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fandomhigh2018-01-17 01:40 am
livingartifact) wrote in fandomhigh2018-01-17 01:40 am
Entry tags:
Earth Zoology
The classroom was extremely dark when the students entered, today, with small strips of glowing tape along the base of the walls and edges of the furniture hopefully preventing anyone from bumping into anything and injuring themselves. There was a single, old fashioned street lamp in the center of the table, casting a dim circle of light around the table, and illuminating Jenkins rather eerily from above. He waved the students over as they entered, though he kept getting distracted by something on the ceiling.
"Come in, come in. Any of you who might have thought that the darkness in here meant class was cancelled, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm also not going to let you simply nap the class period away — though I don't suppose I'll do much to stop you, if you end up deciding to do so, anyway." Jenkins was a great teacher, no really. "I have the lights out today as we are going to be examining an animal that very much prefers to keep in the dark, sleeping by day and becoming active only at night. The term we use for that is 'nocturnal', as opposed to us day-dwelling creatures, who are called 'diurnal'. There's in fact a lot of vocabulary I could throw at you with regards to these critters: insectivore, hibernation, potential disease vector — but we needn't concern ourselves with those now, especially that last one. I've had our specimens for the week shipped in special from a nice, warm summer night, free of any rabies or white-nose syndrome. Students, I would like to introduce you to the North American big brown bat."
He opened a small box on the table, releasing several dozen tiny white moths, which proceeding to flutter about, aiming straight for the top of the street lamp. In moments, a sound of flapping filled the air as winged creatures about the size of squirrels started swooping in to catch their prey.
"With apologies should any of you have hearing sensitive to the frequency of the bats' echolocation — there's another vocabulary word for you all. Humans as a general rule are unable to hear it, themselves, though it can have a remarkable effect on the nervous systems of many of the insects the bats prefer to munch on. Mostly, though, the bats can sense the way the sound waves produced bounce off of every solid object in the room. So while they may seem sometimes to be swooping dangerously close to your hair, it is highly unlikely that they will be foolish enough to get caught up in it. There are a large number of bat species on Earth, should any of you be curious to learn more about them. They are the only mammals known to science that have true flight capabilities. Once our friends here have finished their lunch and gone back to their roosts, we can switch the lights on and take a closer look. They really are quite lovely animals, though perhaps not as traditionally 'cute' as their larger, fruit eating cousins from the tropics. Some find them terribly off-putting, though I've never understood that reaction myself." He looked over at his students. "Nor, do I suspect, will any of you. After all, why take a class in strange animals unless you're looking forward to seeing them in all their infinite variety?" He leaned back and looked up, a small smile on his face. "For the time being, I invite you all to sit back, relax, and enjoy watching them swoop."
"Come in, come in. Any of you who might have thought that the darkness in here meant class was cancelled, I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I'm also not going to let you simply nap the class period away — though I don't suppose I'll do much to stop you, if you end up deciding to do so, anyway." Jenkins was a great teacher, no really. "I have the lights out today as we are going to be examining an animal that very much prefers to keep in the dark, sleeping by day and becoming active only at night. The term we use for that is 'nocturnal', as opposed to us day-dwelling creatures, who are called 'diurnal'. There's in fact a lot of vocabulary I could throw at you with regards to these critters: insectivore, hibernation, potential disease vector — but we needn't concern ourselves with those now, especially that last one. I've had our specimens for the week shipped in special from a nice, warm summer night, free of any rabies or white-nose syndrome. Students, I would like to introduce you to the North American big brown bat."
He opened a small box on the table, releasing several dozen tiny white moths, which proceeding to flutter about, aiming straight for the top of the street lamp. In moments, a sound of flapping filled the air as winged creatures about the size of squirrels started swooping in to catch their prey.
"With apologies should any of you have hearing sensitive to the frequency of the bats' echolocation — there's another vocabulary word for you all. Humans as a general rule are unable to hear it, themselves, though it can have a remarkable effect on the nervous systems of many of the insects the bats prefer to munch on. Mostly, though, the bats can sense the way the sound waves produced bounce off of every solid object in the room. So while they may seem sometimes to be swooping dangerously close to your hair, it is highly unlikely that they will be foolish enough to get caught up in it. There are a large number of bat species on Earth, should any of you be curious to learn more about them. They are the only mammals known to science that have true flight capabilities. Once our friends here have finished their lunch and gone back to their roosts, we can switch the lights on and take a closer look. They really are quite lovely animals, though perhaps not as traditionally 'cute' as their larger, fruit eating cousins from the tropics. Some find them terribly off-putting, though I've never understood that reaction myself." He looked over at his students. "Nor, do I suspect, will any of you. After all, why take a class in strange animals unless you're looking forward to seeing them in all their infinite variety?" He leaned back and looked up, a small smile on his face. "For the time being, I invite you all to sit back, relax, and enjoy watching them swoop."
Talk to Jenkins