Animal Detective

Chapter 536: Chapter 440: This Is Their Daily Training

During the discussion, Chen Wanbin, the zoologist, offered quite a few suggestions.

For instance, hornbills, woodpeckers, and even laughingthrushes all exhibit a degree of cooperation with their own kind and behaviors that demonstrate intelligence.

But compared to birds like Ravens and grey parrots—which can use logical reasoning, think, imitate human speech, and understand the meaning of words—they were far inferior.

He also mentioned another type of bird: the Indochinese green magpie.

Like the common magpie, it’s a member of the corvid family and also possesses a fair amount of intelligence.

But again, it was no match for Ravens or grey parrots.

However, when it came to animal intelligence, primates clearly had the upper hand.

Chen Wanbin said, "Shen Xin, you’re looking for something with outstanding survival and mobility skills in a forest environment."

"Birds flying in the sky have an unrivaled advantage."

"But I don’t think monkeys are any less mobile in a forest. They can move quickly through the treetops."

"Most importantly, like birds, ordinary people don’t pay them any mind. When it comes to stealth, they fit your requirements."

"And the intellectual potential of primates is definitely higher than that of birds."

At this point, Chen Wanbin began to describe the primate populations in the Dehong Region.

The most famous, of course, was the Phayre’s leaf monkey.

Then there were the hoolock gibbons, including a species endemic to the country, the eastern hoolock gibbon.

Of course, these—along with slow lorises and stump-tailed macaques—were all rare, Class I Protected Animals. They were precious creatures.

But there were also common species that met Shen Xin’s requirements.

For example, the Assam macaque and the rhesus macaque.

Especially the rhesus macaque, which is what most people just call a monkey.

"Shen Xin, think about it. People used to train rhesus macaques for acrobatic shows. They can perform all sorts of complex actions and understand a Beast Tamer’s intentions."

"If you were the one training them, you’d get twice the results with half the effort."

"I remember there’s a large population of rhesus macaques in the Dehong Mountain Area. You could definitely try to leverage their natural fear of humans and design some specific training."

"For instance, training them to immediately sound an alarm whenever they spot a human in the forest."

"That idea you had before, using a tracker to trigger a specific action, is a good one."

"And with macaques, I think it would be even easier to implement. For example, you could have them wear a wristband with an alarm button."

"As soon as they see a person, they press the alarm. I think that’s completely achievable through training."

He said, getting excited.

But after calming down, he added, "However, macaques are extremely territorial and live in groups, so they can’t conduct wide-area reconnaissance like birds can."

Shen Xin was no stranger to monkeys.

He had worked with them before and had even relied on them to crack the Shajin Farm case.

And there was no doubt about their intelligence; they were smart enough.

The problem was that his talent was to cultivate goodwill and make animals more friendly toward people.

He couldn’t rely on their wariness of humans for alerts, as Chen Wanbin suggested.

All things considered, he felt birds were still the better option. Their main advantage was a large search area.

"Teacher Chen, could you please send me some information? I’ll look it over and think about it some more."

This wasn’t something that could be decided easily. Shen Xin needed to give it more thought.

He ended the video call.

Just as he was mulling things over, he heard voices from outside.

He went out to see that Wang Feng had arrived.

He was currently in the courtyard talking with Pan Wenhai.

Seeing the courtyard full of birds, he was intensely curious.

Especially about Teddy.

Pan Wenhai, not without a hint of showing off, told Wang Feng that Teddy was worth seven million.

"Mhm, expensive and handsome. But mostly handsome."

Wang Feng’s eyes burned with envy.

After seeing Shen Xin and exchanging some pleasantries, he pointed at the birds and asked what level of pursuit they could actually achieve.

Wang Feng’s greatest understanding of birds was buying a budgie for his son, which then died within half a month.

Shen Xin thought for a moment, then asked Wang Feng what kind of scenario he had in mind.

The question was thrown back at him. Wang Feng considered it and said, "Let’s say a car leaves the city and drives all the way into the mountains. Could your birds follow that car the entire time?"

"And what if people get out of the car when it arrives? Could the birds then follow them?"

After speaking, he added sheepishly, "Is that asking too much?"

Wang Feng knew that Shen Xin had come here with a mission.

But because it was a mission from the provincial department and hadn’t started yet, Wang Feng didn’t know the details.

He had made a few inquiries and learned that Shen Xin was invited over to train a flock of birds that could supposedly track targets like police dogs.

But as for what they were capable of and how they tracked, he had no idea.

Pan Wenhai subconsciously nodded.

In his eyes, that wasn’t just asking too much of a person—no, it was asking too much of a bird.

’They’re birds, can they really do whatever you tell them to?’

After hearing this, Shen Xin let out a sigh of relief. He had thought Wang Feng was going to propose some kind of complicated request.

"Captain Wang, what you’ve described is just part of their daily training. It’s no problem at all."

Their daily routine included similar exercises.

For instance, driving a car and having Yifan and the others track it.

They were also trained to find people, lock onto a target, and then follow them continuously.

The difficulty would even be increased, such as by having the target enter a complex environment like a wet market, forcing the birds to fly higher to reacquire the target after losing sight of them.

So what Wang Feng had described was completely stress-free.

"For real?" Wang Feng was astonished.

