Rodent Fiction, Part 2
Jun. 5th, 2007 06:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabGoing to space didn't intrigue everyone. It didn't even interest all of the Rodents. Rats and Mice had declined to participate, and declined to specify their reasons. The aquatic races weren't interested either, which was just as well, as the Squirrels shuddered to think of the cost of building spacecraft that would hold Capybaras at all, let alone four Capybaras and a swimming pool. Likewise, Beavers were rather large for space travel, and even Nutria. The only other truly sentient races on the planet, the Cetaceans, also weren't interested; their representatives pointed out that there was still quite a bit of ocean to explore. In one sense it was a pity, size considerations aside, since as completely aquatic races, they would have done nicely in zero-gravity conditions, but if the Whales and Dolphins weren't interested in developing spacecraft for their size and with the special manips they needed to deal with machinery, the Squirrels certainly weren't going to invest the resources.
Sometimes the Squirrels wondered how it had happened, that only Rodents and Cetaceans had developed intelligence. Theory had it that the majority of Rodent races had the combination of rapid reproduction, and adaptability to environment, that was needed to evolve intelligence on land; the Cetaceans had different strategies, but their environment was larger, and stabler over the millenia, and less subject to weather disasters. And among the Rodents, of course Squirrels were the most superior - look at how they had spread to almost every continent! The Cavies and their cousins had never expanded out of South Twin Continent. Rats and Mice were rumored to be working on a solution to their short lifespans which would than allow them to take on longer projects. Porcupines reproduced so slowly, it was a wonder they had evolved at all; the Squirrels felt that that was part of why the simians had never evolved true intelligence. In fact, the simians' slow reproduction completely offset their long lifespans, and they also appeared to be unable to survive outside the southern hemisphere. While South Twin Continent had many species of simians, and Hot Continent had even more, almost all simians who had migrated elsewhere had gone extinct, except for a small colony of macaques in the Northeast Islands off Large Continent. Large Continent had fossils showing that several ape species had spread across it, but died out every time. Of all the simian species, the Red Apes of the South Islands seemed the closest to intelligence, but their reproductive rate was so slow that they were going extinct even within recorded history. To conquer enough environments to challenge the brain to develop intelligence, apparently rapid reproduction was necessary, at least for land animals. (The Squirrels wondered about birds, who shared the trees, but if any of them were intelligent, they had thus far shown no signs of wanting to communicate with mammals; it was as if they were aliens. The Cetaceans were strange, and sometimes their thinking was alien, but at least they were Mammals. They reported that there were no other sentient races discovered yet in the oceans, but so much water remained to be explored that they were not prepared to make a blanket statement.) Simians had never migrated to North Twin Continent at all, or to Big South Island.
Sometimes the Squirrels wondered how it had happened, that only Rodents and Cetaceans had developed intelligence. Theory had it that the majority of Rodent races had the combination of rapid reproduction, and adaptability to environment, that was needed to evolve intelligence on land; the Cetaceans had different strategies, but their environment was larger, and stabler over the millenia, and less subject to weather disasters. And among the Rodents, of course Squirrels were the most superior - look at how they had spread to almost every continent! The Cavies and their cousins had never expanded out of South Twin Continent. Rats and Mice were rumored to be working on a solution to their short lifespans which would than allow them to take on longer projects. Porcupines reproduced so slowly, it was a wonder they had evolved at all; the Squirrels felt that that was part of why the simians had never evolved true intelligence. In fact, the simians' slow reproduction completely offset their long lifespans, and they also appeared to be unable to survive outside the southern hemisphere. While South Twin Continent had many species of simians, and Hot Continent had even more, almost all simians who had migrated elsewhere had gone extinct, except for a small colony of macaques in the Northeast Islands off Large Continent. Large Continent had fossils showing that several ape species had spread across it, but died out every time. Of all the simian species, the Red Apes of the South Islands seemed the closest to intelligence, but their reproductive rate was so slow that they were going extinct even within recorded history. To conquer enough environments to challenge the brain to develop intelligence, apparently rapid reproduction was necessary, at least for land animals. (The Squirrels wondered about birds, who shared the trees, but if any of them were intelligent, they had thus far shown no signs of wanting to communicate with mammals; it was as if they were aliens. The Cetaceans were strange, and sometimes their thinking was alien, but at least they were Mammals. They reported that there were no other sentient races discovered yet in the oceans, but so much water remained to be explored that they were not prepared to make a blanket statement.) Simians had never migrated to North Twin Continent at all, or to Big South Island.
