Snow rabbit by the sleeping python

The wild animals kept in zoos, not all like elephants, rhinoceroses as rare species, and not every animal like tigers, leopards as expensive. Just like the stock market, there are blue chips with high prices, and there are also quite cheap dung stocks. For example, the snow rabbit, purchased at a low price, is poorly ornamental, does not get the attention of the staff, and is seen as a kind of embellishment and dispensable exhibition species. The Kunming Yuantong Mountain Zoo used a female white pheasant bird the year before to exchange for four pairs of snow rabbits from the Beijing Zoo, kept in a cage of a dozen square meters. Snow rabbits have light brown summer fur and white winter fur, with a circle of black fur at the tips of their ears; otherwise, other characteristics are much the same as those of domestic rabbits. Snow rabbits have a high reproductive rate, producing 3-4 litters of 3 pups per year, and the young rabbits can produce the next generation after they reach 8 months of age. In the zoo, there are no natural enemies and no diseases, so the family of snowshoe hares is expanding geometrically and snowballing. In just 2 years, the family grew to more than 100, and the small cages were overcrowded with rabbits. Although the snow rabbit is also classified as a second-class protected animal, the value is not large, raising more, pure waste of feed, expanding the financial deficit of the zoo. So, the zoo will pick some old and weak snow rabbits, and feed other carnivores, one can reduce the overcrowding of the rabbit hutch, and the second can also reduce the cost of feeding other carnivores. About 50 or 60 meters away from the rabbit hut, there is a glass cage of more than 30 square meters, in which a python is kept. This is a black-tailed python, with black cloud-like markings on its body, a belly circumference of 60 cm, and a body length of six meters. The python was born deaf, relying on the bright red forked snake letters to stretch out to smell and feel the movement around. They love to eat live animals or they refuse to eat. It was just as well that the extra snowshoe hares were used to feed this precious black-tailed python. The adult snowshoe hares are about seven or eight pounds each, just enough for the python to have a full meal.

Animals have different feeding rules, silkworms spend most of their short lives eating mulberry leaves, rats eat more than a dozen times a day, most primates eat at least 2-3 times a day, jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards eat once a day is almost enough. The python is very special, after a full meal, you can not eat or drink for about ten days, entwined in the tree branches or coiled in the grass to sleep. In other words, it only eats one meal in about ten days. To save time, the zookeepers usually throw the rabbits into the python's house beforehand, so that the black-tailed python can swallow them at any time when it feels hungry after waking up. In this way, the snow rabbit is thrown into the python's house, for more than ten days, less than three or five days, to live around the sleeping python.

One after another, there have been about twenty snow rabbits buried in the belly of the python. When most of them were thrown into the python house, they were scared out of their wits when they smelled the fishy smell of the python and saw the two cold snake eyes that did not have eyelids and therefore would not close even when they slept. They first jumped around, and then ran along the glass wall, trying to escape from the danger. This was in vain, of course. In a short time, these unlucky snow rabbits are exhausted, foaming at the mouth, and collapsing on the ground. They finally understand, that even if they have a great ability, but also can not escape from the transparent glass python house. They tend to curl up in a corner farthest from the python, with their frightened eyes staring at the python. When the python stretches or adjusts its posture, it put its head into the grass and trembles all over. They barely eat or sleep, and after two or three days, they are starving and dying. Some of the snowshoe hares had not waited for the sleeping pythons to wake up to eat them, and they had already died of exhaustion. Therefore, when the black-tailed python feeds, there is no need to chase, and no need to use the long body of the snake to strangle the prey like in the wild, it just needs to wag its tail, yawn, and swim leisurely over, it can easily bite the snowshoe rabbit and swallow it.

This is the common mental state of dead prisoners. When the blackness of death oppresses the soul, it creates a mood of frustration and despair, the whole head is stuffed with fear and no longer knows hunger and sleepiness. Not willing to die but having to die, does not feel good. Once the will to live cooled to the freezing point, the spirit is bound to be in a state of numbness, in addition to waiting for death, doing nothing. There are also a few snow rabbits thrown into the python house, uncharacteristically, buried all day to eat. After eating the feed fed by the administrator, and eat grass, and then gnawing the central python house for the black-tailed python to climb the one-person-high stump, the mouth does not stop, as if hungry for a hundred years, can not wait to eat the world into the stomach. Then look at the eyes of these perverse snow rabbits, dull and sluggish, dull, dead, will not turn. This is also a typical psychological reaction of death row prisoners. Looks quite strong, was sentenced to death, but also eats a lot, appear to be a very indifferent look, in fact, but in the gourmand eating face to cover their empty mind, is another form of expression of complete despair. Seize the last period of life and enjoy life to the fullest. However, the mood of waiting for death has already suffocated the taste organs, even if you can swallow it, but also tastes like wax. Imagine, in the face of the last supper, even if full of mountains and seafood, and who has an appetite for it? There is also a snow rabbit who, after entering the python house, shriveled up for two days, and suddenly became excited, jumping around the cage to catch butterflies. Oh, that's probably because the high tension and extreme fear caused a mental breakdown. When the python woke up and just opened its huge mouth towards it, it jumped over sparingly and dived head first into the black hole of the python's mouth. I think life is fragile, and weak creatures especially so, when faced with death, their fearful mindset is exposed.

