The altitude is more than 4,700 meters above sea level.
The golden eagle and vultures hovered high in the air, looking intently down at the four wild wolves on the mesa.
Four wild wolves are greedily staring at a calf in a herd of wild yaks.
A herd of wild yaks is gnawing on the sedges on the ground......
★ Biological chains on the plateau
The four wolves came from the Chumar River valley in Hoh Xili. Wild wolves are the feeding and feeding parents of today's golden eagles and vultures.
Four wolves were greedily staring at a herd of more than 20 wild yaks gnawing on sedges, considering when to bite them.
This wild yak herd is a medium wild yak family in the Chumar River Valley. Several of the calves were locked up by wolves.
The four wolves were in groups of twos, lowered their postures, and crawled forward, preparing to hunt the two calves.
Golden eagles and vultures flying in the sky begin to lower their altitude, ready to watch a wolf-bull battle and then enjoy the wolf's leftovers.
At the end of September, the plateau is already cold and windy, and the weeds on the grassy beaches, which were not luxuriant, have become withered grass. Both bulls and cows are bowing their heads and licking the plants on the ground with their long tongues like steel files. They must try to make as much fat as possible for themselves before the cold winter falls. So, all the cows eat attentively.
And the wild wolf hunts cattle in order to grab autumn fat. This time they want to eat calf. However, it is not the braised beef of the Han people, nor the Russian potato stew, nor the air-dried beef jerky of the Tibetans. Wild wolves hunt calves today to try them.
The golden eagle is the real air overlord over the Hoh Xil Wasteland. They never disdained to hang out with bald vultures to hunt wolf leftovers. However, hunting is difficult after all, and if there is a ready-made one, isn't it not eaten for nothing?
Today, let's be with the vulture for the time being!
Vultures are practical. The character is not as fierce as the golden eagle, the speed is not as fast as the golden eagle, and the minions are not as sharp as the golden eagle, but they are the scavengers of the wasteland, wherever there are dead bodies and carrion, they can see it at a glance, and they do not eat alone, they will immediately gather their partners and come to share.
This is a complete natural biological chain in the Chumar River Valley of Hoh Xili.
★ Chumar, home to wild yaks
The southern foothills of the Kunlun Mountains, the southern foothills of the Hoh Xil Mountains and the Kusai Lake-Xinsheng Lake (Haidingnuoer) area in Qinghai Province are the areas with the highest concentration of wild yaks in the entire Sanjiangyuan Nature Reserve.
Some people say that if you want to see wild yaks in Hoh Xili, you should go to the Chumar River Valley under the peak of Bukadaban. Bukadaban Peak is the highest peak of the East Kunlun Mountains, with an altitude of 6,860 meters, located at the junction of the eastern end of the Arg Mountains in the middle section of the Kunlun Mountains and the western end of the Bokarekta Mountain. Bukadaban, the Uyghur language means "Bison Ridge"!
The wild yak is a national first-class key protected wild animal. Their home is on the Tibetan Plateau. The daily habitat is between 4000-6000 meters above sea level.
In summer, they migrate to feed near the snow line at an altitude of 6,000 meters. In autumn and winter, they will go down to the river valley grassland at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters to feed.
Wild yaks are social animals, small groups are mostly family, usually 20-30 heads, consisting of a bull leading several cows and calves born to cows. The largest population can reach 200-300 heads.
A reporter once took a mountain ranger's car in the southern foot of the Hoh Xil Mountain and saw a huge herd of three or four hundred wild yaks on the slopes of the Chumar River Valley on the slopes of the Chumar River Valley.
He said that when the cattle are not moving, they are like a large black cloud covering the hillside, and when they run, they are like ten thousand horses galloping, and their hooves are beating the earth, which is like a mountain and a sea, which is shocking.
★ The wolves attack, encountering the cow formation
The wild yaks are very greedy, and the calves follow the cows at will, seemingly unguarded.
The four wolves had been observing for several days and thought that there was now an opportunity to take advantage of the calves and hunt them. So he launched a thunderous hunt. It was like two calves would lose their lives in the blink of an eye. The golden eagle and the vulture in the air were so excited that they lowered their altitude again, and the two birds almost fought one after another.
Standing at the top, the king of the bull first spotted the four wild wolves that were rapidly approaching, so he issued a warning like a pig's cry: The wild wolves are coming!
The wild yak is huge, the weight of the king of the cow is close to one ton, and even the weight of the cow is between seven and eight hundred catties. It seems that their actions are very clumsy, and this time they are attacked by wolves, I am afraid that they will be more than lucky.
However, things turned out to be unexpected. As soon as the king of the cow issued the warning, more than a dozen cows immediately formed a cow formation nearby, and the calves were enclosed in the cow formation and protected. All the cows had their heads facing outwards and their thick horns in unison. That formation made the four wolves immediately frightened.
The two golden eagles and vultures, which had lowered their height, had no choice but to reluctantly climb up, return to the blue sky and white clouds, and continue to circle.
★ The wolves attacked for the second time and were beaten by the bulls
The first attack of the wolves was declared a failure, and they had to disengage!
However, wolves are animals that are not afraid of failure and setbacks. Although they lost the first battle, they will definitely not give up. Now, they split up and circled around the cow formation, and when they found that they could not break through, they immediately gathered together to discuss countermeasures.
The wolf decided to adopt the tactics of attacking one point, desperately, and charging in a group, and once he tore a hole in the cow formation, he immediately stabbed into the formation like a sharp knife and killed the calf.
