That year, I went to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes and met my friend Li Yang. His story of a Tibetan brown bear carrying a wild camel up a cliff led me to Aksai County, located in the foothills of the Qilian Mountains.
That year, he said, a wild camel was bitten on the hind leg by a Tibetan brown bear, and then driven by the huge brown bear, it limped toward a rugged valley. The wild camel's leg was so badly injured that it couldn't escape, and as it walked, it looked back at the fierce brown bear. Coming to a barren slope, the wild camel fell to the ground, struggled several times and never got up.
The brown bear slapped the camel's head mercilessly, then bit its throat and carried it up the cliff. You say this brown bear is not a god?
★ Where is Axel County?
Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County ethnic high mountain valley
Aksay Kazakh Autonomous County belongs to Jiuquan City, Gansu Province, located in the western part of the Hexi Corridor and on the northern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is bordered by Subei Mongol Autonomous County to the east, Dunhuang City to the north, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to the west, and Qinghai Province to the south.
Aksay County is named after the Aksai Ditch between the Argin Mountains, the Danghe South Mountains and the Seshteng Mountains, which are high and deep and the terrain is complex. There are Gobi deserts, plateau basins, wasteland meadows, and also alpine hills, with an average altitude of about 3200 meters. Wild animal resources are abundant here, among which wild camels, wild yaks, Tibetan wild donkeys, snow leopards, etc. are rare first-class protected animals in the country.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, the Yue clan (yuèzhī) tribe was stationed in Aksai. Zhang Qian, who pioneered the ancient Silk Road, once went through countless hardships on the orders of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, crossing the Gobi Desert and joining forces with the "Yue Clan" to fight against the Xiongnu.
★ Aksay is home to wild camels
Tibetan antelope in Aksay County
Li Yang said that in the territory of Aksai Kazakh Autonomous County, there is an Annamba Wild Camel National Nature Reserve. It is located between the Kumtag Desert and the Arjin Mountains, north of dunhuang West Lake National Nature Reserve, west of Xinjiang Lop Nur Wild Camel National Nature Reserve, south of Qinghai Province's Haixi Prefecture, belonging to the Gobi Desert, drought and cold, harsh natural conditions, but it is a paradise for rare wild animals such as wild camels.
Li Yang told me that in 2009, after a long and arduous investigation by the wildlife protection department of Jiuquan City, it was found that there were as many as 7 groups of wild camels in the Annamba Nature Reserve, nearly 200 peaks. What does this number mean? Tell you, it accounts for about 1/4 of the total number of wild camels in China today, and 1/2 of the wild camel population in the northern foothills of the Alkin Mountains!
★ Brown bears frequently appear in pastures, hunt sheep and kill horses, and break into tents
Li Yang said that in the past decade, the natural ecological environment of Aksay County has become better and better, and there are more and more wild animals. Even brown bears, which have not been seen in years, are frequently seen in mountainous areas and herders' meadows.
The brown bears here belong to the Tibetan brown bears, also known as blue bears, because their coat color looks a little blue and shiny from a distance, which is very good-looking. More importantly, this brown bear has a ring of white neck hair around its neck, which looks like it has a white bib from a distance, which is very beautiful.
But don't let your guard down when you don't look at it beautifully. The largest brown bear weighs nearly 1,000 pounds, stands up to more than 2 meters tall, has thick and powerful limbs, hooks and nails are 15 cm long, and can tear open the skin and even the belly when it catches the cow and sheep.
The natural environment in the northwest is harsh, brown bears are mainly meat-eating, regardless of cattle, horses, wild donkeys and camels, dare to eat anything, sometimes wandering to the grassland, will prey on cattle and sheep.
Brown bears love human food. If the herder is not careful, it will sneak into the tent and steal the meat, grain, grease, sugar, etc. stored by the herders. After eating, it will also damage the furniture to play. Once a brown bear entered a herder's tent in the middle of the night looking for food. The awakened herdsman couple ran out of the tent crying and crying when they saw a big black and hairy guy come to the bed and rip off their quilts. Scared the brown bear into a terrible way and crashed into the tent before escaping.
★ Far-infrared cameras that have exposed brown bears into wild camel habitats
Aksay County has signed an agreement with relevant international wildlife conservation organizations to jointly inspect Aksay's snow leopards and other wildlife. There are preset infrared cameras in many alpine oikawa. These cameras have recorded several rare wildlife such as snow leopards, brown bears, wild camels, lynxes, wolves and more.
