Forest Ranger, starting from Picking Up a Lynx Girl

Chen Ying took the three little ones outside the house, put on a mask and gloves, and checked them one by one. Thankfully, there were no visible parasites or fleas on their bodies.

Luckily, the low temperature here was not suitable for mosquito growth and breeding; otherwise, with their living conditions—eating, drinking, excreting all in one place—it was hard to imagine what might have happened.

As Chen Ying dealt with the three young jackals, Uncle Tashi and Sun Qihai were busy cleaning out the warehouse.

Meihua was also not idle; she put on protective clothing and disinfected the cleaned-out corner three times.

Hearing that the rescue station was sheltering three young jackals, the bored fellows from across the way all came to see what was going on.

Those who had something to do voluntarily helped move things out of the warehouse, kept what was usable, and tidied up the rest to pile outside, waiting for the delivery truck to take them to the dump.

The three jackals were a bit larger than puppies, but it was clear they had a completely different standard of living.

The three young jackals' ribs were clearly visible, whereas the five puppies were plump and chubby, waddling to the point where their flesh jiggled like waves when they ran.

The woman from the Animal Husbandry Bureau willingly wore protective clothing and learned from Chen Ying how to assess the physical condition of wild animals.

Most of what she learned at school was theoretical knowledge. Assigned to the village through the Animal Husbandry Bureau, she mostly dealt with chickens, ducks, and livestock; wild animals almost never fell into their hands.

Having this opportunity to learn from Chen Ying, the woman was always ready.

When she expressed a desire to learn, Chen Ying taught without holding anything back.

"...This is the simplest method to visually determine if an animal is diseased, all based on the experiences of our predecessors. If you want to learn, you just need to observe and practice more. Conditions here are tough, but opportunities abound."

Chen Ying let the three young jackals go so the woman could practice hands-on.

The young jackals, irritated by the handling, tried to snap their jaws, but a roar from the Red Lion made them whimper twice, showing a look of utter despair, allowing the woman to manipulate them freely.

Physically, there seemed to be no problems; they probably hadn't eaten since finding refuge here, eating only three meals in nine days, which explained their thinness.

Now, what needed confirmation was whether they had the ability to fend for themselves; surely they couldn't have always relied on the Desert Cat for feeding?

Speaking of which, jackals should be hunting Desert Cats, right? How come today it was the other way around? Cats feeding them? That's not scientific!

Unfortunately, the young jackals had limited ability to communicate and were in a frightened state, so Chen Ying had no choice but to first let them settle down.

Fortunately, the Snow Leopard's old den at Er Niu's house was still available, cleaned up enough for the three of them to stay.

That area was also monitored by the Dog Wet Nurse, and the little cubs were extremely curious about them, so running away was not an option.

Indeed, over the next two days, Red Lion Black Gold and the three puppies kept watch over the three jackals. Red Lion even self-taught the skill of hunting ground squirrels, showing off by carrying ground squirrels to display to the three jackals.

After watching, they threw away the prey; they didn't eat ground squirrels, after all.

The discarded ground squirrels weren't wasted, though; while the dogs weren't watching, the three jackals quickly tore and gulped it down, then hid back in the den.

Uncle Tashi turned on the camera installed at the corner of the animal shed, continuously monitoring the three jackals' activities and finally discovered that they had gone hunting during the cold nights.

Seeing them return full and round-bellied, Uncle Tashi breathed a sigh of relief.

It was best not to have to feed them, saving a significant expense. More importantly, their ability to hunt on their own meant they wouldn't starve. Once they grew a bit more, they could return to the wilderness to find a jackal pack to join.

Uncle Tashi glanced at the monitor, came out to prepare food for Red Lion and the others, and suddenly exclaimed to Sun Qihai while cooking, "Our rest station is almost becoming an animal kindergarten."

Sun Qihai was taken aback and nodded vigorously. He had thought so too but hadn't dared to say it!

Yin Li arranged his work and brought two team members and two vehicles to pick up Chen Ying and Meihua.

An avian research trainee from the opposite research station came over and asked if he could join them, wanting to survey the distribution of wild birds.

It turned out to be a standard setup, six people with two vehicles and a large tent. Chen Ying and Yin Li discussed it and agreed.

They gave him half a day to prepare; they were set to leave early the next day and would be gone for about ten days.

Meihua mainly wanted to find Tanggu Rhodiola, a plant usually found in high mountains or beside water in sandy soil, and only about as tall as a hand, requiring careful attention, even lowering one's sight to find it.

Their destination, a lake located thirty kilometers away, had soil well-suited for Tanggu Rhodiola and had also been the site where Creeping Myrtle had been found.

Yin Li's interests differed from Meihua's; he didn't specialize in medicinal plants but loved any rare plants.

They parked the vehicles away from the water, worried they might accidentally get stuck in the marsh.

Using walking sticks to probe, they found a relatively easy path across the marshland to the edge of the lake under the mountain.

The area's soil was sandy, formed from ice and snow washing over it and the dry, cold air weathering the rocks.

This sandy soil provided a growth environment for cold-resistant plants.

They carefully walked over the gravel, afraid of inadvertently stepping on and damaging a plant that had survived numerous hardships to emerge from the ground.