Herdsmen went to the mountains to graze and found two newborn abandoned cats. They took pity on them and took them home to feed them. I didn’t expect that after a few weeks, the kitten would be larger than the adult cat. Their tails are as long as t...
Herdsmen went to the mountains to graze and found two newborn abandoned cats. They took pity on them and took them home to feed them.
I didn’t expect that after a few weeks, the kitten would be larger than the adult cat.
Their tails are as long as their bodies, their hair becomes lighter and black spots appear, and their fangs and claws look fierce. At this moment, the lamb at home was also "disemboweled"...
Various doubts made the herdsmen seek help from experts. The experts were shocked and told the herdsmen: Stop feeding!
01 Picked up two "cats" while grazing for mushrooms
At the foot of the Tianshan Mountains in Xinjiang in 2008, Zhang Peiwei, a sheep herding villager, went out to graze as usual, preparing to collect some fungi.
While he was carefully looking for mushrooms, he suddenly saw a pile of things piled up not far from the grass.
He stepped forward curiously to check.
It turned out to be two little kittens. There was no shelter in the open world. Although they were covered by grass seedlings, they still looked extremely weak and pitiful.
The parents of the two kittens were missing and there was no care.
But it still looks like it was just born, and the milk has not been weaned. I don’t know where my parents have gone.
Zhang Peiwei thought to himself that most female cats would not trust such small cubs to leave them alone. He had been standing here for so long without finding any of its kind, so he was probably abandoned.
Of course, it may be that the parents went out to look for food but failed to return, or they were eaten by other carnivores to satisfy their hunger.
But no matter how rich the species are in the mountains, they might not be able to survive tomorrow if left alone. The herdsmen who love to keep pets and livestock felt pity and simply took them home.
It’s not like he has never raised a cat before, and it only has two stomachs on his left side. Zhang Peiwei thought it might be better to take it back and keep it as a companion with the kittens at home.
Herders who have been grazing cattle for generations under the Tianshan Mountains have gathered into villages. Zhang Peiwei is one of the villages at the foot of the mountain.
He happily hugged the two cats and drove the sheep home. As soon as he got home, Zhang Peiwei got busy, wrapping towels and warming himself by the fire, for fear that the two little guys would be lost if he didn't pay attention. Fortunately, they are not delicate.
Not long after they were born, the two kittens stayed in the cold grass for so long that they shivered all over. After being treated by Zhang Peiwei and driven away from the cold, they quickly became active.
Zhang Peiwei also happily named them.
The two cats are a male and a female. The female cat is called "Guli" and the male cat is called "Bahad".
The family quickly accepted the two new members, and "Guli" and "Bahad" have lived in Zhang Peiwei's family ever since.
However, no one in the family expected that the two cats saved by Suixin would bring them great uneasiness.
Zhang Peiwei’s family originally raised native cats, and they usually fed them a combination of meat and vegetables, including vegetables and meat.
"Guli" and "Bahad" have eaten with gusto in the past few days since they arrived, and their bodies have grown up quickly.
But Zhang Peiwei soon discovered that something was not right about the cat.
A few weeks have passed since they were picked up, and the family feeds the kittens as usual.
Zhang Peiwei casually glanced at the pair of kittens when he was idle, and suddenly found that they seemed to have grown up a lot unintentionally.
Go get a ruler and measure it. It's already 20CM.
Zhang Peiwei is curious. Although they are still within the normal size range of cats, are their growth rates a bit too fast?
02 The changing color of the lamb is gradually revealed
Zhang Peiwei began to wonder, are these two cats supposed to grow in the mountains? Wild bobcats are naturally strong and eat well and grow quickly?
However, out of caution, Zhang Peiwei thought about other possibilities.
Perhaps he brought back some other species by mistake, and ended up raising and raising it crookedly. Zhang Peiwei was really undecided and decided to call other villagers to have a look.
Relatives, friends, and herdsmen from the same village all came to see it, but no one saw any clues.
Everyone thinks that this is an ordinary lynx species, perhaps more ferocious than domestic pets.
Zhang Peiwei was skeptical, but so many people thought it was a cat, so maybe he was overly worried.
The two kittens were raised with peace of mind, but the subsequent development was not reassuring.
The Zhang family continued to cook some vegetarian dishes and meat dishes to feed the kittens as before. As they fed them longer and longer, "Guli" and "Bahad" grew stronger.
They even "changed color."
The two little guys originally had black fur all over their bodies, but after undergoing moulting, they actually grew light-colored white undercoat.
Not only that, this light-colored hair is also mixed with many black markings. At this time, Zhang Peiwei did not realize the seriousness of the matter.
Other neighbors and friends once said that bobcats are larger than other cats and look different.
After everyone’s appraisal, Zhang Peiwei became less suspicious. He reluctantly thought that this color might be the civet flower among bobcats.
But seeing these two growing bigger and bigger, the small kang began to be unable to accommodate them. Zhang Peiwei's family felt that they were more or less their own "children" and they should not be too aggrieved, so they might as well give them a bigger place.
It doesn't matter if you don't change it, but something will happen if you change it.
In addition to the larger nests at home where people sleep, there is only a sheepfold.
Zhang Peiwei thought that he would just let them make do together, so he put the two "lynx" in.
But not long after, everyone was dumbfounded.
After getting up early one morning, the Zhang family went into the sheepfold to check as usual.
Suddenly he found a pool of bloody meat lying in a corner of the sheepfold, and hurried to check it out.
It was a sheep that was "disemboweled".
The belly of this little lamb is empty, the meat is gone, and the bloody fur is left piled on the ground..
