Chapter 1265 Long-Cherished Wish Fulfilled

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Nabari squinted his eyes. His eyesight was not as good as in his prime, but he was still much better than ordinary people.

He didn't know the names of this kind of wild cat, but they completely coincided with the image in memory, and made up for the vague part of memory.

At this time, he, who was serious in speech, suddenly smiled at the corner of his mouth, and his mood became clear and relaxed. He let go of all responsibilities and burdens, and even felt that he was favored by the true God like never before.

His life was almost complete, and it would be truly complete as soon as he got the others out of the desert safely.

Wei Kang's mood was different from that of Nabari. He was so excited that he even worried that he might have a heart attack.

He set up the tripod and kept pressing the silent shutter. Although the blur rate was high due to the dim light, each piece was an extremely precious material.

Is this the original Egyptian cat?

He didn't know, and he wasn't sure—what exactly was a primitive Egyptian cat? There is no precise definition.

It has not been more than 200 years since humans began to consciously breed domestic cats to produce the desired coat color and body shape. As early as thousands of years ago, humans began to breed dogs purposefully.

What he was looking for was a transitional cat species in the evolutionary history of domestic cats, which he thought was most likely to exist in Egypt.

Just as the fennec fox is the smallest canid, the sand cat is one of the smallest cats. Maybe mammals in the desert can only survive by shrinking their size as much as possible.

The sand cat is a very close relative of the domestic cat. There are four known subspecies, the Pakistani subspecies became extinct decades ago, and the North African subspecies was previously thought to exist only in southeast Egypt However, Weikang discovered a new subspecies on the border between Egypt and Libya at this time.

It is deep in the Sahara Desert, far away from the Siwa Oasis and the Kufra Oasis. In addition, this place should have been an oasis that was not recorded in history and legends many years ago. There is reason to believe that these sand Cats have lived here thousands of years ago, and have been isolated from the world for a long time, just like Australia, which is isolated overseas, retaining the independence of the species to the greatest extent.

It might be an exaggeration to say these sand cats are living fossils, but they are a fairly primitive species.

Similar to other types of sand cats, their ears are larger than those of ordinary domestic cats. Their appearance is not as exaggerated as those of fennec foxes, but their internal structure is already different from that of ordinary domestic cats, and their hearing is extremely good. developed.

Their faces are neither pointed nor round, and their hair makes their chin look like a vertical section of a bowl, which is approximately an inverted trapezoid. There are very light mackerel patterns on their bodies, so light that they are almost unrecognizable in the night. There are only two conspicuous black rings on each of the two forelimbs.

Although Wei Kang's movements were very light, there would inevitably be noises when setting up the tripod and installing the camera. He thought that these sand cats with sensitive hearing had heard their existence, but for some reason they did not choose to run away.

That's right, it must be because of Fina's existence.

Wei Kang looked at Fina with both relief and worry. Fortunately, he brought it to Egypt this time, otherwise he would definitely return empty-handed. At the same time, he also hoped that Fina would not have physical contact with the sand cats, otherwise she might be infected with germs. Because these sand cats have lived here for a long time, they have already produced antibodies in their bodies, but Fina has not.

He didn't know that Fina also lived here before.

There are many low dead tree branches where the infrared camera is installed. These sand cats are not interested in climbing. Can't climb trees, at least not good at climbing trees.

On the contrary, Wei Kang discovered that they were not simply playing, but digging the sand while playing, occasionally digging out some small animals from the sand to eat, and even digging a shallow hole to get in for food, and then It came out with a head full of sand, a writhing dune gecko in its mouth, and swallowed after a few casual chews.

A cat that is not good at climbing trees but is good at digging sand.

In order to insulate them from the high temperature of walking on the sand, their paw pads have thick hairs. The sharp claws cannot be retracted like other cats, and they are always exposed, probably for digging the sand.

In theory, sand cats are widely distributed across the continents of Asia and Africa, but in fact people have not seen live sand cats in the wild for several years, and almost nothing is known about the population of this rare animal, let alone scientists. I have studied sand cats, and the relevant research on their group behavior and habits is basically zero—it’s not because scientists don’t work hard, but because they really can’t find wild sand cats, and even photos of sand cats have been used repeatedly for many years Old photos taken before.

Wei Kang didn't think about the fame and honor brought by this discovery. He focused on recording their every move with his eyes and cameras, because no one knows when they will disappear before our eyes.

He only has one small regret, if only he had woken up the students just now, and let them see these rare creatures with their own eyes.

He never thought of catching them and bringing them back to China, because sand cats have a habit of drilling sand, which makes their respiratory system different from that of ordinary house cats. They can't adapt to the air outside the desert, and a slight cold can kill them life.

They should live here and survive without being disturbed by others.

Therefore, he turned off the GPS information of the photos in the camera settings, otherwise the swarms of hunters and smugglers would make this unknown subspecies extinct in a short period of time.

Sand cats are very timid, but this may be the first time they have seen humans, and they don't know how scary humans are. One of the bold sand cats ran a few steps here under the control of curiosity, a little away. He got closer and stared at Wei Kang with wide eyes.

Wei Kang pointed the lens at it and pressed the shutter repeatedly.

After a while, it lost interest in the middle-aged man with slightly bald hair, and flicked its tail back to its companion.

The moment it turned around, the shutter captured a clearer photo, with very light spots distributed on its side.

Sand cat with mackerel stripes and spots?

Wei Kang's heart stopped for a beat, and he wanted to announce his joy to the world at this time, because sand cats of other subspecies only had mackerel stripes but no spots.

Although it still needs to be confirmed by enlarging the original picture on the computer, he is already quite sure that he has achieved the goal of this trip.

He turned his head and smiled at Zhang Zian, as if he wanted to express something, maybe he wanted to make a "thank you" mouth shape.

At this moment, there was a thunder-like loud noise from the depths of the Devil's Sea, and even the ground trembled slightly.