Herds of wild camels at Annam Dam in Aksay County
Five or six years ago, on a summer day, the drone of the scientific expedition department photographed a large brown bear swimming into the wild camel habitat, which immediately attracted the attention of the protection department.
Although all wild animals are protected, although there is a "heavenly way" between wild animals, natural selection, survival of the fittest, and the predation of the weak, the staff of the protection station still do not want brown bears to kill in the protected area, especially not to kill the rare number of wild camels.
★ The brown bear suddenly broke into the Wild Camel Nature Reserve
One day, the big brown bear suddenly disappeared —it had wandered somewhere else at night. Soon, however, the brown bear returned to the Wild Camel Sanctuary.
It set its sights on a herd of wild camels. This is a small camel gang with five wild camels. On this day, while the wild camels were intently preying on camel thorns and shuttle grass, the brown bear suddenly came out and slapped a wild camel down.
Wild camels have high limbs, strong physique, good at running, and can be slapped down by brown bears, which shows how strong the brown bears are. The wild camels were timid, and when they saw the brown bear attacking, they immediately pulled out their legs and fled, leaving only the wild camel that had been knocked down.
At this time, the drone that the expedition team lifted off just filmed the scene of the brown bear attacking the wild camel: the fallen wild camel stood up tenaciously, raised the bowl-mouthed hind hooves and kicked the brown bear off guard
The wild camel took the opportunity to spread its legs and run. But I didn't expect that the brown bear skin was thick and thick, resistant to kicking and beating, and a bone crawled up and chased poorly.
The wild camel was not quick to escape because it was slapped by the brown bear's slap, but the brown bear was like a ball of meat rolling rapidly in the Gobi, and chased after it as soon as it slipped smoke, pounced from behind, and threw the injured wild camel to the toe.
The brown bear did not slacken off, and then the second swoop threw the wild camel to the ground, and the hook claws of both palms directly tore the flesh of one of the wild camel's hind legs. Blood immediately rolled down, and the wild camels cried out in pain and fear.
In the distance, the fleeing wild camels looked sympathetically at the injured wild camels. They did not dare to come to the rescue.
★ The brown bear forced the wounded wild camel into the valley
Li Yang said: "What is strange is that the brown bear did not kill the injured wild camel, but allowed it to climb up and continue to move forward. The brown bear, on the other hand, followed the injured wild camel like a camel herder.
At this time, the wild camel could only barely move forward, limping step by step, turning step by step, and looking back from time to time to see the brown bear that followed closely behind. The wild camels did not dare to walk obliquely, but could only move towards the valley. As soon as it deviates slightly, the brown bear chases it past its oblique side. If it walks back, the brown bear will let it walk forward, forming the spectacle of the brown bear chasing the wild camel.
When they walked into the depths of the valley, the wild camel was so badly injured that it could not walk, and it fell to the ground. The brown bear pounced, drove the wild camel up, and forced it to move slowly. The wild camels fell three times in a row on their way into the valley, and each time it became more and more difficult to get up. After the last time he fell to the ground, he never got up again. Although the brown bear opened its mouth and bit its buttocks hard, the wild camel just lay on the ground and raised its head.
The brown bear was impatient, slapped the head of the wild camel, and then bit the throat of the wild camel.
★ The brown bear actually carried six or seven hundred pounds of wild camels up the mountain
Li Yang said: "What is strange is that this big brown bear did not eat on the spot in the place where the wild camel died, but bit the back of the wild camel's neck and dragged it up the hillside, and even the people who watched the aerial video felt difficult for the brown bear. But this brown bear is tenacious. Step by step, he dragged the wild camel up the slope of a hillside of more than thirty degrees.
When everyone was struggling with the brown bear, the brown bear actually grabbed the wild camel with its mouth, threw it on the shoulder, and carried the huge wild camel up the hillside. Everyone who watched the video found it incredible. An old expert said: If you don't see the video with your own eyes, no one will believe that brown bears can carry six or seven hundred pounds of wild camels up the mountain. It seems that the world is so big that everything is possible!
Can a brown bear of six or seven hundred pounds carry seven or eight hundred pounds of wild camels up the mountain? I suddenly remembered the bar force gang in the Changbai Mountains - each bar force can carry two to three times the weight of the body on the springboard, why can't the brown bear drag the wild camel of its own weight up the hillside?
(Special note: The pictures in this article are all selected from the network, if there is infringement, the notice will be deleted.) Thank you! ）