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[Kiniro Oniba] ~ Big African Wild Dog on Campus?

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Kiniro Oniba

PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:57 pm


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Questor Information
Username: Kiniro Oniba
Mule SN's: Brian M. Grant
IoDM Newbie?: No.
Serum: Nonmorphic African Wild Dog
CODE for your quest banner(s):

[url=http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12022471]
[img]http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c274/Kiniro-Oniba/AfricanWildDog.png[/img] [/url]


The orginal thread is here! <3
]http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=12022471
PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:59 pm


What? You mean I need money?

My current funds are: 326,000
Clearly, this isn't enough to win an auction.
In any case, if you really want to donate, you can.
But please don't feel like you have to.

6300 gold was donated by the lovely [Genn]! heart
1750 gold was donated by Beesha! biggrin
6000 gold was donated by Silver Moon Wolf! eek
5000 gold was donated by JadeEye! whee
1500 gold was donated by Emelyn! biggrin

Kiniro Oniba


Kiniro Oniba

PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:00 pm


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Character Name: Brian Mitchell Grant

Random Trivia:
Age: 28
Height: 6�3�
Weight: ~215 lbs
Complexion: Naturally ruddy, but normally tanned due to time in the sun.
Birthplace: Ontario, Canada
Likes: Pink Lemonade, Animals, Apple Tea, Taking Notes, Observing Behaviours, Sketching, Bowling, Karaoke, Culture Shocks, And Strawberry Margaritas
Dislikes: Poachers, Beer, Bigots, Farmers, Scorpions, Sandstorms, Government Officials, Puppy Mills, Politics, Rap Music, Sport Hunters

Inventory
Package of pocket-kleenex
Wallet with:
-About $100 Cdn
-Picture of Brian with an African Wild Dog
-Picture of a young man with wild, curly red hair
Cellphone
Notebook
Sketchbook
Several small notepads
Brown leather briefcase
Spare shirt
The Howls of August by Michael Runtz
Wolf Country by John and Mary Theberge
Several hastily-written paragraphs stapled together
Various field-notes
The files he read by accident, pertaining to:
-Possible future animal DNA to get
-Notes on the transformation of subjects Maurlias, Ignatius, and DiRossi.
-Difficulties with DNA compatability
-Splicing of DNA from various 'donors' of the same species
-Background research on healthy gene pools
-Notable instincts common between canids
-Correllation between instincts and subjects' behaviour

Character Appearance (Human): - Link - Brian is a tall individual, his overall appearance scruffy and unkempt. Counteracting the 'tough-guy' stubble that flecks his chin and jawbone, he's constantly wearing an overenthusiastic grin, perhaps reminiscent of a child on Christmas morning or the actors on a television show designed for preschoolers. His hair, though generally combed into some semblance of order, is a dishevelled mess of orange locks. Although faded to more of a strawberry blonde by many excursions in the blaring sun, he can still be recognised at a glance as a redhead. His shoulders are broad, and while Brian is of slim build, he had distinguished cords of muscle and tendons coursing his lean calves and biceps. Deceptively lanky, he resembles an oversized teenage boy with limbs still too large for his body. His favourite code of dress is the traditional explorer's gear of khaki, khaki, and more khaki, but for his more tame expeditions into the office to explore the realm of paperwork, he dons tan slacks, a plain white working shirt, a blue-grey tie, and, perhaps to satisfy his inner-naturalist, a khaki vest. His eyes are a vivid, striking light blue colour, almost silver in certain lighting.

Character Personality: Brian is very much a child at heart; he's enthusiastic, loves his work, and can occasionally be a bit excitable. He's incredibly friendly, but at the same time a bit socially inept. He tends to become absorbed in his work and has difficulty relating to other people outside of a teammate context. Brian is forever observing, and finds himself struggling to involve himself rather than sit back and absorb information. His sense of justice and morality is overwhelmingly strong at times, and he finds that while often unable to associate with other people, he's very good at sympathising and seeing things from their point of view. He always has a notebook or sketchpad on hand, and feels the itch of science in the back of his mind when he discovers something new. Forever recording and analyzing, Brian finds the simplest pleasure in being alone with his notebook to mull over information and hypothesize, seeking patterns and highlighting irregularities and their causes.

Character Background: Brian always considers himself lucky for his upbringing. His parents, though they spoiled him a little and were very lenient with their rules, loved him and his younger brother to no end. When, at the age of two, he visited the zoo for his very first time, he discovered a passion and adoration for animals. From that moment on, unless it had an animal in it, nothing would do. He would read only bedtime stories that had animals in them, and would play with only toys that had some manner of beast or bug portrayed on it. As he grew, so did his love for nature. Growing up with a house right up against a little creek, Brian would spend hours in the backyard, listening to bird calls and inspecting abandoned burrows. By the time he was sixteen, he knew that whatever he did in life would have to have something to do with animals- but what?

