Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness-Chapter 731 - 728: Light (Combined)

Twenty years ago, no biologistnducting research in the Arctic would have used words like "emaciated" or "frail" to describe polar bears.

In themmon perception, polar bears were always the robust sovereigns of the Arctic.

They had no natural predators in this land anduld roam the ice caps carefree, their massive bodies making the earth tremble beneath them.

When swimming in the ocean, their robust forelimb paws acted like flippers, allowing them to glide through the water with ease.

Some polar bearsuld even migrate between land masses hundreds of kilometers apart via the ocean, spending most of their lives drifting on sea ice, onlyming ashore during breeding seasons.

The sea ice also provided polar bears with a stable food source—seals.

When seals came up onto the ice to breathe and rest, they were likely to end up as a meal for polar bears. In addition to seals, polar bears occasionally feasted on the carcasses of whales.

Even if polar bears weren’t lucky enough to catch seals, the layers of fat stored beneath their skinuld provide them with energy for a certain period.

"This layer of fat makes them appear very robust," said Bi Fang.

The physique of polar bears is entirely different from that of brown bears: they have much thicker layers of fat and larger skeletal frames to ammodate and support their bulk, resulting in very different head-to-body proportions.

The differences between the two are visibly stark.

Polar bears have relatively small heads, long necks, and hind legs that are slightly longer than their forelimbs, giving them a forward-leaning posture; brown bears, on the other hand, have rounder heads, short, thick necks, and limbs of similar lengths, making their bodies appear parallel to the ground.

Even non-expertsuld easily differentiate between the two species. Howuld professional staff in animal protection organizations not rgnize them, just because the brown bear wore a white vest?

The online story of a leucistic brown bear named "Joey," mistakenly taken for a polar bear and sent to the Arctic twice, was merely a fabrication.

Although there was no leucistic brown bear named "Joey" that made two trips to the Arctic, many polar bears have indeed lost their homes and been forced to venture inland in search of food.

It all began to change at the turn of this century.

When exploring the Arctic, peopleuld occasionally find skeletal polar bears that looked like walking skeletons.

If these polar bearsuldn’t find food soon, they were doomed to starve, and their weakened bodies were no longer able to withstand the rigors of hunting; death was inevitable.

The acceleration of global warming has shortened the lifespan of sea ice, making the hunting life of polar bears extremely difficult. They might face increasingly tense survival situations and higher mortality rates, and in order to secure enough food, polar bears are forced to travel farther to hunt their prey.

Polar bears left the Arctic.

Over the years, polar bears have been struggling with a number of unfavorable factors, and those that disappeared have shown humans that even without natural predators, they have lost this battle.

"Polar bears separated from the sea ice have lost the crucial food source of seals, but in the southeastern part of Greenland, we have divered an isolated polar bear population with a unique genetic make-up," Bi Fang revealed.

"Unlike other polar bears that rely on sea ice to survive, these bears hunt year-round on the freshwater ice near marine glaciers, where thenditions of the sea ice are close to what we predict for the Arctic at the end of the 21st century," Bi Fang explained.

Bi Fang went from the past to the present, and then to the future, explainingmpletely why the polar bears living on Greenland seem to be doing quite well.

"The polar bears here might be the only ones that can survive into the future, as they are better adapted to the environment."

Standing on the ice field, Bi Fang watched a giant bear in the distance making eyentact with him and revealed a slight smile.

In his days roaming the snowy fields, Bi Fang had seen many creatures, which brought him a great sense of novelty. Lately, he had been observing a mother polar bear, leading her cub every day across the ice field in search of food. Watching from a distance was very amusing.

The giant mother polar bear lumbered forward, while her young cub followed behind. Often distracted by other things around, it would suddenly realize that its mother had walked far ahead. Frantically, the cub would scramble to its feet and hop and run to catch up, only to be distracted again by a chunk of ice or a rock at the roadside, repeating the cycle over and over.

