When Yang Qi arrived at Bear Mountain, he saw a crowd gathered outside the enclosure from a distance.
There were zookeepers in blue work uniforms, security guards wearing armbands, a few colleagues in casual clothes who looked like they were from logistics or administration, and seven or eight tourists, all craning their necks to look inside through the tempered glass wall.
Low murmurs and suppressed laughter occasionally drifted from the crowd.
"It’s happening again..."
"How many days has it been now?"
"That poor male bear."
...
Yang Qi quickened his pace, made his way through the crowd, and arrived at the glass wall.
The scene inside the enclosure made him start for a moment, then he couldn’t help but chuckle.
A large female black bear with a sleek, glossy coat was chasing a slightly smaller, cowering male black bear all around the enclosure.
The female chased in earnest, her paws POUNDING against the ground, a low, discontented growl rumbling in her throat.
The male bear, however, had no intention of fighting back. He only fled. Whenever he was caught, he would just endure a swat on his thick back before continuing to scramble away with his head down.
The bear enclosure wasn’t small; it had a rockery, a pool, climbing frames, and even tires and wooden posts for them to play with.
Now, however, it had become the arena for a chase.
In his panic, the male bear wasn’t watching where he was going and slammed into a tire, which went ROLLING far into the distance.
The female seized the opportunity to pounce, landing another swat on the male’s rear.
"AWOOO—"
The male bear let out an aggrieved cry and scrambled to hide behind the rockery.
The female bear chased him to the rockery and circled it twice. Apparently losing interest, she finally stopped. Panting heavily, she walked over to the feeding trough, grabbed the apples and carrots inside, and began to gnaw on them viciously.
Her posture suggested she wasn’t eating so much as venting her frustration.
The male bear, hiding in the shadow of the rockery, poked out half his head to sneak a peek at the female.
Seeing that she was no longer giving chase, he cautiously shuffled out and went to the other feeding trough.
But he didn’t eat. He just hung his head, staring at the food in the trough while a low, dejected whimper escaped his throat.
’What’s going on here?’
Yang Qi pulled his gaze away and found Chen Ze in the crowd.
Chen Ze was standing with a man in his thirties, dressed in a zookeeper’s uniform. Both of them were frowning.
"Brother Chen."
Yang Qi walked over and nodded to the zookeeper. "Brother Lin."
"Brother Qi, you’re here!"
Chen Ze’s eyes lit up. He immediately pulled Yang Qi closer, pointing at the enclosure. "Take a look at these two characters."
The zookeeper, Old Lin, gave Yang Qi a wry smile. "Brother Qi, sorry to trouble you."
"What’s going on?" Yang Qi asked.
"I was just making my rounds over here when I saw the female chasing the male and beating him up," Chen Ze jumped in. "I asked Old Lin, and he said it’s been happening for a few days now."
Old Lin nodded and sighed. "It was fine before, but for the past two days, the fighting’s gotten really vicious. The male’s been beaten so badly he’s lost his appetite. Just look at him—"
He pointed at the dejected male bear in the enclosure. "He’s eating half of what he used to. If this keeps up, he’s bound to lose weight."
"Who would have an appetite after getting beaten up like that every day?" Chen Ze quipped.
"We’ve tried to find a solution," Old Lin explained helplessly. "We’ve separated them, isolated them, tried to pacify them... nothing works. As soon as they’re back in the same enclosure, they start fighting again within a couple of days."
Yang Qi looked at the female bear sullenly gnawing on an apple, then at the male on the other side, staring blankly at his food. He asked, "Why is the female beating the male? And why doesn’t he fight back? He’s a little smaller, but if it came to a real fight, he shouldn’t be this much of a wimp, right?"
"Well..."
Old Lin’s expression turned a little strange. He scratched his head. "Well, this whole thing... it started with the female’s ’false pregnancy.’"
"False pregnancy?" Yang Qi paused, taken aback.
"That’s right."
Old Lin lowered his voice and leaned in closer. "This pair, a male and female, were put together for our breeding program. At first, their relationship... ahem, they got along great. They were inseparable, always grooming each other and playing together."
"Then, the female started showing signs of pregnancy—increased appetite, clear physiological changes, she even started nesting. We were ecstatic. We reported it up the chain right away and even did an ultrasound."
He paused, his voice dropping even lower. "Turns out, she wasn’t pregnant. It was a false pregnancy."
Chen Ze clicked his tongue. "So you got all excited for nothing."
"Tell me about it."
Old Lin continued, "The phantom pregnancy symptoms lasted about a month before slowly fading. The female probably realized she wasn’t pregnant, so she went back to the male to... you know. But for some reason, they tried several more times, and she just wouldn’t get pregnant. As time went on, the female got anxious."
He pointed at the female, who was still gnawing on an apple. "Look at her temper now. She used to be such a gentle bear, but now she flies off the handle at the slightest provocation, especially at the male."
"Our analysis is that she probably thinks she can’t get pregnant because the male is... ’not up to the task.’ So she takes it out on him whenever she’s upset."
"And the male? We don’t know if it’s a guilty conscience or what, but he never fights back. He just hides and takes the beating. Afterwards, he just goes off to a corner to mope."
Yang Qi had a strange expression on his face after hearing all this.
"So you’re saying that because of infertility, the female bear is ’domestically abusing’ the male? And he just takes the beating, thinking he’s useless?"
"That’s exactly it!"
Chen Ze slapped his thigh. "You can’t force this pregnancy stuff! But look at those two—one beats and the other just takes it. If this keeps up, it’s definitely going to affect their health. The male has already gotten thinner."
Old Lin nodded again and again. He looked at Yang Qi and said, a little sheepishly, "Brother Qi, um... I know you’re incredibly skilled and can communicate with animals. Do you think you could go in there and have a chat with them? Try to convince the female to stop the beatings, that you can’t rush pregnancy. And maybe give the male a pep talk, get him to eat properly."