Cultural Learnings of Dun Morogh for make benefit glorious nation of Gnomeregan

[Ironskull]

Cultural learnings of Dun Morogh for make benefit glorious nation of Gnomeregen.
- By Gregoric Dobzahnsky of the Lift Specialist Dobzahnskys

My studies of the mammalian camouflage adaptations of Dun Morogh is now complete, and I believe I have a reasonable understanding of this phenomenon. What I am lacking is an explanation of how such adaptations come about. This will be reserved for future study.

The simple snowshoe hare is preyed upon by the white wolves, and appears to be designed to blend into dirty snow areas. This, combined with extremely long concave ears (much like the gnomish satellite Spudnick design), eyes located on the sides of the skull for maximum peripheral coverage, and sensitive feet give the rabbit potent anti-predator defenses. Note in this visual-capture the camouflage.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/6899/whitrabbitcamoshorthb0.th.jpg (http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitrabbitcamoshorthb0.jpg)

The two primary predators of the snowshoe hare are the white wolf and the snow leopard. Now as these vision-captures demonstrate, the white wolf and the snow leopard in their natural environment are very difficult to see due to their camouflage. Now as there are no natural predators of wolves or leopards (other than the dwarf, I suppose) the camouflage is a predatory weapon, a way of hiding from its prey – largely the hare. This counter-design in nature is a profound finding that has the potential to bear on a host of philosophic and theological questions, though is largely overlooked.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/2962/whitewolfcamoshorteh5.th.jpg (http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=whitewolfcamoshorteh5.jpg)

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/9649/snowleopardshortqv4.th.jpg (http://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=snowleopardshortqv4.jpg)

Now the mystery of Dun Morogh is the coloration of the iceclaw bears, which are dark grey – an obvious contrast to the snow. To double check if the bear was in fact a predator I did a thorough inspection of the bear’s teeth. There was blood on the teeth, and their design was obviously combative in nature.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/6689/bearteethshortsq3.th.jpg (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bearteethshortsq3.jpg)

I came to the said realization that an intestinal examination was required to see if I could determine exactly what food resided in the beast. With a growing sense of trepidation, and still shivering from the cold, I proceeded with the exam.

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/9831/bearexamshortfe0.th.jpg (http://img89.imageshack.us/my.php?image=bearexamshortfe0.jpg)

Finding nothing I’m willing to report… and having so thoroughly sullied my walking stick that the shear smell of it was enough to repel most enemies…

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/2152/wardoffwolf1shortrr9.th.jpg (http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wardoffwolf1shortrr9.jpg)

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/8167/wolfdiesshortri8.th.jpg (http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=wolfdiesshortri8.jpg)

… I decided I would have to do a more thorough exam of the stomach, so I knelt down with my scalpel and cut into the bear’s stomach to retrieve the remains of fish!

http://img165.imageshack.us/img165/5222/beargutssmallrb8.th.jpg (http://img165.imageshack.us/my.php?image=beargutssmallrb8.jpg)

Now an interesting possibility presented itself. Certainly the bear, when illuminated by the light of the sun bore little resemblance to the color of water… but what about from the fishes perspective? I immersed myself among the fish of Dun Morogh and took a vision capture of the surface of the water above me. As can be seen, it bore a striking resemblance to the color of the iceclaw bear.

http://img124.imageshack.us/img124/8599/surfacecolorshortny6.th.jpg (http://img124.imageshack.us/my.php?image=surfacecolorshortny6.jpg)

Again, like the snow hare, the fish were colored in such a way as to blend into their surroundings.

http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/7752/fishcamoshortzl3.th.jpg (http://img401.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fishcamoshortzl3.jpg)

Finally, one should note that the simple boar shows no evidence of camouflage as it eats mostly roots, berries and simple vegetation.

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/9879/boarnotcamoshortoi2.th.jpg (http://img526.imageshack.us/my.php?image=boarnotcamoshortoi2.jpg)

All in all, the coloration of the mammals of Dun Morogh demonstrate a tight correlation between the phenotypic design of the organisms and the ecological circumstances of their existence. Now, the origin of this design remains unclear, but the dominant view is that it stems from the ingenuity of the Titans who created life.

Dobzahnsky

[Izrail]

((Brilliant. ^^))

[Sifar]

(( I love it! Just one more reason to love Gnomes :) ))

[Sabachthan]

(( So much win. So much win. ))

[Solenev]

((I love you Greg Dobzanahnsky! *Wears the Tshirt!*))

[Sci]

(( AHAAHH!! Thats hilarious! )

[Lailinarel]

((/applaud))

[Ironskull]

My funding has been renewed by the good people at Fordragon Imports. Other than some of my silver having tauren hair and bits of troll bones scattered into the mix I've had no trouble refunding my work. I plan to be back to speed soon and will no doubt have more to present in the future.

During my time off I've been doing more thinking about the nature of camoflague and what it tells us about the origin of life. There is a problem with the traditional view that the Titans designed life in a purposive manner. There can be no doubt that there is design in these animals, much as with any machine, but they appear geared at cross-purposes. For instance, the rabbit is colored white to hide from the wolf, and the wolf is colored white to be able to sneak up on the rabbit. Now what sense does that make? Whoever designed the rabbit clearly wanted it to get away, but whoever designed the wolf wanted the rabbit to get caught. There appears only one logical conclusion: that there are multiple creators who work against one another. The rabbit-wolf relationship is a simple one, but there are far more complex interactions between species suggesting dozens if not hundreds of creators. Perhaps one for each species.

In the future I will aim to investigate two lines of inquiry derived from the theory that each species has its own creator. If that is true, the following must also be true:
1). Species should not show the same kind of conflict within their groups as species do across groups. Rabbits should not be eating each other, for example.
2). Species must be fixed entities that do not change over time. A drunken fool in Goldshire once insisted that brown rabbits would turn white if they are in the snow long enough. This will be put to the test now that I have my freeze-o-ray generators and my rabbit cages.

Will report soon.

Professor Gregoric Dobzahnsky

[opalexian]

((adorable! ^_^))