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fandomhigh2020-04-16 01:03 am
arboreal_priestess) wrote in fandomhigh2020-04-16 01:03 am
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The Cryptozoologist's Field Guide, Thursday, Per 2
Good news, everyone! Today involved yet another field exercise, as the note pinned to the entrance of the Danger Shop informed the students to meet their teachers by the causeway, where they'd be stepping through a portal that would deposit them on the shores of the Owyhee Reservoir, somewhere in the wilds of Oregon near the Idaho border.
...An hour or so before the sun was scheduled to rise. The sky hadn't even begun to lighten, leaving them in the literal dark of night. "Today," Verity said, pulling out her phone and indicating everyone else should, too. Look, the reservoir was far from artificial lights and it got dark in the hinterlands. "We're going to talk about the dangers of messing with the ecosystem. One of the omnipresent dangers of importing animals to a new ecosystem is that they will escape and, due to a lack of natural predators, begin to breed uncontrollably."
"And with that population boom, they start pushing other animals out of their normal ecological niche. The native animals starve and die out and the invasive population thrives." If anyone didn't have a phone on them to use as a flashlight, Liam absolutely had a miniature flashlight or two tucked in the pockets of his leather duster. Because he was prepared like that. He took his Global and pointed it out towards the water, the beam of light from the flashlight revealing two to three dozen pairs of eyes glowing in the darkness, all of them focused on the cluster of figures on the shore.
“Yup,” Verity agreed, continuing to shine her phone across the water. Eyes, eyes, eyes. Everywhere eyes. They were surrounded. And also? Vastly outnumbered. "Now, if you're really lucky, nature will adapt and, after a period of adjustment, the new species will slot into that niche. That's how you get some species - like the tailypo or the bromeliads - who were once invasive becoming critical to the ecosystem because they have replaced the previous creatures. Other times, you're not so lucky. Maybe they're poisonous to predators or they breed too quickly or they eat something too fast. Then you have a boom followed by a mass die-out. And the problem with die-outs is that it never just affects the one group. It's called the food chain for a reason."
There was the sound of splashing as some of the eyes began swimming. And rustling in the underbrush as they began moving in.
"And that," Verity said cheerfully, "brings us to manticores."
...An hour or so before the sun was scheduled to rise. The sky hadn't even begun to lighten, leaving them in the literal dark of night. "Today," Verity said, pulling out her phone and indicating everyone else should, too. Look, the reservoir was far from artificial lights and it got dark in the hinterlands. "We're going to talk about the dangers of messing with the ecosystem. One of the omnipresent dangers of importing animals to a new ecosystem is that they will escape and, due to a lack of natural predators, begin to breed uncontrollably."
"And with that population boom, they start pushing other animals out of their normal ecological niche. The native animals starve and die out and the invasive population thrives." If anyone didn't have a phone on them to use as a flashlight, Liam absolutely had a miniature flashlight or two tucked in the pockets of his leather duster. Because he was prepared like that. He took his Global and pointed it out towards the water, the beam of light from the flashlight revealing two to three dozen pairs of eyes glowing in the darkness, all of them focused on the cluster of figures on the shore.
“Yup,” Verity agreed, continuing to shine her phone across the water. Eyes, eyes, eyes. Everywhere eyes. They were surrounded. And also? Vastly outnumbered. "Now, if you're really lucky, nature will adapt and, after a period of adjustment, the new species will slot into that niche. That's how you get some species - like the tailypo or the bromeliads - who were once invasive becoming critical to the ecosystem because they have replaced the previous creatures. Other times, you're not so lucky. Maybe they're poisonous to predators or they breed too quickly or they eat something too fast. Then you have a boom followed by a mass die-out. And the problem with die-outs is that it never just affects the one group. It's called the food chain for a reason."
There was the sound of splashing as some of the eyes began swimming. And rustling in the underbrush as they began moving in.
"And that," Verity said cheerfully, "brings us to manticores."
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