Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

Chapter 375: Chapter 373: No, Spare the Wolf Under Your Claws

It’s still the old saying, let the professionals handle their professional matters.

Chen Ying was a veterinarian; he could save this little critter, but given its special identity, it was better to let the Panda Man make the decisions, with him assisting on the side.

Besides, he tried his best to treat it, but with a Panda Man watching over, you couldn’t blame him if there were issues.

Of course, he guessed he would have to write the report himself.

Such a small panda cub couldn’t be washed directly with water; they could only dip a towel in warm water to clean the mud off its body.

“Brother Ying, the ICU chamber is ready, and it can be used at any time.”

They had no specialized incubator here, and since the giant panda cub was already weak, they could only place it first in the ICU chamber for observation.

“Brother Ying, I called the director, and he’s bringing people up immediately.”

Little Cao, the Panda Man who came as a witness, anxiously squatted in front of the ICU chamber, his expression concerned.

“Brother Ying, is it going to be okay?”

“It’s hard to say.” Chen Ying pulled up the database on special considerations for feeding cubs, and based on the examination results, he urgently prepared medication.

Jinya and the others had found this cub in a pond near Old Bear Gully. Jinya said the scents nearby were mixed; it was uncertain whether the mother panda had abandoned it or if other animals had stolen and discarded it.

But looking at the time, this season wasn’t the breeding period for giant pandas at all.

Usually, they mate in spring, and June or July is the birthing time.

Of course, that wasn’t fixed and depended on the mother panda’s condition, the climate, and the time the last panda cub left the nest.

“Brother Cao, you monitor pandas every day; didn’t you notice a mother panda around here?”

“Of course we noticed. But the problem is, you can’t tell by the naked eye when a giant panda is pregnant!”

Little Cao was agitated, raking his fingers through his hair, “Our main monitoring focus was Fufu and his cubs, and before that, Mendun’er and her cubs. After Mendun’er left, we also reduced our staff correspondingly.”

The center’s principle was to disturb wild cats as little as possible; if they had to observe, it was from a distance.

Besides, the two teams of Panda Men were responsible for monitoring nearly thirty giant pandas across three Protection Stations, the workload was undoubtedly heavy, and it was normal to occasionally miss some details.

As Little Cao said, panda cubs were so small, and unlike other animals, you couldn’t tell just by seeing if they were pregnant.

They were born in tree holes—who could know when exactly?

But despite the reasons, they still had to find the cause.

“I gave it a little medicine, just as a precaution. Little Sen, your job today is to stay here; once the director arrives, you explain the situation in detail. Little Cao and I will follow Jinya to see where this little guy was found.”

“Leave it to me, Brother Ying. You guys go quickly; maybe you could find its mother.”

That’s what Chen Ying thought too, so they had to hurry.

While Little Cao notified his teammates about the situation through the walkie-talkie, he simultaneously used his mobile phone to message the colleague responsible for monitoring to help check the nearby surveillance.

Although there was no monitoring in the remote mountains and forests, the nearby villages and several key defensive locations were equipped with surveillance cameras.

Jinya and Little Jin led them running all the way to a pond on the northwest side of Old Bear Gully. Jinya jumped onto the rocks by the bank and called out loudly towards the shallow water.

Chen Ying understood its meaning—it was drinking water here when it found a mud ball next to it, moving and living; it startled them, then they sniffed it and found it smelled a bit like Mendun’er’s three cubs, so they had Little Jin carry it back for Chen Ying to see.

While listening to its cries, Chen Ying carefully inspected the traces in the shallow water.

There were hoof prints and claw marks, but no large feline animal footprints or bear footprints.

How did this little fellow end up here?

Looking around, there was no one nearby to help.

The pond hadn’t been there long; it was likely related to the last rain.

The mud and branches just happened to block the cut, and the accumulating water couldn’t flow out, forming a pond.

But such a small pond could potentially disappear after strong winds or a torrential rain, so this wasn’t a regular drinking area; usually, animals that came to drink here did so only when passing by.

Chen Ying could understand animal language, but that mattered little without any animals to speak to.

With no birds or beasts around, was he supposed to dig up a worm to converse with?

Not to mention whether a worm could talk, even if it could, how could a worm’s brain recognize other animals?

Chen Ying didn’t believe it. If there were a bird, maybe he could ask.

As he was speaking, a familiar swooshing sound suddenly rang out.

Chen Ying was stunned; who would expect to hear an owl during the day?

Looking up, a familiar figure—or rather, a familiar bird!

The Long-striped Small Owl Lady had also not expected to see Chen Ying; it had been a year and a half since it moved here.

It could hardly see during the day, but its hearing was sharp.

It had woken up from its sound sleep in the tree hollow only after hearing Chen Ying’s voice and come to greet him.