For a long while, he considered pursing the trail of a wildlife artist. His teachers encouraged him, but their criticism of his loose, sketchy style and his dislike of working with paint of any sort soon threw him off that pathway. His next attempt at finding the perfect career also failed, but proved to be insightful. He wanted to be a zookeeper. Attending the Toronto Zoo as a volunteer and assistant was at first gratifying, but Brian soon grew weary of scooping up feces, knowing exactly what that animal had eaten and knowing he would find nothing new or exciting if he bothered to check. The animals seemed to reflect his boredom with the job, walking the same path around the same enclosures, following the same routine every day. Brian realised upon graduating high school (two years early at the age of sixteen, having skipped ahead in elementary) that what he wanted was to roam the wild, and learn things about the animals that roamed as well. After what seemed an impossibly short time in university, he was out in the field, working for the government.

Brian at first loved his job, but found that he was treated condescendingly, and had more paperwork and tedious exploits than real adventures. After having worked that job for a few years, he got a call. There was a research team that was looking for a new ecologist to join the team- they'd heard about his penchant for working hands-on and he was just the sort of guy they needed, and would he be interested in the job? Brian jumped on it immediately, working to help procure DNA samples for this research group, funded by a company called Feral Labs. He'd never heard of them before, and never met his superiors one-on-one, but what did he care? It was his dream job!

By the time he was twenty-eight he had worked with the research group for three years, and was considered one of the leading authorities on the behavioural patterns of large mammalian predators, specifically those of the family Canidae. He had collected blood samples from wild animals across the world- Wolves from Algonquin Park in Canada, Coyotes from Yellowstone in the United States, Dingoes from pockets of natural forests in Southeast Asia, and even the elusive Dholes of the jungles in India. His latest capture had been of an African Wild Dog, one of a steadily declining group that had been suffering from disease picked up through interaction with domestic dogs. He had returned to the local branch of their research centre, known by him and others of his team as the water hole, to file the paperwork. Unwittingly he stumbled across files he clearly had never been meant to see. Files relating to the testing of genetic mutation on human beings. Live humans beings. He flew into an outrage, and, threatening to reveal the files to authorities, demanded of his superiors an explanation.

How does your Character get to/why was your character chosen for the Island? During his work at the facility, Brian discovers the real purpose of his research and DNA collecting. Enraged by the use of humans for what he considers 'pointless vindictive experimentation spurred only by curiosity' and the fact that he'd been lied to for years by his superiors and co-workers, he threatened to go to the government with what he knew. Before he could, the head of the research facility, one good doctor Moreau, offered him a chance to talk things over and explain what was really going on. Surely it was a misunderstanding. Always willing to see the good in people, Brian allowed himself to be taken to the island to 'talk things over'.
PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:00 pm


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What serum do you want?: African Wild Dog

Describe your ideal 100% appearance:

Anthro
-Link- Retaining only his messy orange hair (of course by then blotched a bit with the fur-patterns) he would be completely covered in fur, and have a fully-formed AWD head. Not even his eyes would remain humanoid. His body shape, while perhaps a tad hunched over, would remain basically the same except for the obvious changes, like claws/nails, fur (thicker on his joints), tail, and his ankles. Ankles and feet would be elongated into canine hind paws.

Nonmorphic
Although a bit larger in comparison and able to speak a little, Brian would be essentially indistungishable from a wild dog. His hair would either fall out or change to the colour and pattern of wild dog fur, and his eyes would have changed to brown.

Why this animal/plant for your character?: The reason I want it for him is because it fits pretty well with his personality; enthusiastic, affectionate, altruistic, etc. However, because it's such a social animal, he'll be forced to stop being such a darn recluse! The reason it would be chosen for him by the good doctor, however, is merely for the sake of cruel irony. He was the one that supplied the DNA for that serum, and so it'll be a constant reminder to him that he played a part in this wicked experiment.

What do you think really makes this concept? As a Behavioural Ecologist, Brian will find himself wanting to 'make observations' about all the islanders he meets- his natural response will be to document the changes in a scientific fashion. But then he'll be struck with the realisation that that's as bad as continuing to work for the labs, and that he's a terrible person for treating this other human beings like subjects or wild animals. Of course, it'll be a waging battle between his own morals and his scientific curiosity, not to mention the overwhelming guilt of having been a hand in the transformation of these people. He'll have to decide if he's going to tell these other people the truth, or, fearing rejection, lie to protect himself. Lots of angst, and it's unique in that he was working for Feral Labs but had no idea what exactly he was contributing to. He'll be wanting to take notes, but at the same time hating himself for doing so!


