The Strongest Lion

Chapter 32 The Test of the Dry Season

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Test of the Dry Season

The same goes for the lion Jike.

When it returned from patrolling its territory that day, it was puzzled to see Chu Ye's strange appearance.

It thought that a cub from another pride had wandered into their pride and even tried to bite Chu Ye.

But when it came to Chu Ye's side, it smelled a familiar scent, so it stopped paying attention to Chu Ye.

The other lion cubs initially saw Chu Ye as an oddball. After a while, they realized that Chu Ye was still the same lion cub they knew.

Chu Ye initially felt a little awkward about some of the changes in his physique. But he gradually got used to it.

After all, he was a lion, not a human. Only humans care about appearances. Animals don't care about appearances; all they need is food. Nothing interests animals more than food.

The Jike lion pride didn't pay much attention to Chu Ye's physical changes. They had only sensed something was off about him at first. Soon, they stopped noticing him.

The dry season continues, and every day is agonizing for the Jike lion pride, as they have to raise nine cubs. This is an immense challenge for the Jike lion pride.

Let alone raising nine cubs, even if the three adult lions in the Jike pride didn't raise any, it would be extremely difficult for them to survive during the dry season. Let alone living with their families.

In fact, the animal world and the human world are quite similar. Especially for the animals on the African savanna, it's almost a replica of human society, only less complex.

For an animal species, their lives are much like a family in human society. They live together, and if someone is in trouble, they will lend a helping hand.

The same applies to a pride of lions; they hunt and raise their young together. If any problems arise, they discuss and resolve them together.

Chu Ye has been living in this pride of lions for four or five months now, and he has become accustomed to the pride's way of life. He has completely integrated into this small society.

Chu Ye was well aware of the many problems his pride was facing. First and foremost was the issue of food. His nine cubs were the biggest burden on the Jike pride, but also its greatest hope.

If all nine lion cubs can grow up, then the pride will prosper.

Only halfway through the long dry season, they have already lost a lion cub. Life during the dry season will only get harder from here on out.

Actually, it's not just lions that suffer. Other animals do too; for all kinds of animals living on the savanna, the dry season is a torment.

For carnivores, the dry season makes it difficult to hunt enough prey. This is because the two most numerous herbivores on the Serengeti plains, the wildebeest and zebras, must leave the Serengeti during the dry season to live in Manima National Park to the north.

The carnivores do not migrate with these three herbivores; they remain in their original locations and endure the long dry season.

Lions are among the surviving carnivores. Originally, lions were the largest carnivores on the African savanna, requiring even more food. However, during the dry season, without wildebeest and zebras, life became extremely difficult for the lions.

Of course, the same goes for other animals, like the pack of wild dogs that are now next to the Jike Lion Pride.

This pack of stray dogs also faces a very difficult life. They too have to raise a litter of puppies, and they too face food shortages.

The leaders of this pack of wild dogs were a young and strong couple.

Kurt and Hill are the leaders of this pack of wild dogs, ruling over a large family of about twenty dogs.

Because this family has a large number of wild dogs, they need more food. However, during the dry season, both lions and wild dogs face the same difficulties in their lives.

Now it's not just the lions who are starving; even the wild dogs are.

Kut's pack of wild dogs hadn't been able to hunt successfully for several days. This was because there were no more open herbivores like wildebeest and zebras on the plains. Although there were still some small herbivores, these animals generally hid in underground burrows.

Like the springtail and the warthog, these two animals generally hide in their burrows at night and are only active during the day. Catching these two animals is quite difficult.

Kurt and Hill have been discussing how to get more prey these past few days. For this pack of wild dogs, food is essential every day.

After all, they have more than a dozen growing offspring, and these offspring cannot go hungry. If they go hungry, it will affect their health.

If these cubs are not fed enough for a long time, they will grow very slowly, or even not at all. In that case, it will be difficult for them to grow into adults.

All of this is a problem that the Kut wild dog pack must solve. If they want their dozen or so pups to grow up, the pack will have to feed them every day.

For the past few days, Kurt and Hill have been leading their army of wild dogs in a search for food, but they have returned empty-handed each day. Their dozen or so pups are crying for food every day, which is causing Kurt and Hill great anxiety.

Although the departure of the Nira hyena pack provided the Kut wild dog pack with a large hunting ground, during the dry season, even a large hunting ground is of little use because there is no prey to hunt. Having a large territory is ultimately futile.

Kurt and Hill were both experienced hunters, and when they couldn't find other prey, they had to turn their attention to their neighbors—the Jike pride.

Kurt and Hill already knew that the Jike pride had nine cubs, all only four or five months old. They were defenseless, yet had grown to over ten kilograms in weight.

For a pack of wild dogs, each lion cub is an irresistible temptation. Because if they catch just one cub, it can provide a feast for their dozen or so offspring.

Thus, when Kurt and Hill were unable to catch any other prey, they had to resort to some riskier methods.

One night, around midnight, the moonlight outside was very bright. Although it was midnight, you could see very far by the moonlight.