"For many endangered animals, they only have one chance. A reduced population means they have no opportunity to make mistakes. They are not like the rabbits in Australia, where even if a virus specific to the species was developed, there is still a huge population to ensure the emergence of a group with antibodies. Not to mention many animals, plants, and microorganisms can hardly be effectivelyunted; most of the time it’s not even clear whether they have gone extinct."

"The risk of extinction for many species might be far more serious than we imagine. For instance, the Gastric-Brooding Frog in Australia went from being divered tompletely extinct in less than a year."

[If someone else has killed it and made money off it, now others have to bear thensequences. Even if we retreat ten thousand steps and it goes extinct, it won’t affect me, a person who has to pay even to enter a zoo.]

[The hardships of life make people dull, sigh :-(]

[Human development is like burning wood planks for warmth in a wooden cabin during winter, while also building a cement house next door. If the wooden housempletely disappears before the new cement house is built, human extinction isn’t far off. But if we don’t burn those wood planks, some people won’t live to see the next day’s sun.]

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"Many people probably can’tmprehend the impact of the extinction of such small creatures, like the Pinta Island Tortoise or the Speckled Tortoise, which have had no effect on our lives whatsoever. The protection of animals is more out ofmpassion."

"But in my opinion, speciesnservation is like playing Jenga. It’s a game of wooden blocks neatly stacked into a large rectangle,nstantly removing individual blocks until the rectanglellapses. Whoever pulls out a block and causes thellapse loses."

The online friends had an epiphany.

"Speciesnservation aims to minimize the blocks being removed, to prevent our Earth’s biosphere fromllapsing."

Bi Fang laughed, "I have said similar things many times before; to say more would seem preachy. It’s just that this survival journey isming to an end, and it feels like I can’t elevate the theme without saying something, reminding me of thenclusion that had to be included in thempositions I wrote in school."

"So let’s start to be a bit more cheerful."

The biosphere has evolved into its current state over hundreds of millions of years, whereuntless species have appeared and disappeared, surviving various kinds of reshuffling and staring anew. Humans are the biggest beneficiaries of this round.

Ofurse, the extinction of one or two species can’t destroy the entire system, but their disappearance warns of significant environmental changes. Currently, humans don’t have the capability to repair the damage to the biosphere out of thin air, so avoiding further deterioration is already the best practice.

Bi Fang believed that in the future, humans would definitely explore a development path that is more beneficial to themselves and also to the biosphere.

As he spoke, the young polar bear, chasing too eagerly, accidentally tripped and rolled several times, with dry snow sticking to its fluffy fur.

The mother polar bear finally noticed her mischievous cub, turned her head back, grabbed the cub’s neck, shook off the snow, and helped it stand up again.

The two bears, large and small,ntinued on their way into the distance.

The audience, witnessing the same scene, found it hilarious, laughing heartily. Many female fans felt their hearts melting, finding the cub too adorable.

And many were still discussing the words Bi Fang had just spoken.

[Not long ago, the Yangtze River dolphin wentmpletely extinct]

[I first came to know of the Yangtze River dolphin in a text called "Living Fossil"; back then it was an endangered species, and now it’s gone—quite a pity]

[Every species has its own unique advantages, such as artemisinin, which was found extracted from Artemisia. Every speciesuld potentially bring huge benefits to humans. Protecting animals is not only out of a bit of kindness and morality but also for safeguarding ourselves, to leave a backup plan for unforeseen crises in the future.]

[For humans, it’s the bitter fruit of environmental degradation, but that doesn’t make humans sinners. It’s survival of the fittest, natural selection. Humans destroy the environment and gradually make themselves "unfit", which is why we protect nature.]

...

Mid-January.

Bi Fang had been surviving in the Arctic for over ninety days, with less than a week remaining until the end.

The three months of arduous survival had been Bi Fang’s longest mission to date, and his appearance hadmpletely transformed from when he first arrived; his now longer hair, though not greasy from frequent washing, still looked somewhat unkempt.

This was inevitable. Bi Fanguld have trimmed it a bit, but in theld Arctic, it wasmpletely unnecessary. On thentrary, thick hair provided some degree of insulation.

Bi Fang’s overall weight had also undergone a reduction, although he had been hunting throughout, the drop was unavoidable yet not much, still maintaining around eighty kilograms, roughly the same as before he bulked up.

