227 The Electric Eel Cannot, But It Can (1/2)
After feeding the eagle with water, Chen Fan sat on the chair and gazed intently at the bare bird. After an eagle was just born, it had to be fed five to six times everyday, and its diet had to be balanced in nutrition. So, it was definitely a troublesome job.
The eagle already weighed over 35 kilograms when it was born, meaning that it had to eat at least 2.5 kilograms of lean meat each meal, and its food intake would double every few days.
”Seems like I need to find a beef supplier for it!” Grinning, Chen Fan ran to the computer and sent a post on the local forum, stating that he would like to purchase a large amount of raw beef.
Beef contains a high amount of protein and a low amount of fats, and normal eagle trainers like to feed their eagles with beef, so that they will obtain enough nutrition, without growing too fat.
The post was soon replied by some people who had relatives or friends that sold beef. Copying down two numbers, Chen Fan went up to the sea surface and called the numbers, saying that he would like to purchase a large amount of beef.
At the time, there were already very few butchers in the cities and suburbs, who would buy cows back, kill them, and sell their meat. Instead, many were merchants who would buy fresh frozen beef from the slaughterhouse wholesale, then cook and color the beef, before then selling it wholesale to food markets. Beef, just like old pork, would become too soft if cooked for too long. Thus, civilians liked to buy processed beef, so that they would not have to spend time cooking it themselves.
Hearing that Chen Fan intended to buy large amounts of fresh beef for a long period of time, the other party immediately agreed. ”No matter how much you want, we can provide it!”
In addition, they could provide delivery services. Just by asking for more products from the slaughterhouse, they could earn a lot of money. Of course they would be eager to agree.
The delivery location was set at the dock. Chen Fan had requested them to send only waist meat, meaning filet mignon or loin, which were the most tender parts of the beef! The next morning, the merchant sent a Mazda eagerly out, with a hundred kilograms of waist meat, to the dock.
The merchant, who was over thirty years old, thought that Chen Fan was the owner of some western restaurant, and was delighted that he had found such a big customer. Taking over the money, he patted his chest and promised that he would deliver more beef whenever Chen Fan requested. He even cheekily promised that, if the beef was not fresh, he would take out his eyeballs and step on them!
Taking the beef into the cave, Chen Fan took out a few pieces and put them into the meat grinder, just like calcium tablets. After grinding, he used a spoon to open the eagle's mouth, then fed it with the beef, like he was taking care of a patient with a severe illness. At the start, the eagle kept resisting, but after having a taste of the beef, it instinctively continued eating.
After two days, Chen Fan asked the merchant to send 200 more kilograms of beef. Meanwhile, the eagle's body, which was originally bare, now had many tiny fluffs on it. They were thickest on its wings and tail, and were a bit prickly.
At 8 in the morning that day, the eagle officially opened its jelly-like eyes and looked curiously at the world, as well as at Chen Fan, who had been busy feeding it! It could be said that the opening of its eyes had far-reaching influences on both Chen Fan and the eagle, because after an animal is born, the first moving thing that it sees will leave a deep impression in its mind. As such, the animal will treat the moving thing like its parent, especially if the moving thing can feed it.
In science, the phenomenon is known as imprinting! This imprint can easily replace the animal's parents in its mind. From a human perspective, it basically means that, the one who raises you up is more important than the one who gave birth to you.
Ducks, and fierce animals, such as Tibetan mastiffs and hawks, behave in this way as well. For a purebred Tibetan mastiff, the master must feed and stroke it everyday, before it opens its eyes. so that the dog can recognize his owner's smell, until the day when it opens its eyes and sees the master. Otherwise, nobody will be able to take the baby dog away from its mother!
This same applies when people train hawks. If they happen to catch an adult hawk, they must torture it during training. However, if they are able to catch an infant hawk, which has yet to open its eyes, the process will be much easier. The only thing they have to take note of, is to prevent the infant bird from coming into contact with another person before imprinting.
”Take precautions before it is too late!” This was the best phrase to describe the current state of Chen Fan's thoughts. Although he already took a firm first step, the path ahead was still long.
The eagle was only 2 days old. When one more month passed and the eagle could learn to fly, the space in the cave would certainly be insufficient for the eagle to maneuver. Furthermore, judging from the growth rate of the eagle, by then, the electric eel would not even be able to bring it outside. Thus, the best solution was to bring it outside and raise it up there. Then, it would at least be able to get some sunlight in the meantime.
Before Chen Fan could take it outside to raise it, he had to build a safe place on that strange land. It would even be better if he could kill the adult golden eagle.
It was actually easy to kill the golden eagle. Chen could just hide in an armored transporter and, after locating the target, use the FGM-172 Predator SRAW missile to hit the eagle. In any case, it had an automatic thermal tracking device, and would not even miss on helicopters and tanks, much less on a huge eagle. If that did not work, Chen Fan could use the rapid-fire machine gun on the vehicle to shoot the eagle.
Chen Fan decided to carry out his plans immediately. He controlled the electric eel, which passed the bizarre ripples and swam to the surface, looking for traces of the giant eagle. The electric eel waited for the whole morning, but did not find the huge eagle. Instead, it drew the white python up as well, which kept circling and harassing the electric eel.
The electric eel was to lazy to respond to the python's harassment. So, it quickly swam to the shore, trying to look for a safe place where Chen Fan could train the baby golden eagle.
The place must be, of course, close to the sea, and should preferably be a cave or the like, which would provide sufficient protection. Swimming along the coastline within ten kilometers for two rounds, the electric eel, unfortunately, did not discover any suitable targets.
Without any places available, Chen Fan decided to dig one himself, and the electric eel only had to make an opening on the hills using the spear. Lifting its head and scanning at the mountains in front, the electric eel's eyes were locked onto a huge mountain about three hundred meters tall and eight hundred meters across.