Chen Ying was initially excited, thinking he had found someone to inquire from, but his excitement burst like a bubble the moment he saw it.

As is well known, owls during the day are practically useless, they can’t even fly a short distance without keeling over like they are drunk, a stark contrast to their fierce nighttime demeanor.

The Long-striped Small Owl could be active both day and night, but in this instance, “day” referred mostly to the dusk and dawn periods; during the actual day, it chose to sleep.

What respectable owl would embarrass itself by appearing during the day?

The Little Owl hopped to a branch closer to Chen Ying and chirped for a good while.

Chen Ying’s expression gradually turned serious.

This Little Owl actually knew the origin of the cub, though it was unclear where it came from, but it mentioned seeing an unrecognizable animal carrying the cub.

It had intended to eat the cub there, but then it seemed to hear something, kicked the little one into the water, and fled.

After that, it went back to sleep and wasn’t sure what happened subsequently.

Inquiring about the time, it happened roughly when it had caught and eaten a rat, the light wasn’t as strong as now.

That would be early morning.

This timing matched Chen Ying’s estimation; after all, the panda cub couldn’t have survived for too long.

It seems the panda cub had a strong will to live, struggling out of the water onto the shore, which explained the mud smeared all over its body.

From the Little Owl’s account, he first ruled out the Lynx and the golden cat – two animals that the Little Owl had seen before, including the time it nested on the third floor, having seen the Large Spirit Cat and the Snake mongoose.

Hoofed animals in the forest wouldn’t normally steal cubs.

So that narrowed down the suspects considerably.

For carnivores, excluding the feline family, that left the canine family.

Among the canines, wolves were the prime suspects.

Chen Ying knew where to find wolves, so he decided to check with Duoduo for information first.

If Duoduo’s offspring were involved, how to deal with them would depend on what the protection station decided.

Little Cao took photos around the pond, especially of the suspected tracks of the panda cub that Chen Ying pointed out, and he took dozens of different angled shots to analyze later with experts.

Before leaving, Chen Ying squatted down and picked a tuft of wet, mud-stained fur from the branches on the edge of the pond.

It was unclear which animal it belonged to, but at least it was a clue.

After packing it up, Chen Ying greeted the Little Owl and led Little Cao back to the emergency station.

The center’s Director, the Head of the Baby Room, and the Veterinarian responsible for the cub’s physical examination had arrived.

The Veterinarian and Little Sen were giving the little cub a thorough check-up.

“There’s some water in its lungs, I’m worried it could turn into pneumonia. Maybe we should take it back to the center for care,” said the Director, standing at the doorway with his arms akimbo, his brow so furrowed it could kill a mosquito.

“Alright, no problem here. If needed, we can lend our ICU unit.”

Last time, he had helped a lot in West Africa, and in return, they had sent a whole set of animal emergency equipment. The emergency station had undergone a major upgrade since then.

Now, they used three types of ICU units, which incorporated advanced technology but were not easy to transport.

The earliest model was still the best for long-distance transport, it just required a prepared power source.

“We don’t need it for now. We brought an incubator, and you provided some medicine already. Our Veterinarian checked, and it should be stable until we reach the center. Our truck is also equipped with emergency gear.”

“That’s fine, I won’t keep you longer then. Take the cub and we can discuss other issues later. If investigations are needed, we will fully cooperate.”

The Director forced a smile, patted Chen Ying on the shoulder without saying a word, and heaved a deep sigh.

The head of the Baby Room carefully opened the incubator, placed the little cub inside, then cradled it personally, unwilling to entrust it to anyone else.

He had been caring for panda cubs for over a decade, every cub was dear to him; seeing such a young cub suffer broke his heart, and he wiped away his tears several times.

Everyone knew the cub’s condition was precarious, but no one dared say it outright; instead, they hurried back to the center where a team of specialists might be able to improve its chances.

Chen Ying was relatively optimistic; from a veterinarian’s perspective, unless the cub really developed pneumonia, it likely wouldn’t die young.

The center was equipped with sophisticated technology and medicines, so even if it was pneumonia, immediate lifesaving measures could be taken.

After seeing them off, Little Sen turned to Chen Ying, hesitant to speak.

“What do you want to ask?”

“Brother Ying, that cub wasn’t abandoned by its mother, was it?”

“Definitely not.” Chen Ying didn’t elaborate further, instructing Little Sen and Ruan Mengmeng to keep a close watch on the emergency station, then he slung on his backpack, ready to venture into the mountains to have a chat with the mother wolf from Duoduo’s house.

Hastening along, when he found the mother wolf from Duoduo’s house, the atmosphere was extremely tense, a situation that seemed like it could ignite a huge firestorm with just a spark.

At this critical moment, Chen Ying’s appearance made both sides flinch, but the mother wolf from Duoduo’s house seized the opportunity and lunged through the air.

“No, stop! Have mercy!”