A give and take that resulted in no change, to everyone’s delight.

This further proved Bi Fang’s survival skills were indeed among the top echelon of humanity.

In a similar show in his previous life, even though the environment wasn’t as harsh as Bi Fang’s, being in a forest, almost allntestants would experience a significant drop in weight, with some even losing dozens of pounds, which was quite alarming.

But this actually only indicated the inadequacy of thentestants’ capabilities because if surviving a hundred days in the Arctic guaranteed weight loss, then the Inuit people would have been long extinct.

Bi Fang experienced some dimfort in the beginning, but he quickly got his survival status underntrol, entering a stable living environment.

Transitioning from one environment to another, living as luxuriously as the natives, or even better, all demonstrated Bi Fang’s abilities.

He possessed the skill to survive long-term in one of the harshest environments on Earth, and still had the capacity to support six large dogs!

These dogsnsumed more food than a person; in other words, Bi Fanguld even support ten people all by himself!

Today, like usual, Bi Fang stepped out, donning a snow-white scarf, calling to the six sled dogs, gently closing and bolting the wooden door.

In the uninhabited Arctic, such precautions were unnecessary, until after an attack by a pack of Arctic wolves, Bi Fang decided it was necessary to install a bolt to prevent the sled dogs from suddenly running out.

After bolting the door, the cabin quivered slightly, and the smoked rabbits hanging on the edge shook, dropping the accumulated snow from the roof’s edge. A blizzard had passed some time ago,mpletelyvering the cabin’s roof with snowflakes, but due to the steep slant, the snow wasn’t thick.

Seeing the swinging rabbits, the sled dogs beside drooled with desire, Bi Fang looked up following their gaze and slapped his forehead.

"Forgot to bring them inside."

If he didn’t take them back into the cabin, who knows what might eat them by the time he returned.

Gathering the smoked rabbits from the edge, Bi Fang placed them inside before setting off once more, traveling across the vast ice plains and witnessing more of the landscape.

The temperature remained very low, only around minus thirty degrees, butmpared to the minus sixty degrees during the recent blizzard, it was nownsidered "warm".

Despite the monotonous grey-white environment surrounding him, Bi Fang didn’t feel lonely.

On the eternal ice fields, every day new animals appeared, new things happened; every morning was fresh, each animal with its own novel story.

The wind brought the seeds of stories, time allowed them to sprout.

Bi Fang enjoyed such a life and didn’t find it arduous.

In mid-January, it was the time when the sun was about to reinvigorate, perhaps in the nextuple of days.

Chaal burned quietly, the red and yellow glows scattering sparks, warm... The warmth of a fire!

Covered with a musk ox skin on the kang bed, Bi Fang’s forehead glistened with sweat, and his back exuded layers of sweat, every pore stinging like needle pricks, unbearable!

"Heh-ha!"

Bi Fang suddenly awoke, his back damp with sweat, and sunsciously reached for the spear leaning against the wall. It was only after grabbing it that he realized he was still in the cabin, and nothing happened.

Strange, a nightmare?

Bi Fang was puzzled but wasn’t affected by the nightmare. He reached out to touch the kang, which wasn’t any warmer than previous nights—wondering why he sweated so much today.

Am I running a fever?

Bi Fang touched his forehead, butuldn’t make sense of it. Beside him, Goudan was panting, looking almost like a dead dog with no reaction at all.

Just when Bi Fang thought everything was an illusion, perhaps an unease that emerged from his sunscious for the first time staying so long in the wilderness, a subtle scraping sound came from outside the cabin.

Bi Fang startled, his grip on the spear tightening, his veins protruding like a creeping snake.

Outside the door, there was something!

...

Zheng Fahua was an earnest student and also a mature university student. He went through middle school drously, attended an ordinary high school, and similarly went through high school in a drous manner, eventually getting into an average university.

What was different was that Zheng Fahua heeded the advice of his elders, none of whom had been to university, and treated university as a relaxing place, skipping classes every now and then, gaming and reading novels in the dormitory, to this day.