{"id":867,"date":"2025-01-23T14:24:32","date_gmt":"2025-01-23T15:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/?p=867"},"modified":"2025-03-06T13:04:12","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T13:04:12","slug":"echo-augury-iv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/23\/echo-augury-iv\/","title":{"rendered":"Echo Augury IV"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u2190 Episode III<\/a><\/p>\n

Flashlight in hand, Carys made her way up the overgrown walk of the old Lamb house. It had become a ruin in the fifty years since it was last inhabited; the chimney was barely standing. The front door was locked, and she could no longer see the light in the window.\u00a0 Making her way through the tall grass and brambles to the sea-facing side of the house, she tried the back door. The frame had warped with time and the door stuck, but she managed to force it open enough so she could slip through.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody there?\u201d she called.<\/p>\n

She was quite sure that somebody was<\/em> here, keeping quiet in the darkness. She swept her flashlight around and caught a gleam in the darkness. She went closer. An eye<\/em>. Something was looking at her from a cluttered table\u2026 The stuffed great auk, she realized. The glass case had been removed, and the auk stood with its head slightly raised and\u00a0 its tiny wings folded against its body. Beside it was a large elaborate hat, the sort that somebody might wear to the Royal Ascot horse race, along with something she initially took for a wig but turned out to be a feather duster \u2014 Kenny\u2019s, she presumed. And that pelt nearby\u2026 the sea mink. The table held other items: framed paintings, pieces of bone, laboratory trays filled with feathers and hairs, animal skulls of various sizes, and (at the far end) a wet suit along with a waterproof dry bag.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Artist: Robin Clugston<\/em><\/p>\n

She shone her light on one of the paintings, which showed two ducks floating tranquilly on a calm sea. The caption said, \u201cLabrador ducks (Camptorhynchus labradorius<\/em>) in the wild.\u201d Labrador ducks. She had heard Kenny mention them \u2014 they were extinct, too. What do you bet (she thought) that the feathers in the hat had come from the Labrador Duck?<\/p>\n

She stood still in the darkness. This table of jumbled shadows, she realized, held a lost world \u2014 the vanished wildlife of North America, or at least fragments of it.<\/p>\n

She had gotten out her cell phone when she was aware of someone breathing in the darkness. Her hand went to her taser.<\/p>\n

\u201cShow yourself,\u201d she called out firmly.<\/p>\n

A headlamp was switched on, and Carys blinked. Ysabeau the PhD student stood there, smiling a bit ruefully.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou asked me to help out in your investigation, Carys,\u201d she said. \u201cI am afraid I can\u2019t, because\u2026 well, I\u2019m the criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe it,\u201d said Carys in wonder.<\/p>\n

Ysabeau went close to the table. \u201cI was planning to return all this stuff\u2026 after I got what I needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat exactly was that?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell\u2026everything necessary to make a great auk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMake <\/em>a great auk?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, and maybe a sea mink and a Labrador duck and other species.\u201d She smiled again at the look on Cary\u2019s face. \u201cI\u2019m collecting the DNA of these animals \u2014 the biochemical instructions that make them what they are. I\u2019m trying to construct the full genome of each species.\u201d She picked up a feather from one of the laboratory trays. \u201cI got this from the great auk. I had to dig inside to find a feather that hadn\u2019t been coated with preservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me get this straight. You\u2019re collecting all this DNA to\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBring these animals back, yes. It\u2019s called de-extinction. First you sequence the genome of the animal. Then you edit the important genes of the extinct animal into the reproductive cells of its nearest living relative. In the case of the great auk, that would be the razorbill. Then you basically grow a living exemplar of the extinct animal \u2014\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Ysabeau, that\u2019s science fiction<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ysabeau shook her head vigorously. \u201cPeople are talking about it now. I want to do more than talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Artist: Robin Clugston<\/em><\/p>\n

The old house creaked and rattled in the wind. Carys gazed at the table, bewildered.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo there was no treasure map,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, yes, there was,\u201d said Ysabeau. \u201cA very smart person, a friend of mine, found it five years ago and located the treasure\u2026 which is now funding this work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd who is this smart person?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather not tell you that, Carys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carys sighed. \u201cI\u2019m sure my detachment will instruct me to charge you, Ysabeau.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I say, I was going to return everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fine, but there may be a few preliminaries to that. Look, I don\u2019t understand why you couldn\u2019t have just asked<\/em> to study these items.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried that, at first,\u201d replied Ysabeau. \u201cMuseums and collectors said no. They thought my project was crazy \u2014 that I<\/em> was crazy.\u201d In the light of the flashlight her face was no longer soft but pinched and taut; a flame hard as flint flickered in her eyes. \u201cThe species we\u2019ve lost in North America add up to a civilization<\/em>. And we\u2019re losing more with every passing day. I want to do something about that.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 She closed her eyes for a moment and gave a small smile.\u00a0 \u201cAnyway, it was fun being a cat burglar, Carys. I needed time to examine the items and take samples, so I\u2019d bring them back here. I set this place up as my makeshift laboratory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, the first thing we have to do is to return this stuff,\u201d said Carys.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight,\u201d said Ysabeau. \u201cCan we use your car? I think I\u2019ve got everything I can from the specimens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOkay. Did you swim<\/em> here?\u201d Carys had her eye on the wetsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, to avoid curious eyes.\u201d She had produced a large wicker basket and carefully placed one of the framed paintings inside it. \u201dI hope you\u2019ve got a big trunk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me get the car. I parked well down the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, Carys had driven up to the old house and opened her trunk. She saw no light on the main floor. Once again she pushed open the back door.<\/p>\n

\u201cYsabeau?\u201d<\/p>\n

Only the wind answered her. Turning her flashlight to the table, she saw that the wet suit and dry bag were gone\u2026 along with the laboratory trays full of feathers and hairs.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

\u201cMy auk!\u201d said Kenny excitedly, as Carys presented the items to him. \u201cAnd my feather duster! Who took them, Carys?\u201d<\/p>\n

Carys saw in her mind Ysabeau\u2019s face, her passion and resolve, and decided then that she wasn\u2019t going to handle this case by the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m working on that,\u201d she said lightly. \u201cThis case turned out to be more complicated than I thought. I think I need to pay another visit to Clint Clinton, William Lamb\u2019s descendant. Do you know him?\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenny chuckled. \u201cThe maritime cowboy! He directed a big ghost gear clean-up in Fundy last year. But why do you want to talk to him?\u201d<\/p>\n

To compare dreams<\/em>, thought Carys, but she just said: \u201cI want to find out more about his work\u2026\u00a0 and particularly what inspired it. Oh, and Kenny \u2014 you might want to have your feather duster analyzed. I\u2019m pretty sure you don\u2019t have chicken feathers there.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nature Canada and other environmental groups have identified the inner Bay of Fundy (Nova Scotia\/New Brunswick)\u00a0 and Witless Bay (Newfoundland and Labrador) as two priority marine areas needing protection. Find out how you can help protect these and other ocean sites by becoming a Nature Canada Ocean Defender<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Special thanks to Ottawa artist Robin Clugston<\/a> for illustrating this original Nature Canada eco-mystery.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss other stories about nature and wildlife! Sign up for the Nature Canada Newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The post Echo Augury IV<\/a> appeared first on Nature Canada<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2190 Episode III Flashlight in hand, Carys made her way up the overgrown walk of the old Lamb house. It had become a ruin in the fifty years since it was last inhabited; the chimney was barely standing. The front door was locked, and she could no longer see the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":869,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=867"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":874,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867\/revisions\/874"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ibslhk.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}