The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, Thursday, Per 2

[arboreal_priestess]

"Sorry about last week, class," Verity said, once the class had filed in. "It's ahool nesting season and..." She shook her head, looking faintly disgusted. "We did not get home in time for class."

At least, not with enough time to also fit in the requisite length of showers needed to feel clean again.

"Just be glad we didn't decide it was the perfect opportunity for a field exercise," Liam said, grimacing.

They were flying monkeys, class. And do you know what a favorite weapon of monkeys was? Guess. Just guess.

"Never let it be said that field work isn't glamorous," Verity said with as much sarcasm as she could muster. "But even though we decided against field work, we figured this would be a good cryptid to learn about. Although a cryptozoologist's primary concern should be conservation, there are several species of cryptid that make that very hard. Not just because they're hateful, filthy little creatures with disgusting habits--" not that she was biased or anything "--but because they are incapable of living alongside any other creatures without eating them and are, therefore, bad for whatever ecosystem they happen to roost in."

"Once upon a time they probably filled a particular ecological niche in Indonesia, which is where they're from originally," Liam added. Or maybe they'd just always been a nuisance, who really knew? "Unfortunately, they've become rather entrenched in North and South America for," he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "reasons." Which was, much like with the lesser griffins, probably translatable to 'they were imported by some genius who thought they'd make great sport hunting but who then ended up losing control of their 'pets', setting them loose on an unprepared ecosystem.' Humanity, why were you like this?

"They are flying collaborative hunters," Verity said, as the Danger Shop pulled up a recreation of a single ahool. Which looked a lot like one of Baum's winged monkeys -- with rabies. It was also the size of a gibbon, which no one wanted to see flying at them. "They form colonies ranging from ten to thirty individuals for as long as the ecosystem can support them. And, to their credit, ahool are incredibly loving and gentle to one another, both within their family units and in the colony itself. It's just everyone else that they hate. Within the colony, they form triads of two females to a male, giving live birth to about one or two young per mother. The young stay within the family until they're about two, breastfeeding the full time - a major difference to the lindwurms we were talking about a few weeks ago. When they are weaned, the ahool tend to stay within the larger colony unless a scarcity of food or mates is causing fighting within the colony, in which case the colony will split."

"That part about how they hate everyone?" Liam said. "She wasn't kidding. They're armed with claws and extremely sharp teeth, and are prone to attack even when they're not hungry. They see just about any living creature- including humans and sapient cryptids- as a viable food source, and given that their mouths are full of all sorts of nasty bacteria that can cause deadly infections in whatever it ends up biting with those extremely sharp teeth, they're not wrong."

"And, you know, the whole 'flinging feces' thing," Verity said wryly, as a replica of Fandom town sprang up around them. "You're gonna have a ton of fun hunting these guys.

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[arboreal_priestess]

Like you've just been told a flying monkey is going fling poo at you.

Listen to the Lecture

[arboreal_priestess]

Ponder to yourself about what possible purpose these creatures could have within a particular ecosystem. Or why anyone would think introducing them to a new ecosystem was a worthwhile endeavor.

(In case you were wondering, the answer is 'because humans are idiots.')

Ahool Hunt!

[arboreal_priestess]

"When you see a single ahool off by itself, you're probably looking at a scout," Verity said. "If allowed to return to its colony, it will bring the whole group to the new location where they will settle in and begin to attack pretty much anything that moves. In a rural area, that often means livestock. In an urban area, you're looking at pets and people."

And the resulting fears when people and animals started dying of unknown diseases.

"While the easiest thing to do to an ahool scout is kill it - colonies won't move if the scout doesn't return to guide them - we tend to avoid doing that if the ahool hasn't been feeding on people. The best thing to do in this situation is to catch it, release it in an uninhabited location, and let it bring the colony there. If the colony contains more than ten or fifteen individuals, however, steps are taken to decrease the number of ahools in the area."

She'd go into those steps if someone asked, but that was irrelevant to the activity today.

"Today, you're all on an ahool hunt," she said, as safety gear appeared on the ground next to them. "There are ahool scouts in town, looking for places for their colonies to roost. You have ten minutes to get suited up and discuss amongst yourselves strategies for finding where those scouts would likely be and how to deal with them. When that ten minutes is over, another ten minute countdown will start. Every ten minutes, an ahool scout will successfully fetch its colony and bring it back to the city. If a scout is captured or killed in that time, the clock resets. You get an A for the day if the city is free from ahool by the time the bell rings."

Bright green digital numbers appeared in the air next to Verity. And began to tick down

Talk To Your Teachers

[arboreal_priestess]

Who were possibly considering another, like, eight showers after this class was over. Look, simulated feces were still feces, and say what you would about the Danger Shop, its recreations were extremely true to life.

OOC

[arboreal_priestess]

To keep the flying monkeys from getting loose, of course.