Harpoon Face

I ended up sleeping a bit too late today, after staying up late last night to watch the hunt. I always feel muzzy-headed from sleeping too late. My bio clock hates it when I deviate from its strict schedule. So I was only just stumbling out of the cave at the point when everyone else was already off and busy.

It did end up paying off, though.

Because I wasn’t immediately available first thing in the morning, like usual, Eyani and Oshtik had gone off exploring on their own along the beach. Sometimes you can find interesting things on a beach in the early parts of the day, before scavengers and other creatures have begun poking around for leavings.

Oshtik made an interesting discovery, and was practically vibrating to show it to me when I woke up. She immediately twined her tail around my wrist and hauled me off toward the wrack line, chattering excitedly about what she’d found. Eyani was waiting for us, standing guard over the object.

It turned out to be the corpse of one of the bird-creatures I’d seen flitting across the water. They’ve tended to shy away from any other creatures on the beach, so my experience with them has been little more than a flash of movement, a suggestion of wings, or a splash on the water’s surface.

This one was freshly dead, and in beautiful condition. I prodded it into a better position with a piece of drift wood (I wasn’t stupid enough to go handling it; it could have died from a disease). The wing design is fascinating, and explains a bit why I’ve had such a hard time getting a mental image of their body type.

I always thought the creatures (Oshtik says they’re called “oai”) looked bottom-heavy, but what I took for bulk was actually a second set of wings on the hind legs. They hold them tucked under the body, with the outside toe forming a second wing surface below and a partially underneath the primary arm-wings. Essentially they’re like little biplanes.

But the other, even weirder thing about them is the mouth. The upper jaw has a V-shaped notch at the tip, and an odd, bony, flexible, hook-like protrusion at the end tongue fits into the notch when the mouth is closed. The hook is part of a short, harpoon-like shaft, sheathed in fleshy tissue and backed by a thick slab of muscle.

Its tongue was like a chameleon’s. Except that instead of launching a fleshy, glue-covered punching-bag at an insect, this creature fires a tiny harpoon from above at its prey. I wonder if the biplane wings give them the stability to be able to pull off this crazy predator behavior.

This one had a tiny crest on its head, but I’m certain I’ve seen ones with larger crests, and some different, more distinct skull structures. I don’t know if they all can harpoon things, or if that’s an adaptation particular to this species, but I’m definitely going to be watching these things a lot more carefully in the future.

Nature is freakin’ fascinating!

---

Today is the 1 year anniversary of Project Azu-nah. Thank you all so much for taking the time to read the blog. I really, really appreciate all your comments and feedback. I hope I've managed to entertain you at least a little. Thank you, and here's to another year!