But one day, when a female rabbit with particularly large ears was thrown into the python house (let's call it a female rabbit with large ears), there was a shocking scene that I will never forget, which changed my view of the weak and small creatures and my understanding of life. When the female rabbit was first put into the python house, she, like the other snowshoe hares, panicked, ran away, ate and slept, and shivered in a corner.

But the next day, she showed herself to be different. He carefully circled the sleeping python twice, and after a moment of contemplation, he chose a piece of wet ground near the pond and began to dig a hole. He used his front paws to dig up the wet soil, and his back paws to fling the soil behind him, his movements were coordinated and methodical, and it was clear from a glance that he had recovered from his initial panic. Snow hares can dig holes, but they are not very strong. In the wild, they usually look for ready-made burrows or borrow abandoned nests of pangolins and build and modify them, even if they are their nests. But it's not easy to dig a hole in the hard mountain soil to escape from a python attack! In addition to eating and sleeping, the female rabbit dug all day long. Two days later, she dug a hole 30 to 40 centimeters deep, which was just half of her body. At this time, the sleeping python squirmed frequently, signaling that it was about to wake up. The sleeping python woke up, it raised its head, stammering bright red letters, looking left and right. Oh, it is hungry and looking for delicious food.

At this time, the big-eared female rabbit stood by the unfinished earthen hole, staring blankly at the black-tailed python that was slowly swimming towards it, not moving a muscle. Maybe the ten were scared silly. The black-tailed python's flat head swims to the big-eared female rabbit, lazily opening a bloody mouth, showing more than an inch long fangs, pouncing over. It looks like the python's mouth is about to cover the rabbit's head. Suddenly, the big-eared female rabbit jumped hard and fled to the back of the black-tailed python to go. The black-tailed python bites a blank, showing a look of amazement, staring in amazement at the big-eared female rabbit who fled. For it, every time the mouth to the snow rabbit, the snow rabbit has long been scared half dead, will not move, eat up very easy and pleasant, today how to do? This time, he took it seriously and stopped when he was about a meter away from the target, with his neck upright and tail flicking, his large rectangular head smashing into the target like a meteor hammer. The big-eared female rabbit leaped nimbly and avoided the bite again. The python is a non-venomous snake, when hunting, the power of the bite is limited, with a long and thick body to the wind being its strength. It is reasonable to say that the black-tailed python should change the bite to twine and strangle, but this guy is used to swallowing snow rabbits directly, and still stubbornly chasing and biting the big-eared female rabbit with its head held high. The big-eared female rabbit always jumped in time to dodge and escape the moment the python's mouth was about to fall on her. The black-tailed python often bites empty, angry, and only then remembered to change tactics. It twisted its bowl-thick body on the ground like a twist, rope-like set towards the target. The big-eared female rabbit jumped hard when the first loop came over and managed to dodge it, but before it could stand still, the second loop wrapped around the python's body was thrown over again, and its body was bound at once. The power of the python can strangle a horse deer alive, let alone a small snow hare. The big-eared hare's eyes were bulging and she was having trouble breathing.

Suddenly, the big-eared female rabbit lowered her head and used her incisors to gnaw on the python. Although the incisors of the snowshoe hares are not as powerful as the teeth of wolves and tigers, they are used to gnawing on tree bark and moss frozen on rocks in the wild, so they are still very sharp. The python's skin ruptured, revealing snow-white python flesh and bright red blood. The black-tailed python was struck by a sudden blow, the taut body was instantly relaxed, and the big-eared female rabbit took the opportunity to leap up from the noose-like body of the snake and fled to the other end of the python house. After the blow, the black-tailed python was more cautious, no longer using its body to twist into a circle to set the snow rabbit, but using the strong python tail to continuously whip, trying to knock the big-eared female rabbit down and stunned, and then swallowed with ease. The big-eared female rabbit is exceptionally flexible and does not wait for the black-tailed python to get close enough to run away, making the python's tail repeatedly draw empty. Every time the female rabbit escaped the attack of the black-tailed python, she had to chew a few mouthfuls of grass and chew and swallow quickly, oh, she wanted to replenish her strength and jump and dodge better. Perhaps because she was too hungry, perhaps because of the lack of exercise, the skills of hunting rusty, perhaps because several failures seriously undermined self-confidence, half an hour later, the black-tailed python was completely discouraged. It gave up the chase, loosely coiled into a large circle under the stump. The manager was afraid of starving the precious black-tailed python, and even more afraid that it would get sick because of excessive frustration, so he temporarily caught a male rabbit from the rabbit cage and threw it into the python house. As soon as the male rabbit saw the black-tailed python, he was scared out of his urine, could not walk, and was eaten by the black-tailed python as conveniently as the noodles. The black-tailed python swallowed the food with a bow, and its abdomen bulged with a big bag. Then it crawled to the small pond, drank some water, and then coiled up like a rope, head shrunken in the center, and slept. According to the life habits of pythons, they will not wake up again to feed until the food in their stomach is digested after ten days. Once the black-tailed python fell asleep, the big-eared female rabbit came to the pool to continue digging its hole. She dug her hole to a crazy extent, gnawing with her mouth, grubbing with her claws, day and night, drinking a mouthful of water when she was thirsty, eating a mouthful of material when she was hungry, and taking a nap next to the hole when she was sleepy.

