Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
In the desert that seems to be a killer of life, there’s quite a lot of animals that live here. But, most of them are nocturnal animals, avoiding the high heat and direct burn of the sunlight in the morning, and coming out only at night when the temperatures are gentler.
Before fully understanding the situation, Zhang Zian doesn’t want to disturb anyone — they had all used a lot of energy in the day, and it’s rare for them to be able to rest. There’s no reason to wake everyone up for something this minor when there’s an even longer way to go tomorrow.
But in the desert, it’s really difficult to keep your footsteps light. Every step you take, half your feet sink into the sand, and they rustle of sand as they fall off sound exceptionally loud at night.
Instead, Fina seems to be completely at ease, and its footsteps barely made any sound at all.
The padding on the base of a cat’s paw can decrease the sound of its footsteps not only on flat ground, but also in the desert. Besides, the exceptional balance of a cat works well for them in the desert too. When they walk, their weight is balanced amongst three legs, while humans have their weight balanced on one, so they sink into the sand easily.
Cats are naturally lighter, even if Fina did gain some weight after coming to the pet shop…
Fina walked in front, suddenly turning back, glaring at Zhang Zian sharply, “Are you cursing me?”
“No! I’m wondering about what animal Famous might have smelled…”
Zhang Zian quickly waved his hands, trying to clear up the misunderstanding.
It’s the cooling midnight, but his back is drenched with sweat, thinking about whether Fina has any mind reading abilities, or a eye on the back of its head.
“Hngh! Hngh!”
Fina clearly doesn’t believe in his explanation, but due to its pride, it can’t do anything about Zhang Zian without any evidence, and can only huff. No matter what he’s contemplating internally, he didn’t say it out loud. If it keeps harping on it, it will only seem petty.
Famous swept its head left and right, focusing on looking for the source of the smell.
“It seems to be behind that sand dune,” He started at a nearby low sand dune.
Zhang Zian took the chance to change the topic, “okay, let’s go and take a look.”
Fina suddenly stopped, “You walk in front so you won’t put your eyes where you shouldn’t.”
Zhang Zian has no choice, and made a hand signal at Famous. He squat down to take a handful of sand, letting it go to confirm the wind’s direction. In order to prevent alerting the animals behind the sand dune, he bent down as he walked, walking against the wind towards the sand dune, so the wind can take away as much of their scent and sound as possible.
He took a look back at their camp, and the camping lights were still shining brightly, shining comfortingly, just like a candlelight in the middle of a never ending darkness.
The small sand dune is not as steep as others, and it’s not hard to climb. When they were reaching the top, he got on all fours to finish the distance.
He carefully poked his head over the spine, showing only his eyes to see what’s on the other side.
What is that?
With the stars not providing much visibility, he could barely see anything at first. After his eyes had gotten used to the light and distance, he could vaguely see a few pairs of eyes lighting up in the night.
He regretted not taking his binoculars when he had left his tent, his brain still half asleep and not sharp yet. He can barely see anything in the dimness of the night.
Fina reached the spine after them, it’s eyes focused on the other side, sniffling the air, before scoffing, “It’s just a pack of foxes.”
“Foxes?”
Zhang Zian remembered that they were just discussing the Desert Fox, Hommel, yesterday, and today they have met actual foxes in the desert.
He was initially worried whether these were dingoes or hyenas, or something similar to those, but even dingoes and hyenas weren’t prone to attacking something bigger than them for no reason. After knowing that it was a pack of foxes, his worries completely dissipated, and curiosity replaced it instead.
He had only seen foxes in television before, and hadn’t seen them in real life.
Famous lowered its voice, asking, “What do we do now?”
Zhang Zian couldn’t decide whether they should leave or not, so he asked Fina, “What kind of foxes are they?”
Fina’s even more disdained, “What else can they be? Smelly and acrid, of course.”
“I mean their looks.”
“Looks…” Fina took a look there again, “Their bodies are small, their ears are big. Oh, they seem to have heard something, and are planning to run… They have sharp ears.”
Small body and big ears…
Zhang Zian immediately thought of a species of foxes that does fit that description, and they do live in the Northern African Sahara Desert. Many countries even treasure them as rare animals — the fennec foxes.
Many people often misunderstand foxes. Foxes are a branch of the canine genus on the phylogenetic tree, and they don’t have their own genus, and the fennec fox is the smallest canine in the whole world. Or, the smallest wild canine in the whole world. Certain teacup breeds of toy dogs are now smaller than fennec foxes, but only after years of breeding.
Fina wasn’t exaggerating, Zhang Zian did see a few pairs of bright eyes turning their way, as though hearing the sound that they had made and was hesitating whether they should make a run for it.
Fennec foxes are in the middle of the food chain of the desert, and mainly survive on small mammals, bugs, or lizards. They are hunted by bigger animals like eagles and dingoes. Therefore, in order to survive in the desert, they have evolved a comically large ear in comparison to their face, like two high-sensitivity radar constantly taking in information about their surroundings. Even if it was just one bug crawling underneath the sand, they would be able to hear too.
If Zhang Zian hadn’t approached them against the wind, and the wind had taken away a portion of his smell and scent, these fennec foxes might have already run off even before they could scale the sand dune.
Zhang Zian thought, Professor Weikang didn’t only want to investigate the ancient cats of Egypt in this expedition, but had also planned to do a study on the survival conditions of animals here. He doesn’t know whether Professor Weikang is interested in fennec foxes, since some countries have successfully tamed and domesticated fennec foxes, but wild ones are still hard to come by.
He silently moved his body backwards so that the sand dune was covering him, and told Fina and Famous, “It’s rare to come across fennec foxes, let’s think how we can catch a few for ourselves.”
Fina’s face stretched in disgust, rejecting his ideas, “I refuse! You do it yourself! All foxes are smelly and acrid, I refuse to touch one with my own paws!”
“Shh! Quiet!”
Zhang Zian desperately waved his hands to get Fina to quieten down, or those fennec foxes will really run off.
“I don’t mean to let you do it, just for you and Famous to help out while I catch them. I definitely can’t do it by myself.” He explained.
Fina didn’t seem too happy about it, skeptically asking, “Then, what’s your plan?”
