{"id":3030,"date":"2018-02-26T15:49:16","date_gmt":"2018-02-26T21:49:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/bats-bones-and-a-one-eyed-cat-thrill-scouts-during-smithsonian-stop\/"},"modified":"2018-02-26T15:49:16","modified_gmt":"2018-02-26T21:49:16","slug":"bats-bones-and-a-one-eyed-cat-thrill-scouts-during-smithsonian-stop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/bats-bones-and-a-one-eyed-cat-thrill-scouts-during-smithsonian-stop\/","title":{"rendered":"Bats, bones and a one-eyed cat thrill Scouts during Smithsonian stop"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/p>\n

Suzy Peurach owns a one-eyed cat.<\/p>\n

Well, technically it belongs to the\u00a0Smithsonian\u2019s\u00a0National Museum of Natural History. But as the collections manager for the museum\u2019s department of mammals, Peurach is responsible for the cat and another 600,000 specimens.<\/p>\n

The purpose of the cyclops cat, which\u00a0floats in a jar of ethanol, isn\u2019t to deliver Ripley\u2019s Believe It or Not-caliber chills. It\u2019s to demonstrate the scientific value of mammals with genetic mutations.<\/p>\n

Most Smithsonian guests don\u2019t get to see the cat, located in a sixth-floor room filled with metal cabinets organized by species.<\/p>\n

But then again, most Smithsonian guests aren\u2019t delegates delivering the BSA\u2019s Report to the Nation.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, the Scouts, Venturers and Explorer\u00a0ventured into an employees-only area with their hosts from the museum. These<\/span>\u00a0hosts, who volunteered their time on a Sunday afternoon, brought out some of their favorite specimens to inspire, educate and, yes, even shock the delegates.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u2018An evil troll\u2019<\/h2>\n
\"\"
The wrinkle-faced bat, or Centurio senex \u2026 or evil troll.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Peurach takes the delegates to two white, waist-high tables where she has displayed a number of mammals \u2014 from the tiniest shrew to a giant porcupine collected in Afghanistan.\u00a0She refers to each mammal by its scientific name.<\/p>\n

She doesn\u2019t call her favorite animal the wrinkle-faced bat. It\u2019s the\u00a0Centurio senex<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Actually, I prefer the name chosen by Donnell\u00a0Thomas, a Cub Scout from Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like a troll,\u201d Donnell said. \u201cAn evil troll.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOr, like, an ultra pug,\u201d said Bogan Garcia, an Eagle Scout from Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

Peurach explains that the bat has a built-in facemask it can pull over its face. Males use it as part of their mating ritual, she said. The wrinkles help it suck up the juices of the fruit it eats.<\/p>\n

Later,\u00a0Daniel Yu, an Eagle Scout from Illinois, impressed Peurach with his knowledge of the platypus, which Daniel calls \u201cone of the craziest animals.\u201d They\u2019re one of just two mammals that lay eggs. The females have two ovaries, but just one functions. The males have\u00a0venomous spurs on their feet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWow,\u201d she said. \u201cYou know more about them than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The human touch<\/h2>\n

Dr. David Hunt,\u00a0an Eagle Scout anthropologist at the Smithsonian,\u00a0opened a battered plastic box with a complete set of human bones inside. The bones are from an unsolved case from the 1980s.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo those aren\u2019t plastic?\u201d asked Sean Golding, a\u00a0Life Scout from California. \u201cThose are real bones?\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, Hunt said. He shared how human bones hold clues to a person\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n

Hunt\u2019s knack for\u00a0reading those clues makes him an expert in the field. He frequently testifies in court cases, revealing who the victim of a crime was and how he or she died.<\/p>\n

He went through an exercise with Mercedes Matlock, the National Sea Scout Boatswain and pre-med biology major from Maryland.<\/p>\n

He started with the skull, pointing out the first two molars there.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the person was at least 12,\u201d Mercedes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cExactly. And we actually see the third molars,\u201d Hunt added.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we know the person was at least 17 or 18,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Correct again. The pelvic bones were next, and the hip width helped Mercedes identify this person as female.<\/p>\n

Mercedes\u00a0looked inside the box.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs this the spine?\u201d she asked Hunt. \u201cCan I take this out of the bag?\u201d<\/p>\n

With Hunt\u2019s OK, she did. She removed each piece and stacked it into the\u00a0spinal column.<\/p>\n

Hunt, seemingly spotting a future medical researcher, only smiled.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Follow the Report to the Nation<\/h2>\n

Find more coverage\u00a0here<\/a>, and follow me on Twitter (@bryanonscouting<\/a>) and Instagram (@bryanonscouting<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

Photos by Michael Roytek and Randy Piland. See more photos\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Suzy Peurach owns a one-eyed cat. Well, technically it belongs to the\u00a0Smithsonian\u2019s\u00a0National Museum of Natural History. But as the collections manager for the museum\u2019s department of mammals, Peurach is responsible for the cat and another 600,000 specimens. The purpose of the cyclops cat, which\u00a0floats in a jar of ethanol, isn\u2019t to deliver Ripley\u2019s Believe It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totscouting.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}