Sure enough, after a few shocks, an unlucky cow could no longer resist the repeated attacks of several wolves, and it dodged from the attack of the wolf on the left, but was bitten by the wolf on the right. When it turned back and pounced at the wolf on its right, it was attacked by a hungry wolf on its left.
The cows on both sides hurried to help, but were intercepted and killed by the other two wolves. The other cows could only stand by and resolutely not come to their aid. If anyone moves without permission, the bull array will be broken!
When the four wolves were secretly proud, the bull king led several bulls to rush over. A cow is dedicated to a wolf that is preoccupied with dealing with a cow. As soon as his head was lowered, his horns were violently pushed up, and the four hungry wolves were each picked into the air, and fell to the ground one after another, and the bull rushed over without hesitation, and lifted the hooves of the big bowl and stepped down.
The four wolves were in sight of victory, but now they fell short. Helpless to face the attack of the powerful bull, he can only flee for his life first. Leave the old wolf here, not afraid of no cattle to eat. We'll see!
Wild yaks are tall and robust, and the average bull is 2 meters long, 1.8 meters high at the shoulders, and weighs about 1,000 catties. However, the heaviest weight of the Hoh Xili wolf is no more than 60 catties, so how can it confront the wild yak head-on? Therefore, it has no choice but to continue to adopt sparrow tactics, break the whole into pieces, continue to swim around the herd, and continue to look for opportunities to hunt calves.
★ Suddenly, two motorcycles rushed into the bull formation
With wolves on the side, the cow formation did not dare to disband. Unaware of the impending danger, the calf rushed impatiently in the middle of the cow formation, always trying to break out of his mother's siege and find freedom.
But no matter which cow it is, she doesn't dare to slack off. A pair of large bulls' eyes gurgled and turned, staring at the wolves roaming around the periphery.
The bull is dashing, knowing that wolves generally do not dare to provoke themselves, so they will nibble on a mouthful or two of weeds, and sometimes rush at the annoying wolf with a mouthful of weeds. The wolf will come and the cow will enter and the wolf will retreat, the cow will stop the wolf and disturb the wolf, the cow will be tired and the wolf will kill, and the cow will retreat and the wolf will chase.
The golden eagles and vultures, which were still hovering in the sky, immediately flew into the distance when they saw that there was really no play today.
The wolf and the cow confronted each other again.
Suddenly, the sudden sound of the motor came from far and near, bringing a powerful shock to the empty and lonely no-man's land of Hoh Xil.
I saw green smoke coming from behind the buttocks of the two motorcycles, rushing towards the cow formation at a gallop.
These are two poachers who specialize in poaching wild yak calves. Wearing helmets, they had been watching the wolf-bull battle from afar on the periphery for a long time, and now they thought that the time had come, and wanted to take advantage of the fisherman, so they rushed over at a gallop.
Fifty meters away from the herd, instead of slowing down, the motorcycle suddenly accelerated and rushed towards the cow.
Both motorcycles were red, like two speeding fireballs. The closer you get to the cow array, the louder the motor becomes, and there is a deafening roar.
★ Motorcycles are dedicated to chasing calves
The bull stared at the motorcycle in amazement, raised his horns, and prepared himself for battle.
The four wolves were so frightened that they fled away from the cow formation. When they found out that the motorcycle monster was not aimed at their wolves, they immediately watched from the wall.
The two motorcycles increased the throttle like sharp arrows and shot straight at the cow formation. The cow could not resist the shock of the powerful roar of the motorcycle, and immediately scattered to dodge, and the cow's science fell apart.
The calves immediately sought their mothers and ran away after the cows.
The poachers are targeting the calves, so they increase the throttle and chase the calves with the cows.
The cow guards the calf, and once it can't run away, she immediately stands still, holding her horns and waiting for it, so that the calf sticks to her side.
The poacher constantly bangs on the accelerator, threatening the cow, charging the cow after the cow, and once he finds that the calf has been thrown off by the cow, he will immediately shake the long rope in his hand and immediately catch the running calf.
They are full-time poachers, who specialize in poaching live calves and selling them to illegal yak farms outside the mountains for crossbreeding. The crossbred yak calves grow fast, are resistant to disease, are tall, weigh up to 50% more than domestic yaks, and have delicious meat. Therefore, the minimum price of each wild yak calf is 13,000 yuan!
★ The poachers succeeded, and the hungry wolves robbed the way
Soon, two poachers succeeded. The wild yak that stole the calf was so frightened by these two-legged beasts riding monsters that it did not come up with the means to deal with the hungry wolves against the two poachers.
But the four wolves roaming around the periphery saw it. These two two-legged beasts, this is mahjong's "cutting off" means!
Just as the two poachers were carrying the bound calves on their backs, hungry wolves pounced on them from all sides. The two poachers, unarmed, were pounced on by the hungry wolves, so they abandoned their calves and fled.
The poachers fled, but the wild yak king led more than 20 wild yaks to rush over in a sea of mountains. The wolf had no choice but to flee quickly.
The cow kept stirring the rope with her horns, but the calf was picked and rolled so that the rope was not untied at all.
The wolf was still staring at the trapped calf.
The golden eagle and vulture, which have been far away from the sky, have flown back again! (About the author: Wang Tianxiang, a senior journalist and writer, has published 42 novels and other monographs, written more than 200 episodes of TV dramas, created dozens of TV films on history, culture, scenery, documentaries and other topics, published hundreds of articles in various newspapers and periodicals, and published more than 1,000 online articles. ）