The Evolutionary Path of the Lion

Chapter 48 The Orange Curtain

On the south side of the open grassland, there is a clump of low acacia trees. The grass at the edge of the clump grows very thick and is a common resting place for zebras before they drink water in the evening.

Zebras play a role somewhat like middlemen on the grasslands.

They are highly vigilant.

But the chain reactions that arise from vigilance are often more valuable than the reactions themselves.

A sudden herd of zebras can instantly put all experienced animals within a two-kilometer radius on alert.

That collective commotion of sounds and smells is a signal on the grassland.

The signal contained only two words: Danger!

Chen Fei stopped upwind of the mimosa grove.

A herd of zebras, about twenty in number, was grazing at the edge of the bushes, their tails swishing slowly.

He didn't rush in, nor did he make any revealing movements.

He simply stood upwind, letting his breath drift into the bushes with the wind.

Zebras have an extremely sensitive sense of smell to the scent of predators.

This is something written into the evolution over millions of years; it needs no prompting, only a wisp of breath.

The first zebra raised its head.

Its ears perked up, its nostrils flared, and its center of gravity subtly shifted to its hind legs.

The second head noticed the change in the first head and looked up.

The third one.

The fourth one.

The whole process took less than twenty seconds.

Then the entire herd of zebras suddenly burst into action, their hooves creating a dense, muffled thud across the grassland as they charged off to the northeast.

The speed increased from a standstill to full speed in three seconds, and the dust it kicked up turned into an orange-red curtain in the sunset.

Chen Fei had already retreated from upwind, at a considerable speed, heading west and making a large arc.

He didn't chase the zebra, not even glancing at it twice.

The first chain reaction triggered by a zebra herd breaking apart is the synchronized stress response of surrounding wildebeest herds.

Wildebeests do not flee in response to stress; instead, they gather together.

The vibrations created by a large herd of wildebeest gathering on the grassland are recorded in a very interesting way by that pressure analysis equipment.

As the off-road vehicle advanced to the eastern edge of the open grassland, the zebra herd scattered for about four minutes.

Chen Fei lay down behind a rock on the west side, using his superhuman vision to cut across.

The car stopped.

The car door opened, someone got out, raised a device, and scanned the area northeast, in the direction the zebra had fled.

Then the man turned southwest and scanned the center of the open grassland.

Chen Fei knew what they were reading.

The surface pressure analysis equipment will read two sets of data in this grassland.

One set is the dense pressure distribution left by the trampling of wildebeest herds.

One is a linear, high-speed pressure trajectory of a zebra herd breaking out of a swarm.

When the two sets of data are overlaid, the screen likely displays a chaotic mess that cannot be directly interpreted.

Two more people got out of the car, and the three of them stood by the car, each holding a device and scanning in different directions.

One of them crouched down and looked for footprints on the grass.

He found the zebra hoof print, measured it, recorded it, stood up, and said something.

The other person shook his head, turned the screen of his device to him, and pointed to a certain area on the left side of the screen.

The first person looked at it for a while and then frowned.

The area on the left side of the screen corresponds to the direction where Chen Fei was standing upwind.

In that position, Chen Fei's abdomen was pressed to the ground, and the heat flow in his limbs was suppressed to the lowest level, but he stood there for about forty seconds.

Forty seconds, based on his current weight and the ground pressure data left by the grass roots, suggests that a large individual weighing more than the average adult male lion briefly remained still in that location before moving away.

Predators have a stationary phase before launching a pursuit; this is a known behavioral pattern.

The first thought that came to the investigators after reading this data was, "This is a case of predators triggering a herd explosion of zebras."

This association is correct.

But they would never have imagined—

The predator that triggered the swarm is currently lying behind a rock a kilometer away, watching them interpret the data.

Big Head chased after it from the direction where it had landed, and Mei Mei followed behind, trying to catch it back.

When this group came into Chen Fei's view, Da Tou was running in front and Mei Mei was chasing behind, neither of them were moving very fast.

The thick scab on Da Tou's left shoulder causes that shoulder blade to lift slightly when walking briskly.

When it runs, its right stride is slightly longer than its left, and its overall gait has a subtle asymmetry, but the rhythm is steady, the hooves are powerful, and it is much smoother than it was three days ago.

It circled around to the rock where Chen Fei was hiding, plopped down, and turned the distance that Mei Mei couldn't catch into a fait accompli.

Meimei stopped in front of the rock, glanced at Datou, and then at Chen Fei.

The tip of its tail twitched.

Then she walked to the south side, found a spot on the south side of the rocks, lay down, raised her nose towards the SUV, sniffed it, and then lowered it again.

She smelled fuel and human presence.

Her way of processing this information was to lower her body rather than react to it.

This is the reaction of a lioness who has already experienced danger and survived, completely different from the instinctive bristling of a cub.

Big Head stuck his head out from the edge of the rock and glanced in the direction of the off-road vehicle.

It couldn't see anything; the distance was too far for its eyesight.

However, the combined smell of fuel and the low-frequency vibrations of the vehicle caused its ears to droop, its head to retract behind the rock, and it moved closer to Chen Fei.

It leaned in a bit too hard, pushing Chen Fei half a step to the side.

Chen Fei didn't move; his super vision was still locked onto the movements of the SUV.

Big Head waited beside him for a while, and seeing that he showed no intention of leaving, he yawned and rested his chin on Chen Fei's back.

Chen Fei's back was warm, with heat circulating steadily under his skin, and the surface temperature of his fur was several degrees higher than the surrounding air.

Big Head closed his eyes comfortably.

When the SUV was restarted, the sun had already set two-thirds of the way down.

Instead of continuing southwest, the vehicle turned and moved north.

Chen Fei marked this change in direction on the map.

To the north is the direction they came from, and also the original site of the incident—the grassland in the northeast corner where the poachers fell.

They are retreating.

It should be that the data is being reorganized by returning to the baseline.

He has now figured out part of how this team works.

Each time they went out to survey, they would collect a batch of data, return to the base camp to organize it, and then go out again.

It's a cumulative investigation, not a one-off breakthrough.

This means they will come back.

Moreover, when I come back next time, I will have more data than this time.

Chen Fei stood up behind the rock and gently pushed Da Tou's head off his back.

Big Head groggily raised his head, not fully awake, then put his head back down, leaving it exposed to the air, before falling down and hitting the sandy ground, where he was fully awake.

It raised its head and gave Chen Fei a wronged look.

Chen Fei has already walked out.