Delonix

A lot has happened in a short amount of time for this one, the poor girl. Lets start with the good news, she found herself a mate, though the courting footage was hard to watch. With both her and the male, Cerberus, being deaf and bad at socializing it was a whole ordeal watching how oblivious she was, but he was determined and it payed off. They had a nest with two little ones, the first biological children she's ever had, and they both grew up beautifully.

Now on to the... bad news.

The PENNAVIRUS experiment started shortly after their children grew up, and I think Delonix could feel it coming before it hit her. She and Cerberus split off from their shiver and holed up on a little corner of broken tooth before she started visibly showing symptoms. It started off slow with a mild fever, then hit her hard after the first 8 or so hours. I'm talking disorientation, lack of appetite, and even a fever so severe it even changed her coloring. We didn't think she was going to make it, but Cerberus was with her through it all, making sure she didnt walk herself off the cliff or starve.

 

Now here comes the worst part. Right when she had mostly recovered Cerberus got hit just as hard. Similar symptoms, high fever, disorientation, nasal irritation, and yet he was dead set on doing his job as an alpine. Delonix was having none of that and tried her best to keep him in the little cave they were staying in, but she wasn't able to help him in the end. Cerberus gave in to the virus.

Delonix has been missing for a long time after that but we found her again on the trail cams, and it looks like she's still mourning the loss. Recently she rejoined a shiver and adopted another little one but it seems the virus has left its mark on her, she tires easily and takes longer to start moving again after resting, but it seems the pup was able to ease her grief a little. She still isn't all there but I hope she'll be able to move on eventually, its going to take some work for her next mate to live up to Cerberus' standard.

For now the drone squad was only able to give me pictures of their courting, but I hope that they can recover some footage of the illness so we can further research the effects of the virus and see the depth of their bond at the end.