Mesozoic Park (Part 8)
#9 of Mesozoic Park
With an audible crack, the egg nearest to me started to split, the jagged line started small, just a little hole so the dinosaur inside can breath, but with each little kick and nip, the crack grew eventually becoming a spiderweb of smaller cracks. Only a few minutes later did a large chunk of shell break free, allowing the small dinosaurs head to come free.
The tiny Tyranosaurid looked around as it began catching it's breath, it opened it's little mouth and made a soft peep sound at me. I smiled and reached down, very gently I rubbed it's snout, the scales covering it's head where fairly smooth and dark brown with dark green accents, the back of the theropod's head was lightly covered in soft, downy brown feathers.
"Ladies and gentlemen" I announced "I'd like you to meet the first of three Albertosaurus chicks!"
The crowd cheered and clapped.
As time went on, the other two chicks hatched and dried off enough that we could move them to the brooder. A few hours later they where walking, but we planned for this with a very large brooder so they can work out their long legs.
The chicks where doing really well, they can already walk and would probably eat if I brought them food, but I wanted to let them relax a bit first as I checked on the construction of their enclosure.
Constructed to make escape very difficult, the exhibit is a pit, three feet deep before another three feet of concrete and six feet of chain link fence, Albertosaurus is estimated to have grown 10-12 feet tall, so if my calculations are correct they won't be reaching over or anything.
After checking on that, I continued to go on and check the dino-birds, ending my tour at the dino-ducks, these modified mergansers don't dive or swim much like their parents would have, instead they power themselves through the water using almost only their tail and sit and wait for fish before lunging at them, much like modern bears.
I returned to the lab, Gena was still watching the Albertosaurus chicks quite happily. I smiled and came over, the chicks rushed close to greet me with their peeps and hisses. I reached to the side and grabbed a plate of assorted meets that where set out for food, taking a drumstick of some description in hand was all it took to get the chicks excited, they ran around and jumped, snapping at the meat.
I slowly lower it in and to my surprise found my hand receiving no bites despite the drumstick being shredded by the chicks razor like teeth.
We watched the Albertosaurus closely for the rest of the day.
Less than half a month later they grew enough that we had to move them to their big exhibit the chicks feathers where growing bigger each day, the ends of their tails had a fan-like feather structure and the biggest one was growing a feather crest.vThey took some time to explore it before they started to play a game, almost like tag but with more nipping, the big one pinned one of the others and gave it a few playful nips before letting it get up.
Gena came along "hey, how are they doing?"
I smiled, replying "simply fantastic, the big one is establishing a pack and asserting her dominance"
"Oh, thats good" Gena said with a nod before sighing "Jake, I need to tell you something"
"Oh boy" I said "I don't like that tone, this sounds bad"
She took a hold of my hands, took a breath and calmly said "I'm pregnant"