Next to the chicken coop was the weasel family's den. As the saying goes, "The weasel congratulating the chicken has no good intention," but at the largest wild chicken breeding base in Shangri-La, a pair of weasels not only helped catch hundreds of rats here, but also bred six offspring. Every morning when the sun rises, this group of young weasels play with more than 2000 domesticated wild chickens in the base, creating a very harmonious and friendly scene.
The weasels arrived but didn't steal chickens. The "Tiger Leaping Gorge's Last Sunshine Villa" located in the lower Nuoyu village of Changsheng Village in the Upper Tiger Leaping Gorge was a base for breeding wild chickens and wild river fish built by Luo Sunjun and his wife, as well as a holiday villa. Five years ago, during the early stages of their entrepreneurship, it was originally a rocky hill. Luo Sunjun and his wife invested more than 600,000 yuan here to breed large quantities of partridges and quails. However, things did not go well for long. With pythons and rats rampant here, many partridges and quails either died or were injured, resulting in the couple losing all their capital.
Not long after, the couple reinvested and bought many net-like shade shelters to start raising wild chickens and dug six large fish ponds to acquire wild fish fry from the Jinsha River for breeding. This time, they succeeded, and orders from customers poured in. Luo Sunjun's wife told reporters that the wild chickens could grow well without being attacked by rats largely due to the unexpected visitors who moved in two years ago - a pair of weasels.
"Here used to be the kingdom of rats. After they came, they helped us catch rats. Now there are no signs of rats here." But what worried Luo Sunjun was that the weasel family had grown to eight. Would there come a day when there were no more rats to catch, and they would turn on the wild chickens?
Harmonious coexistence with 2000 chickens
Luo Sunjun introduced that last year alone, sales of wild chickens and Jinsha River fish brought in over 600,000 yuan in gross income. There are now more than 4000 one-jin heavy fish fry in the fish pond. "Because pythons often come to the fish pond to eat the fry, if this group of weasels continues to help eliminate rats and pythons here, then letting them sneak a few wild chickens can be considered as a reward."
When the Evening Post reporter arrived at the wild chicken coop, this five-acre rocky hill was covered by a huge net-like shade shelter. More than 2000 wild chickens were leisurely strolling on the slope. Nearby, under a small tree, two weasels darted out and immediately slunk back into their burrow upon seeing strangers. For this, Jiang Minmin, the cultural affairs officer of Tiger Leaping Gorge who accompanied the reporter, felt very regretful. He specially left a digital camera and asked Luo Sunjun and his wife to definitely capture photos of the harmonious coexistence between wild chickens and weasels.