Shen Xin smiled. "Of course it’s real. Why don’t we test it out?"

It felt like Wang Feng had a case to work on, so Shen Xin definitely wanted to help.

Wang Feng hesitated for a second, then nodded eagerly and asked Shen Xin how to test them.

Shen Xin thought and said, "How about this. You drive back to the city bureau now. Don’t get out of the car on the way. Once you arrive at the bureau, I’ll have Er Long show himself and say hello."

Shen Xin pointed at Er Long in his cage.

Er Long stared and said a clear, "Hello."

"Whoa, it can talk," Wang Feng exclaimed, then quickly added, "But it’s seven or eight kilometers from here to the city bureau. It won’t get lost, will it?"

If a bird like this got lost, it would be hard to find.

Shen Xin said, "It’s fine. Forget seven or eight kilometers, it wouldn’t get lost even over seventy or eighty."

"Besides, it’s precisely because the distance is long that we can prove their mission capability."

If it were close by, the helmet would be within signal range, which wouldn’t really show off their skills.

Wang Feng asked no more questions. He was intensely curious about this and quickly asked what to do.

Shen Xin opened Er Long’s cage. As he held out his arm, the bird hopped onto it, climbed up, and stood obediently on Shen Xin’s shoulder.

Then he went outside, pointed at Wang Feng’s car, and had Er Long memorize it.

"Got it."

Er Long spoke with a strange accent.

"Captain Wang, you can head out now. Come back after you’ve seen Er Long," Shen Xin said.

Wang Feng got into his car, half-believing and half-doubting.

’Just one look from Er Long and he’s memorized it?’

"I’m really leaving now," Wang Feng said, poking his head out.

Shen Xin nodded with a smile.

Wang Feng stopped overthinking it and drove off.

Shen Xin gave a few more instructions: follow the car, say hello to the person after they get out, and then get in the car to come back.

He broke the mission into three parts and had Er Long memorize each one separately.

Ravens have excellent memories; they don’t forget.

And for each part of the mission, Shen Xin would confirm it telepathically.

Once he confirmed Er Long had memorized everything, he tossed the bird into the sky, and it quickly vanished into the night.

Ravens, like Hunting Falcons, naturally don’t possess the kind of night vision owls have, which allows them to see as if it were day using only faint starlight.

But as long as there was some light, it was enough for them.

The city was filled with light, so it wouldn’t have a major impact on their tracking and searching.

"Is that all it takes?" Pan Wenhai craned his neck to look.

A pure black Raven was impossible to see in the night.

Shen Xin nodded and led Pan Wenhai back into the courtyard, where he got the wireless receiving equipment.

Then he connected it to a tablet to show Pan Wenhai the live feed.

The largest component inside the helmets worn by Teddy and the others was a 4G communication module. The circuit board, hand-soldered by Liu Guoshuai and his team, was tiny and placed along with the antenna in the area at the back of the head.

However, due to power limitations, the video transmission range was limited to only about four kilometers.

Liu Guoshuai and his team had figured that if a person were following behind, this distance would be more than enough.

If the distance was greater, they could consider using a drone or communication device as a relay.

They had used a relay device during the last exercise at Shitang Mountain.

Now, the seven or eight kilometers to the city bureau was already beyond the range.

But for now, they could see Er Long’s situation in real time.

On the screen, he was flying over the city. Below him was a road with heavy traffic.

It was unclear where Er Long’s focus was, but it was definitely on something below.

From this high vantage point, and with Wang Feng driving a common black sedan, it was difficult to tell which car was his just from the current video feed.

At least, Shen Xin couldn’t tell.

But Pan Wenhai could.

Having worked at a checkpoint for over a decade and dealing with cars all day, he quickly pointed at one vehicle and said in shock that it was Wang Feng’s car.

Er Long was really tracking Wang Feng.

"This is incredible! Look, when it gets to the traffic light, he circles in the air."

The car reached the traffic light, and Er Long stopped in sync.

Pan Wenhai was utterly astonished.

Not even a god could spot this kind of surveillance.

「Meanwhile.」

After driving away, Wang Feng intentionally tried to spot the raven in his rearview mirror.

He had a superb memory and top-tier observation skills, yet he couldn’t find anything.

While waiting at a red light, he leaned forward and looked up at the sky through his windshield.

It was pitch black. He couldn’t see a thing.

After driving a bit further, he stopped at another red light. Without getting out, Wang Feng stuck his head out the window and glanced up.

Still nothing.

Nothing on the roof, either.

He checked the distant treetops, telephone poles, and traffic lights, but again, he saw no sign of the raven.

Wang Feng even began to suspect that Er Long had already lost him.

’The city is full of cars, and I’m driving the most common type—a black sedan. Surely the raven can’t read license plates or recognize car logos, right?’

Amid his doubts, Wang Feng arrived at the city bureau.

He got out of his car in the parking lot.

Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings came from behind and above him.

The next moment, a large bird landed on the roof of his car in the darkness. Who else could it be but Er Long, wearing his helmet.

"Hello."

Er Long spoke, greeting him.

Then he hopped off the car, bounced through the open door into the passenger seat, turned his head, and spoke again.

"Get in the car."

Wang Feng’s eyes went wide. Only a single phrase escaped his lips: "Holy shit."

This was too fucking amazing.

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