Chapter 37 part 3

Once Kong Bi had finished all these tasks and secured the funding, she went to the tiger enclosure to see Big Cat. This creature was quite irritable, when facing anyone other than Kong Bi, and wouldn’t eat the meat and water thrown in by others. Only after people were chased away would it return to the den Kong Bi had prepared to rest. Therefore, the job of feeding had to be done by Kong Bi herself.

In fact, this stubbornness isn’t insurmountable. It’s like a new cat just arriving home – you put the food down and leave it alone. After a few days of hunger, most will accept their fate.

However, since it was a pregnant South China tiger, everyone naturally couldn’t bring themselves to act so recklessly. They had no choice but to accommodate it, ensuring it could safely deliver its cubs. Even then, they still wouldn’t rest easy—they’d fret endlessly over whether the tigress had enough milk, how to supplement her diet for proper nutrition, whether she had enough experience raising cubs, if her maternal instincts were strong enough, or if they should take the cubs for hand-rearing.  

The level of worry they’d have at that time would be no less than now—if anything, they’d be even more cautious.  

As for Kong Bi, her headaches would only multiply. Adult tigers are typically very independent—after all, they live solitary lives. From pregnancy to the three years after giving birth, the tigress raises the cubs alone. A male tiger bringing food might even get swatted for getting too close. But Big Cat…  

Based on her behavior, Kong Bi even suspects that Big Cat might still be a sub-adult female and had not grown into a qualified tigress. If so, the male tiger who attacked the big cat is really a piece of shit!

Of course, this is just speculation. Tigers live alone not only because they enjoy living alone, but because of insufficient food. Sometimes, if life is too difficult, tigers will form alliances to hunt together and share prey. Considering that the South China tiger is almost extinct in the wild, the big cat may also be a pampered little princess in the alliance.

Compared with male tigers, female tigers are always more likely to be treated preferentially in the wild. For example, if they expel adult children from their territory, female tigers will even choose to give part of their territory to their daughters, even if that part is not much. However, any change in territory in the wild may lead to hunger. From this, we can see the relationship between female tigers.

So, if South China tiger alliances in the wild are family-based, then Big Cat’s non-independent nature can also be explained.

However, Big Cat can’t speak, so Kong Bi can’t be sure which of those guesses is correct. After all, it’s also possible that hormonal changes during Big Cat’s pregnancy are causing her dependence on Kong Bi.

And thinking about these things now is useless. It’s better to let the experts worry about it. Kong Bi is very self-aware; before she can communicate with Big Cat, the experts’ experience will definitely be more accurate than her own wild guesses.

Therefore, before entering the tiger house, Kong Bi also took the rabbit they asked her to bring in and broadcast it for them.

“Roar!——”

As soon as Kong Bi entered the door, the big cat immediately stood at the door and looked up at her expectantly. It was so cute and well-behaved, without any of the wildness and ferocity that other people showed when approaching it.

She put down the bucket on the cart first, then opened the cage and took out the rabbit.

The big cat’s eyes lit up immediately.

This reaction instantly confirmed to everyone that Big Cat must have eaten a lot of rabbits in the wild.

This is relatively rare for tigers. They don’t eat every day; usually, one meal will last them for several days, with each meal ranging from five to over ten pounds.

This feeding pattern makes them more inclined to hunt larger ungulate herbivores. Rabbits are not a staple in their diet.

This is because wild rabbits will immediately hide at the slightest sound or movement. Even though a tiger’s paw pads allow them to maintain the agility of an assassin despite their several hundred pounds of weight, it’s still difficult to catch rabbits completely unaware.

Tigers aim for a swift, fatal strike when killing prey and rarely engage in prolonged chases. Rabbits, however, are precisely the kind of prey that is difficult for them to kill with a single blow. They are usually the prey of birds of prey flying overhead, such as Wang Tianba, who loves to eat rabbits, as do eagle owls and falcons.

In the wild, the status of rabbits is no different from that of mice. They can survive only because they are very fertile, and their life-saving skills are almost non-existent. As tigers are at the top of the food chain, they naturally disdain to hunt such prey.

But the big cat showed full familiarity with the rabbit, rather than curiosity about seeing a rare and fresh animal.

Kong Bi let go, and the rabbit fell to the ground immediately. The big cat’s breath made it run around in the cage in a panic. She looked at the big cat curiously, wondering what it would do, or let the rabbit slip through the gap in the iron cage?

Under Kong Bi’s gaze, the big cat stood majestically, howling to the sky. The deep and powerful roar poured out like a terrifying mountain torrent, sweeping in all directions.

