Mild-mannered Red Cliff sheep turn into war mongers

The bright spring light is like a peaceful Buddha's light shining on the red cliff sheep. The strong rams voluntarily gave up the woods they had occupied for the whole winter and came to the grassy hillside. The fragmented situation was broken, and at least on the surface, more than seventy Red Cliff sheep became one group again. The sheep, tormented by hunger, had no time to care about other things and spent all day eating grass, and then lazily laying on the rocks in the sun when they were full.

Surviving winter is spring; surviving war is peace; surviving turmoil is tranquility; surviving hardship is happiness.

However, the peace and tranquility of the Red Cliff flock lasted only a month or so, and a new turmoil and war started again, and the scale of the food fight was bigger than in the winter, and the fight was more brutal and the consequences were more tragic.

After more than a month of rest and recuperation, more than a month of eating and sleeping and eating, only the red cliff sheep are fat, strong, and spirited. When the season entered mid-spring, the biological clock in the body of the red cliff sheep also pointed to the rutting and courtship period. The ambitious big white-horned ram took the lead in stirring up trouble again, driving several young and beautiful females in the flock to a platform halfway up the mountain, then shaking his horns and baaing aggressively at the flock, seemingly announcing in public that these females belong to me!

The rude behavior of the big white horn is like lighting the fuse on the dynamite pack, the flock exploded into chaos. Many of the rams followed the example of the Great White Horn, guarding their favorite females and roaring like war. Only half an hour at most, the flock of the female sheep-like property was divided up. Originally, the number of male and female sheep in the Red Cliff flock was half, but among the 33 sheep that died of starvation in winter, most of them were females, and the ratio of male to female was seriously disproportionate. Red Cliff sheep practice polygamy and at least half of the male sheep are shut out of love. Those single male sheep who did not captivate the females in time, constantly sharpening their horns on tree trunks and rocks, staring at a pair of bloodshot eyes, irritably running and jumping on the mountain trails, from time to time towards those rams who captivated and guarded the females, giving vent to their resentment and cynicism.

The prelude to the war was thus opened.

The cliff sheep is called cliff sheep because this species of sheep is good at climbing steep mountain paths and likes to live on high cliffs. I don't know if it is due to the habit of the species or for safety reasons, but those lucky rams settle their females on steep slopes or cliffs with very precarious terrain.

I could see clearly in the binoculars that a ram, which I named Big Rump, jumped onto a platform halfway up the mountain and challenged Big White Horn. The big rump is also an excellent big ram of the Red Cliff flock, with thick horns and a strong body, especially developed hind limbs, round hips like drums, and strong legs like pillars. The big rump and the big white horn are more than 20 meters apart, they stare at each other with blood-red eyes, bleating, lowering their heads and necks, showing the horns on their heads, raising their hooves towards each other, dong, the ram's horns and the ram's horns collide violently, into the splash of a series of sparks, the echo of the empty valley, scaring the birds in the bushes to fly away. Both rams were jolted backward several steps, the big rump flashed a stumble, and the big white horn fell to the ground on its butt. They struggled to get up and roared again as they charged at each other ......

Several female sheep stood on the side quietly watching the big hips and big white horns fight fiercely, waiting for them to win or lose, according to the sheep's habit, the winner is the groom, and the loser is the loser.

After a dozen rounds, the big rump was covered in blood, the tip of the horn was broken, the neck of the big white horn was twisted, and the bend of the front leg was knocked open with a long bloody mouth. I did not expect that the red cliff sheep, which behaved very weakly in front of the carnivores, were particularly brave in the fight, and had a heroic spirit of death. Although all were wounded, one refused to retreat, still holding up the goat horns desperately towards each other ramming.

The more cowardly you are to the outside, the more violent you are to the inside, this may be a law of the animal world, I think.

After thirty or so rounds, the big rump's strength was running out and it was pushed to the edge of a cliff. He tried his best to reverse the defeat, stomping his two hind hooves on a rock, his body tensed up, trying to use the top bull approach to the big white horn back. Unfortunately, the rock on which its hind hooves were stepping suddenly broke loose, and it lost its footing and fell off the cliff several dozen feet high.

The fight to the death between rams and sheep could be seen everywhere between the cliffs and crags.

The Nahu Valley became a veritable battlefield, with the sound of the ram's horns banging against the ram's horns. I slept in my tent in the middle of the night and could hear the sound of a defeated ram falling off a cliff into the abyss.

A week later, I counted through binoculars and the number of Red Cliff sheep had dropped dramatically, from over seventy to about sixty. As far as I know, the red cliff sheep herd estrus period is more than a month-long, from mid-spring to late spring, if at this rate of attrition, to the end of the estrus period, the red cliff sheep herd is afraid that there are few left.

What shocked me most is that for many sheep, especially the crop born last year, the color of their body hair has also changed: in the past spring, their body hair is not as red as in winter, but still brown and red, without losing the characteristics of the red cliff sheep; but now, most of the husband sheep's body hair is brown and green, the red luster on the body has faded, and the crop born last year, God knows what happened, the body hair is gray and brown, only the tips of the hair. The sheep born last year, God knows what, the body hair is gray and brown, only the tip of the hair still has a layer of if not a watery red phantom. I have read many reference books to know that if the animal is in a state of anxiety and agitation for a long time, endocrine disorders will cause the body hair dull discoloration.

The reason why the red cliff sheep is precious and unique is that it has a docile personality and a red body coat. Meekness has long since ceased to exist, and if the hair color also becomes the same as other types of sheep, gray and brown, then the unique value of the red sheep will be lost.

What to do? What to do? I was at a loss.