Super Zoo-Chapter 603 598: Vampire Bat
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Important note written upfront, please take a few days off.
I wasn't feeling too well yesterday, and by midnight, I'd experienced bouts of vomiting and diarrhea, either with my head over the toilet or my butt facing it. Every fifteen minutes or so, it felt like a hand was fiercely tugging at my stomach, causing unbearable pain~~~
The sourc𝗲 of this content is frёeωebɳovel.com.
Caught cold and ate something that upset my stomach, I went to the doctor this morning and was prescribed some medication. I have to be on an IV for two days, maintaining four posts a day is just not doable,
For today, tomorrow, and the day after, there will only be two posts per day. It's not a serious illness, I should be better in three days. As long as my stomach pain and diarrhea improve, I'll try to get back to four posts~~
Please understand!
—Dividing line—
A black box, a leather pouch, inside housed a slim black figure.
Summing covered his nose as he moved closer to take a look. Inside the box lay a black animal carcass that had started to smell, but luckily it was treated with lime and possibly soaked in formalin, so it hadn't rotted too much, the body was still discernible.
"A large bat?" Summing was taken aback, looking at the corpse in the box and then at Antonio, his face full of disbelief. Was this old man sick in the head... Why would he keep a bat corpse under his bed?
The bat inside the box was about sixty to seventy centimeters. Its wings, like a cloak, wrapped around its body, and its head somewhat resembled a fox. At first glance, it looked very much like a vampire in slumber from the movies.
A large flying fox specimen?
The flying fox, a type of bat, comes in two varieties: large and small. The one before him was clearly a large flying fox. Adult large flying foxes can weigh over two kilograms, with a wingspan exceeding 1.5 meters. One widely circulated online photo shows several people catching an oversized bat, pinning it to a wooden frame like a kite—that's a large flying fox.
The large flying fox is the largest bat in Southeast Asia. Its meat is edible, and its fur has some economic value, though not much. Due to overhunting, it is said to be on the brink of extinction.
However, just on the brink. The wild population of large flying foxes is still quite large; every year, tens of thousands of them are caught in Southeast Asia alone.
Summing couldn't understand—flying foxes weren't anything rare and weren't worth much money. Did Antonio really need to treasure it like a precious item and keep it close by?
Perhaps discerning Summing's puzzlement, Antonio used a small metal tool to pry open the specimen's mouth.
Summing leaned in for a closer look and felt goosebumps, as the flying fox's mouth was filled with a row of sharp, hook-like teeth. The two largest ones were nearly as long as a thumb, resembling pointy little daggers.
"Mr. Su, you're an expert in zoology, what do you think? Is this normal?" Antonio asked.
"It's not normal," Summing shook his head.
What Antonio referred to as 'normal' pertained to the flying fox's teeth. Through thousands of years of evolution, an animal's teeth have a direct connection to its diet. For example, carnivorous animals have mostly sharp and pointed teeth for tearing meat, while herbivores have flatter teeth suitable for grinding plant fibers.
Despite their daunting size, flying foxes are not carnivorous to Summing's knowledge. The large ones feed on fruits, and the smaller ones are even simpler, feeding on nectar and plant tubers like bees.
Theoretically, flying foxes' teeth should not look like this, even if they have canines, the rest of their teeth shouldn't be sharp.
Summing looked towards Antonio, waiting for him to provide an explanation.
Antonio revealed a mysterious expression, "Do you know about vampires?"
Summing almost mistook him for a salesman pushing his agenda.
"Mr. Antonio, you're not about to tell me you've caught a vampire, nailed it to death with a cross, and it reverted to the bat I'm seeing in front of me?" Summing rolled his eyes.
Legends say vampires can turn into bats, and with a size like this flying fox's paired with a mouth full of sharp teeth, it did share some resemblance to a vampire.
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But that's legend! There aren't any damn vampires in real life! Pretending to be a vampire with a dead bat, you'd have to be crazy to believe that!
It'd be more believable if someone picked a bloody sanitary pad out of the trash and claimed that was left by a vampire...
Antonio said, "The term 'vampire' is too unprofessional and can lead to misunderstandings. Strictly speaking, this is a blood-sucking bat."
"Flying foxes are herbivores; it's the flying monkeys that suck blood!" Suming said.
Flying monkeys looked similar to bats and lived by sucking the blood of animals. There were often tales of farmers waking up to find their pigs and cows drained of blood overnight -- the work of flying monkeys.
In truth, although flying monkeys suck blood, they do not take much at a time -- not enough to drain large animals like pigs and cows. At most, they might take a few dozen milliliters, which is similar to a human getting a blood test at a hospital; just one syringe of blood could satisfy a flying monkey. The greatest danger posed by flying monkeys wasn't their blood-sucking, but the diseases they could spread during the process, especially rabies and Ebola.
The earliest vampire and werewolf legends originated from flying monkeys and individuals infected with rabies after being bitten by them.
And the specimen before them showed all the characteristics of a flying fox, not a blood-sucking flying monkey. Suming still knew that much about biology.
"Exactly," Antonio nodded, smiling as he looked at Suming, emphasizing, "Flying foxes are herbivores."
"Then... oh!!" Suming slapped his forehead and pointed at the flying fox, "You're saying, this is a blood-sucking flying fox?"
"Absolutely correct!" Antonio said solemnly.
No wonder the old man treated an otherwise not-so-rare flying fox as a treasure!
Flying foxes were common, but a blood-sucking flying fox was a completely different story -- like a rabbit that had started eating meat, this...
"What exactly is going on?" Suming sat down and asked Antonio, puzzled.
"It's a long story. My family has a long history, originating from Sicily..." Antonio's face shone with a sacred glow as Suming patiently listened to him brag.
A great family with ancient traditions had entered modern society and found that its 'singular' business could not meet the needs of societal development, so they underwent a series of upgrades and transformations to expand their businesses. Antonio was in charge of the medical research within his family, and a few months ago, he had discovered this species of blood-sucking mutant flying fox in the deep mountains of Huaxia.
"Mr. Su, an animal changing its diet indicates a genetic change. Genes are not immutable, just like how monkeys evolved into humans. Under normal circumstances, for genes to undergo substantial changes, it either takes hundreds or thousands of years, or it involves some kind of significant external stimulus. If we could figure out the cause of the flying fox's mutation and apply it in medicine and life sciences, it would be an invaluable fortune!" Antonio said.
"You're also a scientist?" Suming said, surprised.
"I hold two doctoral degrees and once served as a visiting professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine," Antonio said with a tinge of pride.
"Mr. Antonio, even if research is necessary, it should be done by our own government, right? What you're doing is theft!" Suming said.
"I admit it," Antonio shrugged nonchalantly, "but if your government were to do the research, what benefit would you get? A few tens of thousands of yuan as a reward? Or a share of the patent on the research outcomes? Mr. Su, the results of the research belong to all of humanity, so why should we care which country is conducting the specific research?"
"If I'm willing to help, what's in it for me?" Suming asked.
"You would become a friend of me and my family..."
"Give me something concrete," Suming interrupted.
Antonio held up three fingers: "One percent of the patent revenue, a million US dollars in cash, pick one. I recommend you choose the former; although it's risky, if the research does produce results, that one percent could bring you a ceaseless stream of substantial wealth."
"Mr. Antonio, first take me to where you found these bats," Suming loosened his shoulders, "What you're saying is too shocking, and I can't fully believe it just yet."