Faced with such a roar, the rabbit could not help but stand there in a daze, its pupils trembling, its bright red eyes gradually dimming, and the world returned to darkness.

It was scared to death.

The big cat immediately pounced over happily, biting the rabbit’s head and chewing it.

Kong Bi was completely stunned.

Is there such a thing? !

The experts watching across the screen were also stunned, thinking the same thing as Kong Bi.

Is there such a thing? !

They had considered that the South China tiger’s survival conditions in the wild were far from ideal, and that it might develop new hunting strategies—such as cooperation between brothers, sisters, or even siblings of different sexes. Alternatively, it might resort to ambush tactics, deliberately stealing prey from other carnivores. Generally speaking, when an animal sees a tiger poised to attack, most would choose to abandon their hard-earned meal and flee.  

After all, prey can always be caught again, but life is only lived once. As apex predators, tigers are more than capable of playing the role of infuriating bullies—the kind that make others grit their teeth in frustration.  

But they really didn’t expect that South China tigers would adopt this method.

After a moment of silence, Quan Xiangsong came back to his senses and said, “In fact, this method is not unreasonable.”

After hearing this, everyone thought for a moment and nodded silently.

As everyone knows, rabbits are very timid. Wild rabbits are somewhat better, but domestic rabbits often die of fright for various reasons. They might even inexplicably scare themselves to death by their own farts. Even if they don’t die, they will inevitably become panicked and lose their way.

From a scientific perspective, the rabbit that died by running into a tree in the story of ‘waiting by the tree stump’ was likely a tragic result of it being hunted by another creature and fleeing in a panic, losing its sense of direction.

And once prey loses its ability to think calmly, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a meal.

Furthermore, tigers do indeed have specific vocalizations they use when hunting. These sounds are usually not loud, falling below 20 Hertz, and even have a certain probability of directly paralyzing their prey.

After listening to Quan Xiangsong’s speculation, Kong Bi came back to her senses and quietly added, “Not only that, but making such calls in the wild would definitely startle other animals as well. If they have helpers, one could be responsible for making the noise, and the other for hunting down the fleeing prey. The success rate should be quite considerable.”

Thinking carefully, ever since they encountered Big Cat, its roaring frequency has been unusually high. Tigers are typically silent killers who don’t vocalize much even as cubs. This is a result of natural selection, as small tiger cubs aren’t seen as a threat by other predators, and their sounds can easily make them targets. If a mother tiger can’t control her cub’s vocalizations, she might even choose to kill the noisy cub to ensure the safety of her other offspring.

Therefore, if a species is particularly ‘talkative’, it must mean that in their world, this is a useful survival skill.

For example, to attract a mate.

When most of the silent animals in nature suddenly become love to shout, you don’t have to think about it to know that it must be their breeding season.

Since the big cats usually like to call out like this, it means that they have changed to a certain extent under the survival crisis and discovered a new way of hunting, or the previous generation of tigers have discovered a new hunting mode and taught them to do so.

From this point of view, the big cat may be the one responsible for roaring in the alliance, and there may be another tiger responsible for hunting.

However, there is still a doubt, that is, the roar of tigers is very distinctive, which cannot be imitated by other animals. At present, there are only a few large nature reserves in China, and their calls have never been captured once, which is somewhat strange.

Kong Bi couldn’t figure out this problem and stopped thinking about it. Watching the big cat finish eating the rabbit, the amount of food fed yesterday was enough, so one rabbit was enough today, but considering that the big cat was pregnant, it could also add another meal in the evening.

Generally speaking, the zoo feeds tigers for six days and then stops for one day, leaving one day for fasting. Tigers have a large appetite. Female tigers can eat five or six pounds a day, and it is not uncommon for male tigers to eat twice as much. The fasting method is not to save money, but to allow tigers with limited range of activities to digest better and stay healthy.

You should know that tigers in the wild have even gone ten days without eating, which shows their ability to endure hunger and their tenacious vitality. The larger the animal, the more it can endure hunger and is used to eating once for several days.

Of course, eating regularly every day will definitely lead to a longer lifespan than living with irregular meals.

However, being full and being stuffed are two different states. Therefore, even though Big Cat is pregnant, Kong Bi won’t keep feeding her until she refuses to eat anymore. If she wants Big Cat to be healthy, she can use scientific proportions when feeding or add some vitamins to ensure her nutrition.

After eating the rabbit, Big Cat became languid. She stretched out her tongue and patiently began to groom her fur, meticulously cleaning herself from head to paw. Kong Bi took this opportunity to start cleaning the feces and food scraps in the tiger enclosure.

Tigers are very clean animals, and Kong Bi also prefers a clean and tidy environment.