The Zhang family immediately understood that this was a "night attack" by a carnivore. In the past, there were precedents of wild animals in the mountains coming to steal sheep.
But this time is different, because the sheepfold is in good condition.
The Zhang family felt strange and went back to the house to wake up Zhang Peiwei and tell him about it. Zhang Peiwei was suddenly reminded of his previous suspicions.
He went to check the sheepfold carefully and found that it was indeed intact.
This sheepfold could not have been stolen by "foreign thieves".
It's not a "foreign thief", could it be...
Zhang Peiwei looked at the two "lynx cats" with a complicated expression, and the suspicion he had suppressed resurfaced.
No matter how ferocious a cat is, I have never heard of a cat attacking a lamb!
03 It seems that the wild leopard asked experts to determine whether
may have eaten meat, and the animal nature in its bones and blood was greatly stimulated. "Gulli" and "Bahad" have also begun to change since then.
They no longer eat the food they used to eat.
They began to refuse when the Zhang family fed them home-cooked food, and would only eat happily when they were fed meat.
These two "lynx cats" started eating only meat.
Zhang Peiwei felt even more restless.
A cat that only eats meat but can hunt sheep, is this really a cat?
He was vaguely worried. It was really unsafe for the Zhang family to allow their pets to become wild.
Zhang Peiwei thought for a while and decided to put them in a cage.
But this situation cannot last long. Every night, the sound of "Guli" and "Bahad" roaring and hitting the iron railings can be heard in the courtyard, making it difficult for the Zhang family to sleep peacefully every day.
Zhang Peiwei began to think about what to do.
Although he became more and more suspicious that the cats he had brought back were not two kittens at all, Zhang Peiwei didn't know who to ask for identification for a while, so he just wasted his time.
Until one of his friends came to his home and said something, Zhang Peiwei was awakened by the words.
When friends came, everyone chatted enthusiastically and talked about the sheepfold. This strange thing made my friend very curious about these two little guys and ran to the sheepfold to find out.
But after reading it, his expression became unnatural.
A friend told Zhang Peiwei:
"I like watching "Animal World", and the first impression these two wild cats gave me was that of leopards!"
Zhang Peiwei started to panic when he heard this. Leopard, this is a cannibal in the wild, and the one he keeps next to him is actually a leopard?
After hearing his friend’s feelings, Zhang Peiwei did not hesitate any longer. He immediately found a way to contact local people engaged in animal protection work. He also sent photos of the two "lynx cats" to others for identification.
The reply results also confirmed my friend’s guess.
Experts say that judging from the characteristics of the two little guys, they look very much like snow leopards.
After further careful observation of fur markings and tail length, experts came to a conclusion.
This is my country’s extremely precious and endangered wild species: snow leopard!
There are currently only about 3,000 snow leopards in the wild, which is rarer than a national treasure.
Their most prominent feature is their long tail. This feature distinguishes them from ordinary leopards.
In addition, there are other auxiliary features.
For example, the black markings on the body extend downward in three directions from spots to rings; and the fleshy pads of the claws are thicker, which can support them walking in the mountains and snow.
"Guli" and "Bahad" completely match these characteristics. Zhang Peiwei's lynx suddenly turned into a snow leopard.
This shocked the villagers. No one expected that the kitten they thought was a leopard.
It is still such a precious leopard.
Just because the cat turned into a leopard, it also turned into a hot potato. Zhang Peiwei could no longer keep it.
Snow leopards are national first-level protected animals, and Zhang Peiwei cannot keep them according to legal regulations.
As a large carnivore, the snow leopard poses a high safety risk to Zhang Peiwei’s family and the entire village.
What's more, the Zhang family themselves can't eat as well as the snow leopards.
04 Seeking help for feeding difficulties
The chickens and sheep raised at home were originally raised as livestock and poultry.
It's good now, it's all a meal for the two big guys.
And as they grow up, their appetite increases.
The number of chickens increased from 3 to 5, and later they hitched a ride on a group of sheep.
Zhang Peiwei saw that his family was about to be wiped out, so he decided to contact the relevant local authorities for help.
Official staff also understood the Zhang family's difficulties and began to help find a home for the two snow leopards.
After hearing this answer, Zhang Peiwei felt a little embarrassed. The family has been feeding these two snow leopards so hard that they have already developed feelings for each other.
He actually just wants to get some funding, and doesn't want to give them away directly.
In November 2008, the local committee helped open a public platform account to support snow leopards, raising 1,000 yuan for the Zhang family.
But it didn’t work out after a long time. The professionals who were preparing to receive the Snow Leopard finally persuaded Zhang Peiwei.
No matter how hard it is to give up, we still have to think about the future of the villagers and snow leopards.
After everyone's advice, Zhang Peiwei finally agreed to hand over "Guli" and "Bahad" to people who can better feed them scientifically.
However, the Zhang family said that they will definitely visit their former "family" again in the future.
04 Summary
A similar incident occurred in Guangdong in 2020. An old man picked up a poor kitten.
The old man took the cat home and took good care of it. However, the cat grew older and became more and more unpleasant.
Chickens, ducks and rabbits are afraid of it, and its temper is also very violent. Until one day it disembowelled the chicken raised by the old man.
Later, the villagers caught it together and asked professionals to identify it. It turned out to be an ocelot..
Finally, everyone handed it over to wildlife conservation personnel for careful care.
With the increasing publicity, many people are now more aware of animal protection. Although many rare species are on the verge of extinction, I believe that with the joint efforts of mankind, the earth's ecological environment can definitely become better!
