In the desert of Namibia, southwest of Africa, a female cheetah looked around vigilantly every few minutes.
She lay on her stomach on the grass, but her head was held high as she looked around.
After repeatedly patrolling the area for a few hours, she finally felt at ease and crawled into a patch of tall grass.
Hidden in the grass was a litter of six cheetah cubs that were born less than a day ago.
"Meow, meow …" The cubs meowed sporadically.
Their bodies were very fragile, and they might not open their eyes until ten days later. They had to hide in the grass for almost a month.
It was the dry season, and the competition between carnivores was even more brutal. The female cheetah, who had to raise six cubs, was destined to face the harshest test of survival.
Fortunately, all the animals would try their best to gather near the water source, so this patch of grass far away from the river was slightly safer.
The female cheetah looked around vigilantly again, then lay on her side next to her cubs, letting them follow their instincts and suck on her milk.
However, among the six little cheetahs, one of them did not seem to drink milk like its siblings. Instead, it kicked its legs hard on the compacted grass nest, wanting to stand up.
The fluffy fur on its back moved with its movements, and its four legs trembled, but it couldn't stand up.
This cub had just been born, and it would take at least two or three days for it to crawl. Right now, it didn't want to eat its fill. Instead, it tried to stand up, which was a waste of energy.
The female cheetah moved her body slightly and changed her lying position. She moved closer to the cub, hoping that it could smell the milk and do the right thing.
However, the cub leaned on its mother's upper body and slowly used the momentum to stand up.
The cub took a step forward, but its fragile body only bounced forward a little before it fell down again.
The female cheetah finally gave up on guiding the cub. Her experience made her realize that six cubs were too many.
This unique cub might be a defective product that was destined to be eliminated from the moment it was born.
The female cheetah's body structure meant that it couldn't store a lot of fat, which meant that it couldn't store food in its body to turn it into milk. During the lactation period, it had to hunt and eat every day, or the cubs would starve.
Therefore, it would never waste too much time on this little cub's food.
After feeding, the female cheetah stood up. She had to fill her stomach.
She licked the cubs and waited for them to fall asleep.
The five cubs fell asleep after eating their fill. Only the leopard cub, who couldn't even open its eyes, was still trying to get up.
Upon careful observation, the female cheetah discovered that as the little fellow tossed and turned, the surrounding air and even some grass strangely disappeared.
It had never seen such a phenomenon before, let alone know what it meant.
"Meow meow …" As if it was too tired, it finally let out a cry and lay down on the grass, motionless.
This leopard cub was really a maverick. When the other cubs called, it didn't say a word.
At this moment, everyone was asleep, but it started to cry out.
The female cheetah looked around vigilantly and repeatedly comforted the cub for a long time. However, the cub still wouldn't stop barking. She had no choice but to pick it up and move it to another bush about 30 meters away from the nest.
There was nothing she could do about it. The cub's cries would attract other predators.
After quarantining the cub, the female cheetah left the nest and looked for prey.
It didn't come back until dusk. From its shriveled stomach, it could be seen that it hadn't eaten anything today.
After returning to its nest, it licked the cubs one by one to confirm the number.
There were five cubs. This reminded it that it had moved one away. The female cheetah hadn't abandoned it, so it went there to check on the cub.
"Meow …" It finally stopped and lay down on the grass weakly and tiredly.
The female cheetah picked it up and wanted to take it back to the nest, but she stopped after taking two steps.
She hadn't eaten for a whole day and didn't have enough milk. She couldn't feed the six cubs.
Even the other five cubs couldn't eat their fill.
In the end, the female cheetah put the cub down. She licked the cubs and returned to the nest of the five cubs.
After a difficult night, the female cheetah didn't sleep at all. She was always vigilant of the surroundings.
Only during the day when the field of vision widened did she get some sleep.
However, she still woke up every few minutes and looked around.
Only in the afternoon did she choose to go out to hunt when she felt that she had rested enough.
She couldn't fail again today. She had to eat, or none of the six cubs might survive.
Fortunately, she was a female cheetah with superb hunting skills. After working tirelessly, she finally caught a springbok and had a full meal.
