> Absender: beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au
OK, here comes:
The Legacy of Heorot by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes Pocket
Books; ISBN: 0671695320
- And a second volume:
Beowulf's Children (The Dragons of Heorot) by Jerry Pournelle, Steven Barnes,
Larry Niven Tor Books; ISBN: 0812524969
- This was published under those two different titles at different
times. Bought it twice, thinking it was a different, third book in the
series :-(
Spoilers follow below ;-)
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The story and biology in short: In the first book, a Terran expedition travels
in a sublight colony
ship to a recently discovered earth-like planet. They first settle on a
island off a large continent. The island was chosen because it looked harmless
and offered protection from any threats from the unexplored mainland.
Unfortunately, the rivers of the island are home to the 'Grendels', a large
and dangerous amphibian species.
The ecology of the Grendels is peculiar. They are the only animals living in
the river and the areas nearby. Their very numerous larvae fill the role of
small fish, growing through various stages filling the large
fish niches, up to the large adult grendels, which are comparable to
crocodiles.
The adult Grendels are vaguely frog-shaped. They are fairly intelligent
(somewhere between ape and human) and of an extremely fierce disposition. They
will eat Grendel larvae (indeed, that's their main food) and are solitary
outside of the mating season. They have no technology.
They have a gland that produces a kind of super-adrenaline. For a short
period, this makes a Grendel extremely strong, impervious to pain and
allows them to move very fast - indeed, too fast for dogs or even rifle
armed humans to react to their actions.
The humans finally overcome the threat, but not without making some serious
errors on the way that result from their not understanding the ecology of the
Grendels.
Overall, liked the book. The colony ship, the way the colony is established,
the characters, and the tensions between the various groups in the colony are
well worked out. The Grendel ecology is interesting (and
backed up in the appendix by quoting some real-life examples). However,
I
don't really buy the super-adrenaline of the Grendels in the context of
a
Hard-SF book. It is just too powerful and smacks too much of a literary
device to make no-tech aliens a 'believable' threat to high-tech
humans.
The second book is set a number of years later. It deals with the first steps
onto the mainland, where more peculiar biology is found
(meat-eating swarms of wasps, ultra-large herbivores). Thought it OK,
but not a
must-read.
Greetings Karl Heinz
In message <14l5Ka-1qc5rcC@fwd04.sul.t-online.com>,
KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wr
ites:
> Spoilers follow below ;-)
A species whose primary food source is their own young? I'm no biologist, but
this does not strike me as a successful survival trait.
What about the predator/prey relationship, whereby the predators eat
lots of prey, the prey become scarce, the predators die off and breed less,
the prey breeds more, the predators eat more and breed more, etc...? Seems
like one low cycle and you're in a downward spiral towards extinction.
> On 5-Apr-01 at 15:00, Andy Cowell (andy@cowell.org) wrote:
> A species whose primary food source is their own young? I'm no
Already in use by a species of frog in South America. This is what generated
the idea for the story.
> Andy Cowell wrote:
> In message <14l5Ka-1qc5rcC@fwd04.sul.t-online.com>,
In message <3ACCEAF0.C8D961F3@sympatico.ca>, Richard and Emily Bell writes:
> Their own young are not the primary food source, the young are the
The funny thing is, the other day I was wondering how an evolved race that had
prodigious numbers of children would cope. Normally, this is a survival
mechanism in that the assumption is, only a small percentage would survive. If
you evolved to intelligence and generally removed yourself from predation,
what do you do with so many children? How do you teach them advanced
knowledge? Do you maintain some sort of "strongest
survive" mentality, maybe an education system where non-performers are
killed? Cannibalism of the young would certainly seem to work...what
[quoted original message omitted]
Answer - apparently this is used by a South African Frog - eating it's
young as primary food source. BUT, I am a Regional
Analyst/Cardiographer
type - ask Beth, she's the biologist type!
