"Uh, Pan Hunting, does that an letting Little White fly high? Is that what you an?"
Lin Yang: "Yes, when it’s stable, the higher it flies, the better, so when I saw Little White repeatedly climbing in circles around , I didn’t blow the whistle in ti.
Actually, today I blew the whistle because I noticed that after several circles, Little White had stabilized its flying height, or else, I would have let it continue climbing."
"Uh, today’s height must have been a hundred ters, right? Is that enough?"
Lin Yang shook his head: "Not nearly enough. I’ll feed him a small amount, let him rest for a while, and then fly again once he has digested his food at noon.
This initial height of a hundred ters for a major Pan is already high, but for hunting Little Swans, it’s still not sufficient. I estimate we need at least one hundred fifty to one hundred eighty ters to stand a chance."
Close to noon, indeed, he let Little White take a major Pan again.
This performance was almost no different from the morning, as Little White maintained a habitual flying height of around 100 ters.
After a session of Pan Fei, Lin Yang continued feeding the at, and after returning to camp, added rabbit fur to feed the last portion, placed the falcon on the stand, then took the drone and left the camp to get busy.
"Strear, we left Little White at ho, what are we out here doing?"
Lin Yang: "I’m setting up so snares for trapping Thunderbirds. The traps I set up previously haven’t been maintained the last few days and are mostly ruined.
The live prey needed for later Pan Fei sessions are ideally pigeons, but since there aren’t any here, we’ll have to make do with Thunderbirds. The principle is the sa."
After busying himself for over an hour, Lin Yang set up more than a dozen snares of various sizes in an area where Thunderbirds were active.
A large handful of various colored seeds and pine nuts, previously secreted away by little squirrels, were requisitioned by him again.
Before it got dark, Lin Yang checked the traps around the hunting ground; luck was poor, catching only one young female Thunderbird that weighed less than a pound; he shook his head slightly.
"Bad luck for you, you’ll be used for training tomorrow."
The next morning, he took Little White back to the hunting ground, but this ti, his pocket contained a lively Thunderbird.
After being caught in a trap by Lin Yang, this Thunderbird was unlucky; its eyelids were sewn shut by him with needle and thread.
Similar to yesterday, before training, calling from afar, and Pan Fei took place. Little White’s flying height was fairly stable. After reaching about 150 ters, it began to circle and Pan Fei.
Lin Yang silently counted and roughly tid the duration of the Pan Fei, trying to extend the ti of Pan Fei as it was also part of the training.
About ten minutes later, the tree tops in the distance began to sway slightly.
Seeing this, Lin Yang was alerted. Similar to yesterday, as the temperature rose, wind started blowing over the hunting ground.
Large and dium-sized birds are experts at using air currents, and Little White, sensing the breeze, instinctively began to climb higher.
Just as it adjusted its wing angle to climb, he suddenly blew his whistle; at the sa ti, Lin Yang threw the Thunderbird high into the air.
Deprived of its ability to see due to its sewn eyelids, the Thunderbird could only fly in small circles, desperately climbing to a height, shooting up several tens of ters in just a few seconds, much like a helicopter.
The whistle was the command. Little White quickly spotted the climbing Thunderbird and dove down from a great height.
A kick in mid-air!
This kick was swift and decisive. Amidst a cloud of feathers, the Thunderbird, used for training, was lifeless before it even hit the ground.
As one of the primary foods in Spear Falcon’s diet, Little White was even more familiar with Thunderbirds than with Snow Rabbits. After capturing the Thunderbird mid-air, it flapped its wings and descended toward Lin Yang.
Seeing that Little White showed no intention of flying away with the prey, Lin Yang felt a weight lift off his heart; another hurdle was passed.
Given Little White’s weight, it was capable of carrying a prey the size of a female Thunderbird over a long distance; if Little White’s bonding training had even the slightest flaw, it might have carried the Thunderbird away to a preferred spot to eat out of fear.
Fortunately, Lin Yang was lucky. Little White’s bonding was sufficient. It settled a few ters away and began plucking and preparing to eat calmly.
"Damn, that kick was cool."
"Yes, almost as stunning as the first ti we saw Little White catch a Thunderbird."
"The Thunderbird’s flying posture just now was a bit weird, why was it spinning upward? What’s the principle behind this, did the strear tamper with sothing?"
"I’m more curious about the underlying logic of such training by the strear, there must be so rationale, right?"
Lin Yang nodded: "First, let answer why the Thunderbird, once released, flew upward in circles. Before coming here, I sewed the Thunderbird’s eyelids closed with a needle. This isn’t being cruel; it’s actually needed for training. Without visual orientation, most birds tend to fly upwards. If the eyes weren’t sewn, the Thunderbird might fly erratically and I might lose the falcon."
As for the underlying training logic, it involves using the opportunity to release prey to train Little White to keep climbing in height, which I call positive reinforcent."
Positive reinforcent works like this: when Little White is climbing, I deliberately release prey. After a few tis, it will link climbing height with the appearance of prey. Eventually, every ti Little White ascends, it will instinctively climb in anticipation of spotting prey, thus achieving our training objective."
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