them tomorrow.

The night soon came as expected, and after bringing back the first round of dinner for the cubs, Shengcun did not go out, but stood on a branch at the entrance of the cave, calling in a low voice.

The cubs who were already huddled at the entrance of the cave suddenly became excited, their paws were probing forward, ready to move.

"Tali, tali!" (Don't be afraid, come out!)

Sheng spread his wings at the entrance of the cave, and kept encouraging him.

The first one to come out was not the bravest Lantern, but——

The long johns just wanted to get a closer look at the outside, but when it stuck its head out of the hole, the damao and the lantern behind it were pushing forward desperately, it suddenly lost its center of gravity and fell forward.

"QIJI!"

Long johns screamed and fell out of the hole, the tree swayed in the wind, and it also swayed left and right, and it was about to fall——

It fell into Shengcun's open arms, found a little balance, and instinctively tightened its paws, tightly grasping the branches under its feet.

The hamstrings were automatically pulled, and it quickly found a comfortable standing posture, and gradually calmed down.

Sheng Cun moved away slowly, his long johns tightened his muscles, and his hairy paws still supported his body firmly.

Long johns suppressed the beating heart, lowered its head, and overlooked from a height of 5m above the ground, and had a panoramic view of everything on the ground. The mosquitoes and flies fluttering in the grass saw a mole cricket cautiously poking its head out of the soil, and then shrinking rapidly. Head back.

This is the world that belongs to them. Their sharp eyes penetrate the darkness, and they can have a panoramic view of the ghosts and monsters dormant in the dark night.

"tok-toitoink!"

With pride, it raised its head to the sky and howled, its hoarse voice gradually approaching the adult bird. This is a small step for long johns, but a giant leap for the new generation of scops owl!

Lantern and Daimao followed closely behind, and with Shengcun's help, they quickly gained a firm foothold on the branch.

Sheng Cun deliberately chose an angle facing the camera. Four scops owls stood side by side on a tree branch. Their four pairs of golden eyes shone wildly, facing the challenge of survival from Blue Star.

The author says:

Source of inspiration for this chapter: Shen Shixi's "Bird Slave", strong Amway!