The Mystery of the Red Cliff Sheep

While ordinary sheep are grayish brown, the sheep in Gaoligong Mountain have dark brown and red coats, and in winter, the coats are bright red, running and jumping on the snow-covered mountains, just like a mass of burning fire. The Red Cliff sheep is a unique species in the world because of its gentle temperament and peculiar coat color and is therefore extremely valuable. Unfortunately, the number of red sheep is so small that there is only a small group of them living in the narrow valley of the Nahu River. The local mountain people also know that the Red Cliff sheep is a world-class rare animal and never harm it. The ewes give birth to two litters a year, each with two or three lambs, and their fertility is considered high in the bovine family. According to the guide I hired - Tibetan hunter Qiangba told me that his grandfather had carefully counted when he was young; this group of red cliff sheep have sixty-six, a few days ago I counted with binoculars at the animal observation station, no more, no less, is also sixty-six.

More than half a century has passed, and the number of red cliff sheep has not increased, which can not be said to be a tragic mystery.

I tracked for more than half a month, and finally found the reason why the red cliff sheep do not develop the crux of the problem. The culprit is two insatiable snow leopards.

This is a leopard couple, male leopard body length of about one meter five, female leopard body length of about one meter three, decorated with beautiful patterns of leopard tail almost as long as the body. The male leopard has a grayish brown body color, his face is covered with yellowish brown and black stripes, his silvery white leopard whiskers shine, and he looks powerful; the female leopard has a silvery gray body color, her eyes are as blue as the water of the Nahu River, her mouth is angular, robust and beautiful.

This pair of snow leopards' den is located near the snow line of Gaoligong Mountain, only three miles away from the Nahu River valley. They have to come down to the mountain once every five days on average to hunt. I don't know if they have developed a partial diet or if the meat of the red sheep is particularly delicious, but these two snow leopards are very picky about their food and only catch red sheep. Once I saw with my own eyes, when they were about to go down to the Nahu valley, they came across a wild boar with a high bristle, which was injured on one of its front feet, limping and walking very slowly. However, the two snow leopards were not interested in the boar that came to their door, the male leopard just lazily roared at the unsuspecting boar that was getting closer and closer, the stilted boar was scared shitless and fled, the two snow leopards still went their way as nothing had happened.

Several times I witnessed the snow leopards catching sheep through the binoculars, it was a bloody slaughter. When the old grey-bearded sheep in the lead caught the scent of the snow leopard and raised its front hooves to strike the rocks sharply - alerting the flock of the approaching danger - the sheep ran away in a panic, following their leader, Greybeard. Every sheep knows that this is a life-or-death race. They all tried to run as fast as they could, their hooves splashing and the hillside rolling with smoke, like a breaking tide. The snow leopard followed the herd and kept up with them. Although the head sheep, Greybeard, is very experienced, timely detection of the enemy, timely alarm, the escape route is also selected just right, around the mountain climbing slopes, take the advantage of the cliff sheep jumping steep mountain path, but after running for some time, there is always an old sheep or thin sheep run slower and slower, fall away from the group, by the snow leopard savagely pounced on the ground, a bite of the neck. They drag the dead sheep back to the snow line, and after a good meal, they drag the rest of the meat to the snow slope, dig a snow pit and bury it, just like humans put food in the refrigerator to keep it fresh, when they are hungry, they dig it out and eat it again.

Five days later, a sheep was eaten with only a few bones left, so the same tragedy would repeat itself. This pair of dreadful snow leopards acted as if the red sheep were their livestock as if they had some kind of patent to catch them whenever they wanted to eat.

The shadow of death loomed overhead, at any time to prevent the snow leopard's sudden attack, every moment the nerves are in a high state of tension, five days to experience a horrible escape, life is like soaking in bitter water, can still expect the red sheep to reproduce in large numbers? Even if the red cliff sheep are used to this kind of havoc, the frequent slaughter will make it difficult for their population to develop. This is a not-so-complicated arithmetic problem. The pair of snow leopards eat an average of one sheep in five days, which would be more than seventy sheep a year, enough to cancel out the reproductive capacity of the ewes.

One of my scientific research topics is to let this precious group of red cliff sheep develop and grow, but I can't simply shoot the pair of snow leopards, also called aye-aye leopards, which are also a national category of protected animals. I thought for days to come up with a solution that would dispel the shadow of death hanging over the Red Cliff sheep and not harm the two snow leopards.