blue grouse, java pheasants
The Good Hope shipwreck, off the coast of Rodrigues Island, east of Mauritius, gave rise to a curious biological phenomenon, recorded in the mid-19th century by various naturalists.
Fulfilling a commission from the Royal Society, the ship was carrying a remarkable contingent of Javanese pheasants. After the wreck of the Good Hope, the birds dispersed and began to mate with the female blue grouse, an endemic variety to the island. To their surprise, the scientists found that they were very close species, to the point that female blue grouses could be fertilized by Java pheasants. Being notably larger than the male grouse, they soon exterminated them or, in the best cases, managed to drive them away, preventing them from mating with the females of their own species.
The blue grouse-Java pheasant hybrid chicks were very beautiful, blindingly beautiful, with feathers of a nuanced sheen and proud feathered wings. But in the years that followed, naturalists witnessed an unexpected development: hybrid chickens were beautiful, yes, but they were also sterile. After fostering a few decades of stunning beauty, the mass fertilization of blue grouses by Java pheasants wiped out the species.
Marriage
A new birthday is coming up, so the husband prepares a surprise party for his wife, to which he invites friends and family, in a well-known venue in the city. She doesn’t suspect anything: when she arrives she feels moved, excited. She receives kisses and congratulations from everyone present. But not many minutes pass until suddenly tragedy strikes: one of the guests collapses, struck down by a heart attack, and dies without anyone being able to do anything. The surprise party is suspended, before the terrible presence of the corpse of a friend, and then the useless ambulance, the crying, the bewilderment, the papers.
For some reason, which has nothing to do with the unfortunate accident, he and she part ways a few months later.
* Pedro Ugarte (Bilbao, 1963) is the author of a vast literary work, much of it dedicated to short narrative. His latest book of short stories, ‘Our story’, won the Setenil Award in 2017. He has recently published a journal, ‘Pending readings’, in Nobel Editions. His micro-stories, which have gone through several editions, are gathered in the book ‘The Expedition’.
boomerang effect
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