Mongolia is a magical country, and the vast steppes have created many legends, including the steppe wolf that herders love and hate.
When I say that steppe wolves also have "love", everyone may laugh, animals also know love, not to mention the cruel and cunning steppe wolves.
A Mongolian hunter caught a steppe wolf, and because he did not think about what to do with the wolf, but the wolf was so fierce that the hunter had to keep it in an iron cage. But he was afraid that he would make a wolf roar to attract his companions, so he tied his mouth with a wire.
At this point, people will say, didn't the Mongols regard the wolf as a "totem"? How could they be wolf hunters?
Indeed, in the older Mongolian tradition, hunting wolves was contrary to ancestral precepts. However, with the change of times, the pressure on herders to live increases, so they will overload their livestock. As a resource age, minerals are more rewarding than animal husbandry, so grasslands are maliciously mined, and all of the above reasons lead to serious desertification of grasslands. The living space of animals is compressed, animal resources are decreasing year by year, and steppe wolves, as the top of the grassland food chain, have become a problem, so they will attack the livestock of herders.
That's why we always see news reports: "Hundreds of sheep in the sheep pen of herders were slaughtered overnight by hungry wolves in the steppe", "Lost Mongolian horses found only the remains of a few kilometers away", "a few days after the birth of the camel suddenly disappeared".
Herders who herd livestock for their livelihoods are, of course, angry and hunt wolves.
Now let's go back to the story of the hunter and the wolf, the male wolf is locked in an iron cage, his mouth is sealed, much quieter, and he can only keep hitting the iron cage and making a creaking sound.
Unfortunately, in the evening, a snowstorm fell, and the temperature plummeted to more than 30 degrees below zero. Although the hunters know the cruelty of the weather, they don't care too much, after all, they are all native grassland creatures, what winds and waves have not been seen, resigned to fate!
Early the next morning, the hunter found that half of the cage of the wolf was buried by heavy snow and the other half was not covered with snow, and the male wolf was anxiously wandering in the iron wheel. Outside the cage, there is also a small snow bag. When he approached and spread out the snowdrift with his feet, he found that standing impressively was another strange wolf, dead, stiff, gray fur mixed with thick ice ballast, eyes still open, and frozen to death at first glance.
This is a she-wolf, the companion of this male wolf, she wants to save the male wolf, presumably yesterday when the snowstorm came, she has been standing here, the reason why she stood in front of the male wolf and was frozen to death, is to give the male wolf to block the attack of the blizzard, leaving the last chance to survive to the male wolf.
The hunter saw this scene and was also moved by this scene, so he untied the wire from the wolf's mouth, thinking that it would howl loudly. But it didn't, just let out a low wailing and kept poking its nose to touch the she-wolf's fur.
The hunter thought about letting go of the male wolf, but finally gave up. Let it go, it will surely come back to take revenge, then not only the sheep in the sheep pen will not be saved, but even the family will be implicated, because he has seen the cruelty of the wolf, the revenge of the wolf.
The hunter did not move the she-wolf, but the next day the hunter found that the male wolf was also dead in the cage, and the body was very close to the dead she-wolf, only separated by a fence, and its tear-ridden icicles led to the snow.
The male wolf saw the she-wolf freeze to death for it, and it decided not to live in the world. Although the wolf is a ferocious animal, it has only one companion in its life, perhaps this is the wolf concept of husband and wife living and dying together.
In the eyes of herders, camels are the most recognized livestock, and loss is rare. But a herder found a camel missing. At the time he suspected that the camels might have been frightened and ran deep into the desert. So he searched all the way from the depths of the desert, and found faint camel footprints on the way, so he took out the telescope he carried with him from the small sand dune to search.
In the telescope, he saw a small river in an oasis where camels were drinking water, and after drinking the water was slowly moving forward, as if being pulled by the reins, going farther and farther, this was not the route home at all.
As the herder galloped to catch the camel, he saw that the camel reins were pulled straight, while the other end of the reins was in the mouth of a wolf. When the herders approached, the wolf gritted its teeth and made a low roaring sound, without the slightest intention of letting go of the reins.
Look at this camel again, it is indeed its own camel, it is looking at itself with tears, and it is still dragging a wolf on its back, and there is a wolf trap on its legs.
At this time, the herders understood this scene, the she-wolf was injured and could not travel long distances, and the male wolf would not abandon the she-wolf, so he hijacked his camel as a foot force.
If the herder had come a little later, he would not have seen this scene, nor his camel, and he would have seen the end of the desert, where the mountains were steep and the wolf's destination was.
- On a cold winter's day, while hunting by a seasoned Mongol hunter, he was besieged by wolves and had to climb into a tree to take shelter. Led by the Wolf King, the wolves crouched under the trees and hesitated to attack. Hunters understand that they are fighting a war of attrition. If he continues to consume, he will either starve to death or freeze to death. Unable to afford it, he had to kill all the wolves, but he killed 10 wolves and 11 corpses on the snow. As a hunter, he had seen the tricks of wolves, so he threw his fur hat into the snow. Unexpectedly, as soon as the hat landed on the ground, a wolf that had fallen to the ground suddenly burst out, biting the hat, and was shot dead by the old hunter.
- Once, when a Mongolian firefighter was extinguishing a forest fire, he saw the wolf couple running to the waterhole again and again to soak themselves in the waterhole in order to save the wolf cubs trapped in the fire, and then rushing into the fire and using their mouths to take the little wolf cubs to a safe place. Although wolves are the most fire-afraid animals, they will rationally rescue young wolf cubs when they are in danger.
- When a herdsman chased a steppe wolf late at night, he suddenly disappeared near the telephone pole, turned on the flashlight to search around, but found that the wolf was strangely standing close to the pole, two claws in the air, the other two claws on the ground, like a human to hide from cats.
This is the Mongolian steppe wolf, with a human-like view of the family, facing threats that transcend fear and reason.