Nabari narrowed his eyes. His eyesight was not as good as it was in his prime, but it was still much better than ordinary people.
He didn't know the name of this wild cat, but they completely overlapped with the image in his memory and made up for the blurred part of his memory.
At this time, a smile suddenly appeared at the corner of his mouth. His state of mind became clear and relaxed, and he let go of all responsibilities and burdens. He even felt that he had never been blessed by God before.
His life was almost complete. As long as the others were safely out of the desert, it would be truly complete.
Wei Kang's mood was different from Nabari's. He was so excited that he was even worried about whether he would have a heart attack.
He set up the tripod and kept pressing the shutter on silent. Although the blurring rate was high due to the dim light, each photo was extremely precious.
Was this the original Egyptian cat?
He wasn't sure, and he wasn't sure. What was the original Egyptian cat? There was no accurate definition.
Humans began to consciously breed domestic cats, producing the desired fur color and body shape. It had been less than 200 years since then, and as early as thousands of years ago, humans began to purposefully breed dogs.
What he was looking for was a cat species that had a transitional nature in the evolution of domestic cats. He thought that such a cat species was most likely to exist in Egypt.
Just as the fennec fox was the smallest canine, the sand cat was one of the smallest cats. Perhaps mammals in the desert could only try to reduce their size to survive.
The sand cat was a very close relative of the domestic cat. There were four known subspecies. Among them, the Pakistani subspecies had been extinct decades ago, and the North African subspecies had been thought to exist only in a small area in southeastern Egypt. At this time, Wei Kang had discovered a new subspecies at the western border of Egypt and Libya.
It was deep in the Sahara Desert, far from the Siwa Oasis and the Kufra Oasis. In addition, this place should have been an oasis that had not been recorded in history and legends many years ago. There was reason to believe that these sand cats had been living here for thousands of years and had been isolated for a long time. Just like Australia, which was isolated overseas, they had retained the independence of the species to the greatest extent.
It might be an exaggeration to say that these sand cats were living fossils, but they were indeed a very primitive species.
Similar to other kinds of sand cats, their ears were very large, larger than that of ordinary house cats. Their appearance was not as exaggerated as the ears of fennec foxes, but their internal structure was already different from that of ordinary house cats, and their hearing was extremely developed.
Their faces were neither pointed nor round, and their hairs made their chins look like the longitudinal section of a bowl, which was similar to an inverted trapezoid. Their bodies were covered with very shallow mackerel markings, so shallow that it was almost impossible to distinguish them in the night. There were only two conspicuous black rings on each of their forelimbs.
Although Wei Kang's movements were very light, setting up the tripod and installing the camera would inevitably make noise. He thought that the sand cats with sensitive hearing had heard their presence, but for some reason, they did not choose to run.
Yes, it was because of Fina. was.
Wei Kang looked at Fina with both relief and worry. Fortunately, he had brought it to Egypt this time. Otherwise, he would have returned empty-handed. At the same time, he also hoped that Fina would not have physical contact with the sand cats. Otherwise, it might be infected. Because these sand cats had lived here for a long time, their bodies had developed antibodies, but Fina did not.
He didn't know that Fina used to live here.
There were many low branches of dead trees where the infrared camera was placed. These sand cats were not interested in climbing. Even if they jumped up the tree while playing, they just hugged the trunk and didn't move. Then they released their claws and jumped down. They didn't seem to know how to climb trees, at least not good at it.
On the contrary, Wei Kang realized that they were not simply playing around. Instead, they were playing while digging the sand. Occasionally, they would dig out some small animals from the sand and eat them. They even dug a shallow hole and burrowed into it in order to find food. Then, they would emerge with their heads full of sand, holding a wriggling dune gecko in their mouths. They would chew a few times before swallowing it.
A cat that was not good at climbing trees but good at digging sand.
In order to isolate the heat of walking on the sand, their paws were covered with thick fur. Their claws could not be retracted like other cats, and they were always exposed, probably to dig sand.
In theory, sand cats were widely distributed across the Asian and African continents, but in fact, people had not seen a living sand cat in the wild for several years. They knew almost nothing about the population of this rare animal, and no scientists had studied sand cats specifically. The relevant research on their group behavior and habits was basically zero. It was not that scientists did not work hard, but they really could not find wild sand cats. Even the photos of sand cats were repeated using a few old photos taken many years ago.
Wei Kang did not think about the fame and honor brought by this discovery. He focused on recording their every move with his eyes and camera, because no one knew when they would disappear from his sight.
He only had one small regret. If only he had woken up his students and let them see these rare creatures with their own eyes.
He didn't think about catching them and bringing them back to his country. Sand cats' habit of digging sand made their respiratory system structure different from that of ordinary domestic cats. They could not adapt to the air outside the desert, and a slight cold could kill them.
They should live here and survive without being disturbed by other people.
Therefore, he turned off the GPS information of the photo in the camera's settings. Otherwise, hunters and smugglers would come in a short time and make this unknown subspecies extinct.
Sand cats were very timid, but this may be the first time they saw humans, and they did not know how terrible humans could be. One of the bolder sand cats ran a few steps toward Wei Kang under the influence of curiosity. It got a little closer and stared at Wei Kang with wide eyes.
Wei Kang pointed the camera at it and pressed the shutter repeatedly.
After a while, it lost interest in the slightly bald middle-aged man and returned to its companions with a flick of its tail.
At the moment it turned around, the shutter captured a clearer photo, with very light spots distributed on its side.
A sand cat with mackerel patterns and spots at the same time?
Wei Kang's heart skipped a beat. He wanted to announce his joy to the world at this time, because other subspecies of sand cats only had mackerel patterns but no spots.
Although he still had to enlarge the original picture on the computer to confirm it, he was already quite sure that he had 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 say "thank you."
At this moment, there was a loud noise like thunder from the depths of the Devil's Sea, and even the earth trembled slightly.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