Three days later, the big-eared female rabbit's burrow was finally dug to a depth of more than a foot, just enough for her to hide. The next morning, I was watching outside the python house and saw the big-eared female rabbit dragging her tired body around the water for food. I accidentally caught a glimpse of something shaking in the shallow burrow and used my flashlight to look inside. Snow rabbit cubs and domestic rabbit cubs have obvious differences, the domestic rabbit cubs were born, their whole body naked, eyes can not open. Snow rabbit cubs are born with a layer of dense fleece and their eyes are already open. The three young rabbits were frightened by the flashlight light and huddled together in a pile at the bottom of the hole, making weak cries. The big-eared female rabbit immediately stopped drinking and ran back to her burrow to protect her babies. I realized that the reason why the mother rabbit showed extraordinary bravery and was not afraid to die was that she was pregnant with a rabbit cub and was about to give birth. For a mother rabbit, there is nothing more important than giving birth to her cubs. The strong desire to have her offspring come out safely made her overcome her cowardly nature and transcend the limitations of her species to fight with the python in a fearless spirit. Unfortunately, it only escaped the black-tailed python's killing and maiming for the time being. Burrows can escape the bites of other beasts, but it is difficult to escape the attacks of snakes. The slender, slippery body of the python is well suited to burrowing underground. So to speak, where the snowshoe hare can go into the cave, the python can go into. In the narrow cave, the snow rabbit can not jump and jump, by the python bite a right. In a week or so, the black-tailed python will wake up, and if the mother rabbit with big ears escapes from the cave, she will give her three young rabbits to the python as snacks. The big-eared female rabbit seemed to have realized this too.

On the fifth morning, I saw her come out of her burrow and stand under the stump, staring at the sleeping python with her head cocked for a long time, her eyes as red as onyx, her nose deeply wrinkled, and her heart now heavy with worry. After a few minutes, the big-eared female rabbit approached the sleeping python step by step. She walked slowly, her four legs seemed to be filled with lead, and the closer she got to the python, the more her body trembled. When it reached the python, it opened its mouth for a bite, as if it lacked courage, courage, and self-confidence, hesitating to make a bite.

The hole at the edge of the pool** reveals the little fluffy head of the rabbit, the big-eared female rabbit looks back, and in a flash, her gaze becomes firm and brave, and a layer of holy light is reflected between her nose and muzzle as if she has found a source of strength. It calmed down, and two sharp front paws gouge the waist of the python, flying into the black-tailed python's body gnawing two mouths. The sleeping black-tailed python woke up in pain and abruptly slid its body and raised its head, but before it was fully awake, the big-eared female rabbit had long fled in a huff to the back of a tree stump. Weak snowshoe hares are usually afraid to avoid the python but never heard of a snowshoe hare that dares to attack the python on its initiative. Because of the disparity in their power, the snowshoe hare fought with the python, which was like hitting a rock with an egg. Although the big-eared female rabbit was trembling with nervousness before taking action, it was still a heroic feat that shocked the world. The black-tailed python woke up and chased after the big-eared hare with great vigor. The female rabbit dodged deftly and repeated the same trick. After a few rounds, the black-tailed python could not take advantage of the situation, and since she was not hungry and did not have a desire to hunt, she coiled up on the grass in the center of the cage and put her head up high, shifting from offense to defense. The big-eared female rabbit waited patiently. After an hour or so, when the black-tailed python dozed off with its head hanging down in fatigue, it went around to the back of the black-tailed python and nibbled on its tail unexpectedly. This was repeated several times, and finally, the black-tailed python had to climb to the one-person high stump to avoid the harassment of the big-eared female rabbit. It was an unheard-of spectacle that a ferocious python was afraid of a tiny snow rabbit. I couldn't help but cheer for the big-eared female rabbit in my heart. Although the black-tailed python was coiled at the top of the stump, the stump was not high, and its body was too long, so its belly and tail would inevitably hang down. The female rabbit was either chased away from death or buried in the belly of the python. For the survival of the three young rabbits, she had no choice but to go forward and fight to the end! The black-tailed python must be the first time in its life to encounter such a difficult snow rabbit, there is no way out. It scampered down from the stump for a while and then wrapped itself around the stump with its tail to the sky and its head down, restless and uncomfortable. The zookeeper was worried that if this continued, the black-tailed python would be overly anxious and have an accident. Moreover, it was unbearable to let a mother rabbit and three newborn rabbits be the python's feed. So the keeper decided to move the mother rabbit and her three young rabbits out of the python house and back into the rabbit cage.

The mother rabbit won! When I saw the mother rabbit with her cubs happily returning to the cage where she had left them for half a month, I couldn't help but think: When life is in a desperate situation, despair is only a way to die. The only way to win is to have the courage to fight against fate and open up a way of life.