Live Streaming: Great Adventure in the Wilderness

The wrinkled bark bore several neat scratch marks.

Bi Fang pressed his hand against the large tree, his fingers simulating a grab. The audience could clearly see that a human hand couldn’t encompass such large scratch marks, indicating the owner of these paw prints must be a very large creature.

[Bear? Is there a bear nearby?]

[Damn, I better check if Old Fang is the first one to find a clue?]

[Seems like it.]

[Awesome, the hunt is on!]

The audience began to jeer, but Bi Fang shook his head and gestured for the drone to come closer.

In the play of light and shadow, Bi Fang caressed the scarred bark, then bent down to inspect the nearby soil: "These were left a long time ago, at least a couple of months back. There are no footprints on the ground, so it must’ve been a black bear passing by."

"Fresh scratch marks typically cut through the bark to reveal the white wood underneath. Now the trunk has darkened; it has been oxidized for a very long time. It’s impossible to locate the black bear based on this."

"Unless its territory is nearby. But that clearly isn’t the case, as apart from this scratch mark, there are very few signs of activity from other large animals nearby."

It turned out to be a false alarm!

The audience was greatly disappointed.

They had thought that Boss Fang would be the first hunter to find information on prey this morning.

However, the sudden appearance of the black bear’s scratch marks served as a reminder to everyone that indeed, there are many black bears in the forests of Japan.

Bi Fang shook his head, pushing aside his thoughts.

"Continuing our earlier topic, someone asked why bears like honey. Actually, in a bear’s diet, honey isn’t the main component, but it’s very important to them."

Bi Fang continued his walk and chat with the audience, which was his usual style.

This tested one’s concentration, requiring simultaneous observation of the surroundings and timely checking of the comments to respond. For most people, this would be too challenging; they might even trip and fall while walking.

Bi Fang felt that based on this alone, he should at least manifest a skill that allowed him to multitask.

"Bears eat a variety of foods, and some are not easily digestible. Honey aids digestion and absorption, improving the bear’s immunity and quickly replenishing its body energy."

"Moreover, when bears enter hibernation, they must rely on body fat converted into energy to maintain their needs."

"Among all nutrients, sugars are the easiest to convert into fat. Considering these factors, it’s only natural that bears are particularly fond of honey."

"In addition to ant nests and honey, there are many other indicators that are easy to observe, like shrubs with berries that have been trampled on, possibly by the meticulous work of black bears."

Bi Fang elaborated on the various possible clues while picking a small red fruit from a nearby branch and popping it into his mouth.

"Hmm, not bad, sour and sweet."

[Holy shit, what did Boss Fang just put in his mouth?]

[What is that thing? Eating it just like that, isn’t he afraid of poisoning?]

"Don’t worry, it’s just Rubus, from the raspberry family. Speaking of which, it can even nourish vitality and energy."

Bi Fang vividly remembered following the old professors into the forest for research, with Rubus fruits being among the most eaten wild fruits.

Picking the Rubus fruits from the nearby shrubs, Bi Fang said, "In June, July, or even August, if you want to eat something good in the wild, try looking for Rubus. Not only is every species within the genus edible, but most varieties are also delicious."

"Most fruits that haven’t been cultivated by humans aren’t tasty, being sour and astringent. Some might even be mildly toxic, so it’s rare to find fruits like Rubus that have evolved to be very delectable."

"It’s very easy to remember the characteristics of a Rubus species: they’re either shrubs or woody climbers, with prickly stems and undersides of leaf veins, and the fruit is an aggregate of drupelets that look like a bunch of pomegranate seeds clustered together, which are also quite soft and tender."

"As for what the flowers look like, I won’t say, since seeing flowers of a Rubus in the wild means you came two months too early."

Bi Fang picked the small fruits from the shrub one by one, some he popped directly into his mouth, while others went into a small bag.

The ripe fruits of Rubus are juicy and tasty; the only downside is that some varieties can be too sour, but that’s rare, and certainly not the case with the one before me.

Eating them is simple, just pluck and stuff them in your mouth. However, the flesh of wild species is too tender to store or transport; they’d just get crushed if piled up together, so you hardly see them deeply processed. If anyone farms them, they’re usually just harvested and consumed fresh.

"However, it’s easy to recognize the Rubus genus and start eating, but figuring out exactly which species you’re eating is very difficult—even for seasoned botanists; I don’t even know exactly what I just ate."

The classification of the Rubus genus is a worldwide problem.

Depending on different classification systems, there are estimated to be 250 to 700 species worldwide—just look at the numbers, and you’ll see how much disagreement there is among taxonomists over this genus.

It’s like eating Squid; in a wilderness survival situation, you don’t need to remember all the edible plants, you just need to remember which ones you shouldn’t eat.

"Only the Flame Squid is poisonous among Squids, while all species of Rubus are edible, which is an easy way to remember."

Once after eating wild Rubus, Bi Fang intended to do some taxonomic work out of habit, but he ran into a significant obstacle.

A respected teacher of his suggested, "Why not abandon the existing species classification completely, build up the phylogenetic tree using molecular methods first, and then reclassify the species?"

But at that time, Bi Fang estimated the difficulty of sampling, counted his modest funds, and quietly gave up the idea.

Unexpectedly, he still couldn’t come up with a proper taxonomy now, although his wallet had fattened. As for classifying plants, his interest had waned. @@novelbin@@

"The species I have in my hand right now has singular leaves with few prickles; the fruit is also solitary, and while sweet and tart, there’s an indescribable taste to it. It’s somewhat like a faint pesticide taste, but it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of eating it. Maybe it could be called ’Pesticide Rubus’."

[Hahaha, isn’t that a bit too casual?]

[Pesticide Rubus, never in my life did I think I’d hear such a name]

[What was the name of the species that Old Fang discovered last time?]

[Bi’s Pseudo-Crocodile.]

[Ah right, right, that’s the one, very grand-sounding]

"What ’grand’ is there in Bi’s Pseudo-Crocodile?" Bi Fang asked, puzzled, speaking earnestly, "Lots of organisms have names like that, Bi’s Yeast, Bi’s Ovicorn Ant; the latter doesn’t even have a queen and belongs to a cool species of Army Ant, how cool is that."

[Ah, right, right]

[When can we see Bi’s Pseudo-Crocodile in the zoo?]

[Yeah, does Old Fang know anything? Didn’t you discover it?]

"How should I know?"

Bi Fang shook his head, he was also unclear about the specifics, but it seemed there were no plans for development from those above; instead, the area had been protected.

Even Bi Fang had been instructed not to disclose the specific location to others.

But it didn’t matter anymore, it had nothing to do with him now.

The only news he knew was that the individual brought back, which had shown remarkable vitality, had been kept in a lab with ample space, and was fed at fixed points every day.

There were plans, apparently, to bring in a Female Pseudo-Crocodile for breeding purposes, to further observe the behavioral habits of this species.