The female cheetah returned to the nest happily. However, near the nest, she saw the animal she didn't want to see the most … a lion.
The female lion's hind leg was injured and she was very old. She seemed to have been chased out of the pride and lived alone.
A lion actually passed by near the nest where the cubs were hidden. This made the female cheetah very anxious.
However, it did not dare to approach the place where the cubs were hidden because the female lion clearly did not notice the cubs and was staring at it ferociously.
"Roar!"
The female lion growled and warned the cheetah.
The cheetah fled in fear, but it maintained a distance and did not completely escape this area.
It wanted to lure the lion away, but the lion was not interested in it. Injured, it knew that it could never catch up to the cheetah, so it did not want to chase after the other party at all.
The lion did not think too much about the female cheetah's actions and was about to leave.
However, as if alarmed by the previous roar, the cries of the five cheetah cubs came from the grass nest.
I see … The female lion finally understood that the cubs of the female cheetah were nearby and immediately followed the sound into the grass.
The female cheetah was extremely anxious. She gathered her courage and approached the lion. However, the female lion only turned around and pretended to bite, forcing the female cheetah back.
It was impossible to fight. Other than necessary hunting, they should never fight. This was the common sense of cheetahs imprinted in their bones.
Therefore, the female cheetah only kept provoking the lion but did not dare to really touch it. She relied on her speed to jump up and down around the lion.
However, the lion ignored her and followed the sound to find the cubs.
After a while, the lion left arrogantly. The female cheetah did not return to the grass nest until it was out of sight.
Dead. The bodies of the three cubs were scattered coldly in the grass. They had been killed by the lion.
Fortunately, two of the cubs had already learned to crawl. They had climbed out of the grass nest playfully, so the lion did not notice them and they had escaped death.
There was no doubt that these were two strong cheetah cubs. They were only two days old, but they could already crawl so far.
"Meow, meow, meow!" The female cheetah called for the missing cubs and followed the sound to find them.
Not only that, but she also brought back the cubs that had been quarantined the day before.
Three cubs, these were the only children it had. The number of cubs had decreased sharply by half.
"Meow …"
The maverick cubs had not drunk milk for two days since they were born. Although they were dying, they were not dead.
It was as if there was a tenacious will in this weak body that was holding on to their last breath.
The female cheetah bent down to feed the cubs. This time, the maverick cubs finally knew how to drink milk.
They took big mouthfuls, greedily sucking on the things that could keep them alive.
Five days later, the leopard cub didn't look any different from the other leopard cubs.
They drank milk, played around, and practiced crawling in confusion.
Every day, the female cheetah would come back to feed them. Although they could not eat enough, they still lived tenaciously.
Ten days later, all the cubs had opened their eyes.
Two of them curiously looked around the world, playing together while observing their surroundings.
They fiddled with the soil and stones, crushed the weeds with their bodies, and compared the feeling, smell, and properties of the weeds with the things in front of them. They used these playful behaviors to familiarize themselves with the grass, trees, soil, and stones around them.
Only the leopard cub started to walk alone again.
They opened their eyes in a daze, but they suddenly lost their playful nature, as if being in a daze was their greatest pleasure.
Unlike the other sisters, they felt that they were very familiar with everything around them. They did not need to explore at all.
The sky, the clouds, the sun, the grass, the sand, the flies, and the two cubs who were their sisters.
They felt that they knew all these things, and they even knew what they were for.
Lying quietly on the grass, they stared blankly at the two cubs who were playing around. They could not help but think.
"These are cheetah cubs … Am I a cheetah too? Huh? Why would I know that? "
"Huh? Me? Why would I know 'me'? "
"What is' me '? Where did I come from? Where did I go? "
After opening its eyes, the leopard cub's brain was flooded with knowledge of too many things.
They knew the sky, the earth, and the things in front of them. They did not seem to be anything new to them.
In fact, it could even clearly recognize the concept of 'I' and judge and think with subjective will.
Even though they were not playing around, they gradually became exhausted and fell asleep in less than an hour.
…
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