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Text: Vientiane hardcore
Edited by Vientiane hardcore
«——【Preamble】】 ——»
In July 2020, a strange sound came from the depths of a mountain in Weining, Guizhou Province, which was recorded and posted online by some netizens.
People turned up the volume to play the video, and the sound coming from it was like a "dragon roar", which was not only low and long, but also a little mysterious, and some people said that it was a "tiger roar".
So a group of experts and scholars traveled thousands of miles to the deep mountain in the video, just to verify the existence of the so-called dragon chant on the spot.
But after investigation by experts in the relevant field, they came to the conclusion that this sound was not a dragon's roar, but a bird's call!
There are many kinds of birds in nature, and their calls are also varied, but most of them are crisp and pleasant, cheerful and lively, and soft chirping.
Of course, there are also birds with terrifying calls, such as the lyrebird, whose call is like that of an emotionless baby crying.
So what kind of bird is the bird that makes the "dragon moan", and why does it make such a long, low sound?
«—[Unknown sound source "Tiger Roaring Dragon Roar"·]—»
In June 2020, an unknown sound suddenly appeared in the back mountain of a village in Xiushui Town, Weining, which attracted the attention of everyone.
As soon as this video was released, it quickly aroused a large number of eager attention from netizens, and even a large number of netizens went to the scene to listen. According to local villagers, they did hear strange noises, but they were not loud.
Because the matter was a bit bizarre, it attracted the attention of the relevant departments, and geological experts were sent to investigate. After inspecting the site, the experts thought that the sound of running water from the cave may have caused an auditory error, because the rain was heavy at that time.
Thankfully, however, this sound is not a precursor to an earthquake or other natural disaster, and the villagers in the surrounding area do not have to worry about their safety.
In order to determine the truth of the "dragon chant" voice, experts in various fields continued to conduct detailed field investigations in the local area and repeated sound sample comparisons.
In the end, they preliminarily determined that the unidentified sound in the cornfield in the back mountain was not a dragon's groan, but a bird called the "yellow-footed three-toed quail".
The yellow-footed quail is a small bird that resembles a quail and is a non-concern animal.
According to local wildlife management officials, the bird is widely distributed in Guizhou, and in addition to Weining, it has been seen in many places such as Bijie and Hezhang.
The "tiger roaring dragon roar" in the video has been processed in the later stage, and "tiger roar" and "wolf roar" have been added, not only the sound made by the yellow-footed three-toed quail.
So this "dragon chanting" incident ended here, but many people are still curious about the true face of this bird, and what will its real call be like?
«[A small body of more than ten centimeters, but it is a "subwoofer"·]»
The yellow-footed quail (chun) is a small bird in the genus Quail, which is found in many parts of the country.
Due to regional differences, people have given it several interesting common names, such as the ground yak, the three-clawed crawler, the ground stuffy, the water chicken, the yellow moo and so on.
The appearance of this bird is actually quite ordinary.
Its eyes are small, like prosthetic eyes, its tail is short and pointed, and the most beautiful thing on its body is its yellow beak and claws, which have only three toes and can run on the ground with agility.
Although the yellow-footed quail is classified as a bird, it is actually very average in its flight ability, flying at a very low altitude and not flying far, giving people the feeling that they did not learn to fly well when they were young. But its wings flapped very quickly, and it made a loud noise.
Naturally timid and alert, this bird likes to run quickly on land when frightened or in danger, burrowing into the nearby grass to avoid predators.
Therefore, people who do not know about this bird can easily mistake it for a "chicken", and how can they think that it will be a bird that loves to run.
Just like that, a bird with a body size of only a dozen centimeters long and a weight of no more than 3 taels can make a dull, long, and heavy cow cry, which is what people mistakenly recognize as the "dragon moan".
These birds do not usually chirp incessantly like ordinary birds, and their chirps seem to have some kind of foreshadowing in addition to their habitual physiological chirps.
Yellow-footed three-toed quails mostly live alone, and only appear in pairs during the breeding season from May to August each year, and their activity is more frequent, during which time their song frequency increases.
Among them, the female yellow-footed three-toed quail will make a low, heavy "whining" sound, which is similar to the sound of pulling the bellows when people used the stove to cook in the early days, and the chirping sound will last for about ten seconds.
Males, on the other hand, make a "pook~pook" sound, and they will constantly expand and contract their necks back and forth when they chirp.
This is actually a unique way of communicating and finding objects between their kind.
Usually during the period from wheat harvest to corn harvest every year, they will appear in fields, crops or bushes and start to chirp, and when they chirp, they will stick their mouths into the soil, and the sound of "mooing" will spread far and wide.
It is said that if you hear it crowing after a long period of rainy weather, it means that it will not be long before the sky clears, which is like the rooster crowing when the sky is about to dawn.
In addition, this bird also has a very unusual temperament, which is reflected in their courtship period.
Unlike most birds, the male dresses up to find a target, but the yellow-footed quail is a female bird who chooses a target, and it reproduces in a way that has multiple males.
During the breeding season, the female yellow-footed three-toed quail will attract males with a low chirp in farmland and grass, and show off their feathers by flapping their wings and shaking their tails, exuding charm to male yellow-footed three-toed quails.
When a female yellow-toed quail lays eggs, she does not stay there too much to hatch, but rather takes care of the eggs as a "daddy".
Most of the females just leave it alone and continue to look for the next male to continue the breeding task, and also ignore the babies they give birth.
This strange habit is still rarely heard of, but some people say that letting the father guard the child can improve the child's survival rate.
So how do they like to live?
«【Daily life of the yellow-footed three-toed quail】»
The yellow-footed quail usually inhabits the plains and hills at low altitudes, and mostly runs around barren grasslands, farmlands, bushes, etc., and occasionally forages leisurely.
They like to eat fresh plant shoots, grass seeds, wild berries, wheat harvest grains, including some insects and other small animals, which may sound similar to the diet of chickens, and will find a random place to live when they are tired.
They are not picky about where they live, it is simply a small pit.
They don't go back and forth several times like other birds to decorate their nest with some branches, but pick up some soft dead leaves or weeds to cushion the bottom, and it is a nest.
They usually sit in soybean fields, wheat fields, etc., but they do not live in the same place for a long time, they prefer freedom, and like to "wander the world".
Some of these groups are migratory birds and have seasonal migration habits.
Every year in April, they will form a team to migrate north, and they will start to leave in October. In Guizhou Province and other regions, they appear as summer migratory birds and leave as soon as the breeding season is over.
«——【·Conclusion·】——»
The call of birds has always been crisp and pleasant, and many people have heard of this kind of old and solemn low voice for the first time, not to mention that it is somewhat similar to the legendary "dragon chant".
But in any case, the yellow-footed quail is indeed a very peculiar bird, and nature may have already had a script when it arranged everything.
How many other strange bird calls have you heard besides the yellow-footed three-toed quail?
Reference:
China.com, "The "Dragon Yin" in the Deep Mountains of Guizhou Turned Out to Be Its Many Rumors Were Investigated and Punished", 2020-7-5
http://zjnews.china.com.cn/yuanchuan/2020-07-05/235293.html