General Information: Once numbering in the hundreds of thousands, the African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) is now one of the African continent's most endangered animals. It is believed that fewer than 5,000 wild dogs currently exist in the wild, and their range has declined from 33 to 15 countries. The largest populations exist in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Tanzania. The initial population reduction came during the early part of the century as a result of a very successful extermination campaign led by ranchers who feared the loss of livestock. Today, the effects of diseases (e.g., rabies, canine distemper, and parvovirus) spread by domestic dogs are having an even more devastating effect on wild dog numbers. Of additional concern is inbreeding due to the formation of genetically distinct groups of dogs in the southern and eastern regions of their current range.

Wild dogs are about the size of a German shepherd, have long legs, large ears and mottled fur of browns, black and white. They live in tightly bonded social groups or packs of 2 to 30 individuals led by a dominant male and female. Pack members exhibit well-defined greeting behaviors, the most obvious being affectionate face licking.

Recent research has shown the wild dog to have behaviors verging on classic altruism. This is particularly evident in pup raising, which is a pack effort with males shouldering much of the responsibility. In fact in one instance, following the death of a pack female, male pack members were observed successfully raising her pups from the age of five weeks.
Perhaps the most obvious expression of the wild dogs' altruistic tendencies is their feeding style. After a prey animal has been successfully brought down, each pack member is allowed to eat. The feeding scene is a peaceful one rather than a savage frenzy. Disabled pack members share alongside more able adults, and pups receive regurgitated food from any adult in the pack. This behavior is uncharacteristic of other large carnivores, such as lions, which often fight over a carcass, jostling with each other for access to food.

The behaviors that maintain close social bonds between pack members are a large factor in the decline of wild dogs; the close contact and associated licking promotes the spread of introduced diseases. Research efforts aim to gain information such as identification of social, ecological and demographic factors that affect pack reproductive success, breeding populations and population viability. Of additional interest is why wild dogs utilize such large territories and the interaction between wild dogs and other large predators.

Two of the projects currently under way in Africa to conserve and increase the number of wild dogs are supported in part by the One With Nature conservation program at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden, one of only 18 zoos in North America that maintains this species. The Botswana Wild Dog Research Project, in the Moremi Wildlife Reserve, is headed by Dr. J. Weldon McNutt. Kim McCreery and Dr. Robert Robbins lead research focused on the population of dogs in Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. The projects are located in two very different ecosystems and are using technology such as global positioning systems and DNA analysis to track and learn more about wild dog biology and behavior. Information gained through research will be valuable in the development of conservation strategies for this species.

African wild dogs live in tightly knit social groups and hunt cooperatively, preying primarily on grazing animals such as gazelles, springboks, wildebeest and zebras. Most predators stalk or ambush their prey, but these animals make no attempt to hide. They simply approach a herd until it stampedes, then single out an individual -- usually one that's slowed by old age or disease -- and chase it until it's exhausted. The dogs are swift, tireless runners. They've been known to chase prey for an hour, for as far as three and a half miles (5.6 km).

Information stolen from here.

Kiniro Oniba


Kiniro Oniba

PostPosted: Mon Mar 20, 2006 7:01 pm


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Art of Brian!

Stuff by me: [x] [x] [x] [x]

Stuff by others:

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By Rabid Jigglypuff! ^_^

Pictures of African Wild Dogs!

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User Image - Blocked by "Display Image" Settings. Click to show.
PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 3:52 pm


Marshall: *fears*

Marshall_Green


Kiniro Oniba

PostPosted: Tue Mar 21, 2006 8:20 pm


Muah hah hahhh. heart
PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 9:27 pm


I'm now questing for a nonmorphic serum. If that's not possible, maybe I'll be able to get the regular one as a second choice.

Kiniro Oniba


Heliodor Hasturien

PostPosted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 10:58 pm


Kiniro Oniba
I'm now questing for a nonmorphic serum. If that's not possible, maybe I'll be able to get the regular one as a second choice.

Hosnap. Cool. ;D

Go Kin, go Kin~ o:
PostPosted: Sat Apr 15, 2006 9:52 am


WE NEED ROLE-PLAY! GRAH!!!

(Randomly bumping your thread?! HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF BEING A WHORE!)

Marshall_Green

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