Bi Fang walked among the woods, took off his gloves, and touched the cold trees one after another. Behind him was a hundred-meter-high cliff, which was a natural city wall.
The nature is so vast, but the landscape is quite cruel. There is not a trace of green on the ground, and it is all covered by thick snow.
Standing in the Arctic forest, as a human being, Bi Fang inevitably feels a little insignificant.
Looking behind me, on the cliff, huge inland ice formed tongues of ice, which could fall from a high altitude at any time during a storm and smash everything into pieces.
In Greenland, there is endless wild land as far as the eye can see.
“The conditions in the Arctic are, by all accounts, quite extreme, and only those species that can successfully adapt to the harsh climatic conditions here, with the huge difference between summer and winter, where there is no leaf litter and almost all trees are green, survive.
, absorb as much sunlight as possible and carry out photosynthesis.”
Bi Fang rubbed the tree body, and some scratch marks were clearly left on it. He squatted down, shoveled the snow on the ground, and discovered a group of gnawed moss.
There are tooth marks left on the edges of these mosses. It is obvious that herbivores have visited this place and left traces.
More snow was dug up, and soon more traces were exposed, including not only huge footprints, but also some long brown hairs.
Looking at the hoof prints on the ground, the audience felt a little familiar.
【What is this? A reindeer?】
[It looks very similar, but it feels much bigger.]
Bi Fang dug out the remaining moss on the ground and shook his head: "It's not reindeer. Reindeer are not that big. These are the footprints left by musk oxen."
【What kind of cow is musk ox?】
[Blind guess is a big cow]
【Can I eat it?】
"Musk ox is a representative animal on the Arctic tundra and is also the northernmost ungulate on the earth. Among ungulates, no animal lives further north than the musk ox, not even reindeer.
.”
“It is said that the undercoat of musk oxen shed during its annual shedding period is eight times warmer than sheep’s wool, and its protective outer hair is also the longest in the animal kingdom, even reaching 60 centimeters in length, which can perfectly withstand minus forty degrees.
low temperature.”
Bi Fang gave a brief introduction, then pointed to the very clear footprints on the ground and said.
"The reason why you think the footprints of the two look similar is because they and reindeer are both artiodactyls, and both are ruminant suborders. They are different down to the family, so the footprints look similar at first glance, but the body shapes of the two are different.
Very huge.”
"The weight of musk oxen is generally more than 300 kilograms, and the weight of reindeer is less than half that of reindeer. It is precisely because musk oxen are too large and like to gather in groups. They have almost no opponents and walk very domineeringly, so they often bite them.
trees, whereas this is rarely the case with reindeer."
[Hiss, three hundred kilograms?]
【Damn, just catching one is enough, right?】
[Suddenly I feel that the twenty kilogram target set by Lao Fang is not so outrageous. Is this one enough? 】
[Cluster? My DNA has moved]
The soil here is full of frozen soil, and the mark left behind is difficult to disappear once you step on it, which makes it difficult for Bifang to judge the time when the prey left.
Bi Fang closed his eyes and twitched his nose slightly, trying to catch the remaining scent of musk ox in the air.
"The reason why musk oxen are called musk oxen is because both male and female musk oxen emit a musk-like smell, especially males during estrus."
"However, this smell does not come from specialized glands, but from their urine, which is why musk oxen are named 'body odor'."
In the air, a faint aroma quickly entered the nasal cavity along the air, but it was not obvious. Bi Fang had to lie on the ground and identify it again.
【The taste is getting stronger】
[Holy crap, doesn’t that smell like urine?]
【Musky urine (dog head)】
[What’s the deal? Even if feces is diluted a thousand times, it still smells like jasmine]
[Ah, I know this. A certain chemistry teacher never gives his girlfriend jasmine perfume, and every time he sees others using jasmine perfume, he laughs without saying a word (dog head)]
"This is wrong."
Bi Fang opened his eyes and shook his head after seeing the barrage.
"When the feces is diluted, it still smells like feces, but it's not as smelly. When the jasmine is strong, it still smells like jasmine, but it's not as good."
"This term comes from 'indole', which is indeed the odor component shared by excrement and jasmine. Keen, the former perfumer of Hermès, described the smell of high-concentration indole as corpse odor. I think it smells like the smell of exposed cows in the countryside.
Smells like shit.”
"But when it is diluted to 0.1% or lower, it does not have the complete flavor of jasmine, or even the main component of jasmine fragrance."
"Take jasmine grandiflorum absolute as an example. From high to low odor components, there are sweet fruity aroma, soft sweetness, dry tea smell, both grassy and floral aroma, refreshing floral aroma, a kind of hay smell, and then
It’s indole, with a content of about 0.16%, and there are about twenty other odor components.”
【???】
【Can people smell this? 】
[Damn, this is real cowhide]
Bi Fang shrugged. These were smelled by professional perfumers and he couldn't do it himself.
Distinguishing smells requires a lot of training, and it doesn't just mean you have a good sense of smell. A person who has never smelled the fragrance of jasmine will not know what it is if he suddenly smells it.
A strong sense of smell helps Bifang track and detect enemies.
"The opposite is true for feces, which is not entirely composed of indole."
"If you are really a chemistry teacher, you should know that the smell of natural substances is inherently complex. It is normal for things that are far apart to have the same or similar odor components, such as cheese, beef, pork, shrimp, eggs, etc.
Foods such as strawberries, cherries, and peaches also contain small amounts of indole.”
"Can you admit that you actually ate, uh..." Bi Fang scratched his cheek and smiled, "That?"
[Shit, I’ve been confused for a long time, and finally I saw an authoritative explanation]
[Nip, the truth depends on Lao Fang]
[So did you smell it? Is the musk ox still there? 】
Bi Fang nodded and picked up the tree stick on the side.
"I just said that the smell of musk oxen is stronger during the estrus period. Its breeding season is from mid-September to October every year. After recuperating in the summer, musk oxen have accumulated a lot of energy. Females are mainly for reproduction, and males also need to be in estrus.
Autumn’s estrus fights for reproductive rights.”
"At this time, the musk glands on the male musk ox's face secrete a strong-smelling secretion, which sticks to the plants on the ground through its legs to mark its own territory. The female musk ox is enclosed in it and strictly controlled.
Guard and protect it, and no other male musk ox may encroach upon it.”
"Therefore, the smell on the ground will be stronger, which is why we just lay on the ground."