A/N: A thousand thank yous to my adorable PoI/SO Tokidokizenzen for helping me figure out the scientific (or magizoological) names for the Crumple-Horned Snorkacks.
Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (DRCMC)
Special Field Report
Mary Royale, DRCMC-Beast Division reporting field agent, ICW attaché European Division Office of Magizoological Issues
The DRCMC was able to assemble and equip a small group of Magizoologists including eminent scholar Edwardus Lima to explore and catalogue the magizoology of Greenland during the summer of 2005. While exploring the Western coast of Greenland our group discovered a heretofore unknown colony of Crumple Horned Snorkacks which we subsequently christened Purpauribus groenlandensis. Previously, Crumple Horned Snorkacks (Purpauribus suecicus) were presumed to inhabit Sweden despite a lack of evidentiary proof. Through a grant from Malfoy Industries for the Advancement of Magical Studies we were able to spend the summer of 2006 in Sweden searching for evidentiary proof of a Crumple Horned Snorkack colony. This trip proved largely unsuccessful.
In Winter of 2007, a Muggle company called Grunnings was testing a new drill designed for artic and tundra conditions with permission of Sweden’s Muggle government. The chosen drilling site had been inspected during summer of 2007 and had been approved by Sweden’s Muggle government. However, when drilling was to commence the Muggle company discovered a population of an unknown species of animal.
On the orders of IWC and the DRCMC I rendezvoused with the Obliviator-in-charge of the Grunnings Incident to take over command of the situation. Within two weeks a special team of Magizoologists had been assembled to deal with the cataloging of Unknown Magical Species 897-S. The team sent by the DRCMC was comprised of DRCMC field agents Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin, and Pansy Parkinson working in conjunction with Magizoologists Edwardus Lima and Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank.
The team quickly established that Unknown Magical Species 897-S was remarkably similar to Purpauribus groenlandensis which we had previously discovered in Greenland. Over the next two months data was carefully collected on Unkown Magical Species 897-S which we had tentatively christened Purpauribus suecicus. While our original research group had labeled Purpauribus groenlandensis with the MoM DRCMC designation XX an incident involving Agent Parkinson has forced us to suggest a designation of XXX for Purpauribus suecicus. To prevent future issues we tagged several members of the population magically to alert us to Muggle activity near the colony. In addition, we hoped that the magical tagging might help explain why no one had found evidentiary proof of Purpauribus suecicus on previous DRCMC sanctioned research trips.
At the close of our time at the Swedish colony site we had submitted the following information to the MoM DRCMC and to the IWC’s Office of Interspecial Relations—Beast Division:
Taxonomic Classification of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack of Sweden
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Genus: Purpauribus
Species: Suecicus
Taxonomic Classification of the Crumple-Horned Snorkack of Greenland
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Rodentia
Family: Cricetidae
Genus: Purpauribus
Species: groenlandensis
Our research team’s recommendations were immediately approved by the IWC and by the DRCMC including our recommended designation changes for Purpauribus suecicus.
In 2009, Mr. Horatio Popple, Department Head of the DRCMC, requested follow up research trip to take place in summer 2010 to revisit the Swedish colony and the Greenland colony of the Crumple Horned Snorkack. As an agent with experience on the three previous expeditions I was selected as the senior agent for this expedition. The 2009 follow-up team was comprised of DRCMC agent Lisa Turpin, IWC-Beast Division agent Inga Malinsdotter, IWC-Beast Division agent Paolo Zabini, Magizoologist Ewardus Lima and Magizoologist Wilhelmina Grubbly-Plank. Greenland was chosen as the first site with Sweden as the second site.
Upon our arrival at the first site in Greenland we set up camp and began preliminary work to prepare for the four weeks we had allotted to the Greenland site. Agent Turpin and IWC Agent Zabini attempted to magically tag a specimen only to discover that it had already been magically tagged. It was through this anomaly that we discovered that the Swedish colony and the Greenland colony of the Crumple Horned Snorkack were actually the same population.
Subsequent research has determined that the Crumple Horned Snorkack is actually migratory and moved from Sweden to Greenland in the summer. We were unable to establish the exact migration pattern because the Snorkacks disappear from all of our tracking spells at a certain point only to appear suddenly in Greenland. As far as we are able to tell, the Snorkack neither swims nor flies so we are uncertain how this migration is accomplished only that it does. Magizoologists Rufus & Luna Scamander have suggested that the Snokack is capable of teleportation, but we have no quantifiable evidence of this sort of behavior.
Considering all the available information at this time, our team submits a request to change the taxonomic classification of the Crumple Horned Snorkack to Purpauribus borealis which would better reflect the reality of the species and would hopefully appease the magical ministries of both Sweden and Greenland.