> On Thu, 05 Apr 2001 13:58:53 -0500 Andy Cowell <andy@cowell.org> writes:
G'day guys,
> Answer - apparently this is used by
Cannibalism is a common tactic of many species, particularly those with no
parental attachment. Its better known for aquatic species, but will occur in
terrestrial species too (particularly reptiles). Its can be so common in fish
species that it is the major underlying assumption of one of the main
stock-recruit curves ("how many juveniles can we expect from this many
adults" curve). Its place in ecosystems is still a hazy part of ecology,
but as far as theory can tell us its a stabilizing force so long as the rate
is less than about 5% in the long term.
Cheers
Beth
G'day Andy,
> The funny thing is, the other day I
If humans are any indication, have less. There's a strong relationship between
the removal of stress, an increase in longevity and a drop in births. There's
even evidence that the drop in human fertility (especially male fertility) has
as much to do with the effects of crowding and high population densities as it
does pollution, diet etc. There's also the possibility that the numbers would
remain high but the adults would impose a new selection process. Even into
this century some tribes used infanticide as a means of population control.
> Normally, this is a survival
Depending on the form of reproduction there may well be predation (and other
pressures) that will still require the species to produce millions so a few
get through. For arguments sake, lets say a broadcast spawning fish is the
sentient species in question. Its quite possible they would still
produce larvae in the same way and then only educate those that settled back
as small fish.... if that was the case they'd still require the production of
millions of young to guarantee a certain number of adults.
> How do you teach them advanced knowledge?
Or set to other tasks. They may well develop a social system, much like wolves
and certain fish where only the alpha pair reproduce. Similarly they
could end up in a society like the mole-rats or hive insects where the
majority are workers supporting a single (or few) sexually reproductive
individuals.
Cheers
Beth
> Even into this century some tribes used
The tribe called "Americans" still does this, they just call it
On Thu, 5 Apr 2001 22:35:12 -0400, "Laserlight" <laserlight@quixnet.net>
wrote:
> The tribe called "Americans" still does this, they just call it
Can we please keep the incendiary comments out of this list, please? We
managed to avoid gun control. Let's not get into a
pro-choice/anti-choice
debate...
> --- Beth Fulton <beth.fulton@marine.csiro.au> wrote:
> a few get through. For arguments sake, lets say a
Hivers from Traveller drop dozens of non-sentient
young who go and live as animals. They educate those young who manage to live
long enough to get back to a settlement.
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> On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Laserlight wrote:
> >Even into this century some tribes used
Argh! Let's not go there, okay, or this list will turn into a political
battlefield. Please.
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> On 5-Apr-01 at 22:36, Laserlight (laserlight@quixnet.net) wrote:
Please, let's not go there. If digital cameras and crossbows
are off-topic and annoying let's not get started on the
pro-pro bit.
> On 5-Apr-01 at 22:58, Allan Goodall (awg@sympatico.ca) wrote:
> Can we please keep the incendiary comments out of this list, please?
We
> managed to avoid gun control. Let's not get into a
I thought gun control was on topic. Personally if the gun were not
controllable (like a.303) I would reduce the FP by 1.:)
Does anyone else think militia should have a chance of injuring themselves
with a weapon? I still remember someone I know who was afraid of the kick on a
.303 so he braced his shoulder against an oak tree. That earned him a quick
trip to the hospital.
<chuckle> I remember when I was young (under 12) I fired a double barrel 12
gauge shotgun (accidentally pulling both triggers). I think it would have been
OK, but about a month prior to that I had dislocated my sholder. Needless to
say, it dislocated again.
> --- Roger Books <books@mail.state.fl.us> wrote:
> Does anyone else think militia should have a chance
Yeah, but the word militia presumes there's at least a
little bit of training--and most people wouldn't miss
an opportunity to fire off the government's ammo.
In message <2A5C49585B46EC42BB99D3000F725D47074756@col1smx01.dscc.dla.mil>,
"Be
> ll, Brian K (Contractor)" writes:
Heh. About the same age, I braced myself agaist a dead, rotton tree
limb. Thankfully, it was a breach-loader, so the firearm was unloaded